ICPE was invited to participate in the International Symposium jointly organised by European & Japanese experts supported by APME, ECVM, PWMI (Japan) & Universities & Polymer Research Insitutes from several parts of the world. Leading institutions & managers of international petrochem corporations besides research scholars from all parts of the world attended this symposium & in all 24 papers were presented during the three day programme and almost 40 Technical Poster Sessions. ICPE was honoured by being invited to present a talk in the first opening session on Environmental Position & Plastics in India.
Broadly, the following subjects were deliberated upon & new technologies and extensive details of commercially operating Recycling Plants for plastics watse recycling were explained and discussed.
The important subject groups covered by different experts in the symposium sessions were as under:
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Pyrolysis & Thermal Cracking Processes |
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Catalytic Cracking Processes |
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Gasification |
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Hydrolysis & Solvoysis |
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Process of Dehalogination |
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Mechanical Recycling |
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Biodegradable Packaging |
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Management Issues Of Plastic Waste |
The major focal points in this symposium were various technical processes in feedstock & mechanical recycling, studies with findings of laboratory scale plants in different countries & operating details of various commercial scale recycling plants. The presentations explained recovery of monomers, feedstock, fuel & polymers from different waste streams in different parts of the world.
Highlights of remarkable recycling efforts of different products were explained by experts from ECVM (Europe) VEC- (Japan) New Vinyl loop process by Solvay ,Waste Plastic Liquification by Toshiba Corporation and Recovery of Chemical Products from Mixed PVC Waste. Besides this experts explained latest trends & technologies in recovery & feedstock recycling in the automotive industry, electronics & electric sector, telephone & telecom sector. The Japanese experts presented new ideas for Hydrogasification of polyethene waste & coal mixtures as also Decomposition of mixed plastics of PP & PET converting same into oils. The Japanese experts presented an Integrated PET post consumer bottles to Thermoformed food trays Project. The Department of Waste Management from Germany presented findings of a pioneering project in a German city of Kassel where Compostable Packaging has been forced on the city for a year as a pilot scale demonstration. This is being continuously monitored to see the extent waste disposal problem of traditional packaging can be overcome safely.
Interaction with APME & ECVM Directors & top officials in Brussels for two days after the Ostend symposium
ICPE was able to hold meetings with the Directors and senior officials & experts in Brussels & discuss various environmental issues on plastics relevant to the current developments in India. Several reports on technical studies conducted by leading institutions have been made available to ICPE as also legislations on health, safety, disposal of waste etc. by European countries & the European Commission which should be valuable reference for ICPE executive councils in India in the near future. Finally these meetings have made it possible for ICPE to project it's position to the west and come much closer to APME & ECVM and also with research bodies from Japan. An assurance from the Directors at both the institutions in BelgiumAPME & ECVM has been received that they would be equally interested in working closely with ICPE hereafter for sharing reports & information on Plastics & Environment and continue dialogues further in the coming years.
ICPE has also established contact with Fechiplast- the Belgium Plastics Association and PLARAMEC
The newly formed Belgium National Recycling Institution Plaramec has very high targets for recovery from waste. Being a nation with the highest per capita plastic consumption in the world, the Belgium associations have been active in addressing issues of Plastics & Environment and initiating novel measures in recycling and waste recovery and influencing government policies and public opinions. The contact with PLAREMEC opens up a new avenue for exchange of ideas for ICPE.
Apart from the educational content, it was clear from the papers and discussions that:
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Usage of plastic, per se, is not questioned any longer |
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Mechanical recycling is at the bottom-end of recycling options |
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Technologies for feedstock recycling, recycling back to original products (PVC to PVC, PET to PET etc.) are now fully in place |
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Recycling technologies for getting hydro carbon from plastic waste in an economic fashion are underway |
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Incineration for energy recovery is fully developed and practiced worldwide |
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Producers (particularly PVC manufacturers) and packers have taken major responsibilities in recycling programmes of European Community |
The above are important lessons for our plastic industry while dealing with the problem of waste.
What was worth noting, according to ICPE after its dialogues with almost 30 to 40 international experts in a week, was that not a single country stated that their governments had issued any directives to ban plastics as each and every government was fully convinced that the environmental benefits of using plastics far outweigh the burdens of waste after use. Each and every country seemed to take for granted that Segregated Waste Collection by municipalities was an accepted responsibility of local governments. Almost all countries wanted to build up more and more techniques and processes with help from their scientists to recover value from waste of used plastics.
The emphasis, priorities etc. differed country to country depending on the main sectors using plastics and type of waste generated as also social culture prevalent. While Japan was more into chemical and oil recovery with almost 30 to 40 novel projects, many of which were on commercial scale since 2 or 3 years, Belgium was more into material and chemical recovery reaching high percentage year after year. Denmark was more into Energy from Waste and had considerable data to offer with Coal substitution projects.Germany was doing intensive work on waste from Automobile sector, whereas Swedish experts were working on recovery from huge waste from Telecom products and Electronic goods. The Netherlands had Small Scale Waste Gasification technology from Polyolefinic wastes. Finally each country has to decide which of the recovery options best suit it's economy based on the nations priorities, peoples habits and resource availabilities and the industry and scientific community need to work very closely so that post consumer waste gets the highest returns by optimal recovery techniques and at the same time growth in use of polymers for a better and better quality of life at affordable costs is assured.
With Indian consumption of plastics projected to rise at a galloping rate for another 10 years there is a good possibility that India can serve as a model in better waste management, plastic recycling and recovery for several Asian and African nations this decade.The European nations seem to be now expecting that India with its large fund of scientists and engineers and a very progressive petrochem sector which has formed ICPE can help many asian countries to improve waste management practices and conserve resources in the East.
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