A new initiative called Positive Plastics aims to convey a more accepting outlook on plastics to designers, engineers, and product managers. To achieve this, last month they launched their first “Positive Plastics Kit”, an invaluable tool for materials understanding and communication between non-technical and technical team members.
The founders, Efrat Friedland, Erik Moth-Müller, and Markus Paloheimo, experts, consultants, and educators in the materials and polymers field, created and curated a sample collection of various innovative, commercially available polymers. The kit holds Arkema, Biowert Industrie, Borealis, Lignin Industries, Mocom, Sappi, Sirmax, Stora Enso, Trinseo, UBQ, and UPM materials. The kit includes post-consumer recyclates (PCR), post-industrial recyclates (PIR), mass balanced grades, bio-based grades, and bio-composites. All grades are suitable for injection molding to produce durable products, such as consumer electronics, home appliances, sports goods, automotive interiors, accessories, etc.
Positive Plastics will continuously expand the kit as new responsible polymers reach the market.
“Try to imagine your life without plastic” proposed Efrat, “not without plastic waste, but without products and services we have all grown to rely on in almost every aspect of our lives. It seems that we can’t get along without this material, but we must eliminate its waste and negative impact.”
“Thinking positively about plastics,” adds Erik ”there are many new grades on the market that are composed of natural materials or recycled materials, or both….they can replace traditional, fossil-fuel based plastics in every industry and product imaginable. Sadly, very few designers and engineers are familiar with them. Our goal is to change that.”
Besides presenting new materials, Positive Plastics offers a novel design of the plastic sample, no longer a flat, square, piece of plastic that reveals little about the material’s characteristics.
“Our unique sample design portrays the material’s properties and its possible applications tangibly,” explains Markus. “Holding our sample, one can easily discover various surface structure options, different wall thicknesses, corners, hinges, fluidity indication, draft angle, shrinkage, warpage…so many features in one piece!”
Positive Plastics will present a complimentary kit to one hundred brands and design agencies to encourage an informed choice of materials and sensible implementation. Kits will be available for purchase online.
Contact
Efrat Friedland
Phone: +49 1575 1572727
E-Mail: ef@positiveplastics.eu
Source
Bioplastics MAGAZINE, 2021-11-16.
Supplier
Arkema
Biowert Industrie GmbH
Borealis Polyolefine AG
Lignin Industries AB
Positive Plastics
Sappi Fine Paper Europe
Sirmax S.p.A.
Stora Enso
Trinseo SA
UBQ Materials
UPM Biocomposites
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