Unity

Purpose and goal:

The purpose has been to investigate the attitude of the actors in the plastics industry to the possibility of reducing the number of varieties of thermoplastics. The goal has been to answer, among other things, the following questions: What advantages and challenges are there with a high-quality reuse of thermoplastics in products?

What consequences would a smaller number of thermoplastic varieties have for producers of products with plastic in them? How would one be able to replace today´s large number of thermoplastics with a smaller number? Expected results and effects:

The results show that a reduced number of thermoplastics would result in higher volumes of base plastics for plastic recyclers, who could then sell larger volumes of recycled plastics with more consistent, higher quality at a lower price. This would in turn lead to higher quality recycling, as it should also be easier to collect and sort the plastics.

In addition, financial benefits can also be obtained throughout the value chain. Challenges that have been highlighted include that both producers and users of thermoplastic products have high expectations for the quality. Approach and implementation:

To achieve the aim, literature studies and an interview study with a subsequent workshop have been carried out. Within the interview study, 63 respondents in the plastics industry have been interviewed, ranging from manufacturers of thermoplastics and thermoplastic products, buyers, sellers, trade associations, recycling companies to researchers and experts.