The Royal Society of Chemistry has announced the launch of a sustainability campaign that could have a huge impact on industry and consumers alike.
While very few outside of the chemical industries are aware of polymers in liquid formulations, or PLFs as they are also known, most people interact with them on a daily basis.
Found in millions of consumer and industrial products, they are an intrinsic part of life today – from ingredients in the paints on our walls to the shampoos and detergents in our cupboards. Around 36 billion tonnes of these materials, enough to fill 14,500 Olympic sized swimming pools or Wembley stadium 32 times over, are made and sold for $125 billion each year.
Prof. Tom Welton, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, said that despite their importance, the way that PLFs were made, used and disposed of was putting unnecessary strain on the environment by releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, using up the earth’s finite resources and generating physical waste. These issues created risks for all parts of the value chain, from monomer producers to product formulators and waste management companies.
“PLFs haven’t had enough attention over the years because they are ingredients rather than products,” he said. “It is their flexibility and usefulness that makes them so prevalent – and therefore implementing a circular economy for these products presents several technical challenges.
“Currently, these valuable chemicals are produced in huge quantities, used, and then never recovered. We simply must develop new technologies and apply circular economy principles to collect them, reuse them as new products and raw materials, and offer further bio-based and biodegradable alternatives.
“There are technical challenges in creating sustainable alternatives, but overcoming these challenges would offer colossal sustainability benefits, which is why we are forming this task force. With some of the world’s largest players in this sector joining us tackle this issue, we have a fantastic opportunity to make real and lasting change. But these are just first steps – solutions will only come through the concerted action of academia, industry and civil society.”