To date around 8 billion tons of plastic have been produced, largely based on chemicals obtained from petroleum sources.  An estimated 79% of this has ending up in landfill or the natural environment. With most plastics taking decades or even centuries to decompose, the stark reality is that these materials will be with us far into the future.  Increasing consumer awareness of this problem has led to a desire for “greener” alternatives which retain properties comparable to polymers formed from virgin materials. In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in the development and use of polymer derived from biomass – so-called “biopolymers”.  Major companies are making commitments to move entirely to bio-sourced plastics. For example, the race is on amongst beverage manufacturers to “out-green” one another in terms of the plastics used with their bottles, either through sourcing the components of their conventional plastics from bioresources (as in Coca-Cola’s plantbottle) or through reaching for entirely new materials such as polyethylenefurandicarboxylate.  Other manufacturers are doing away with conventional bottles altogether, as discussed in Consumable consumables:the edible water bottle.

Interest is also keenly focused on what happens to plastics at the end of a product’s useful life.  A range of options are being explored.

Several companies are committing to biodegradable materials, such as replacing polyethylene with bio-derived, biodedgradable polylactic acid (PLA).  For example, as set out in Coffee capsules:greener grounds, coffee manufacturer Lavazza have recently committed to making all of their coffee pods from compostable materials.

In many instances, however, it is useful to recycle plastics instead of simply allowing them to compost.

The traditional approach to recycling polymers is so-called mechanical recycling, in which plastic is ground down and melted, to be reformed into new products.  Such processes can result in degradation of the polymers, leading to downgrading of performance and potentially “down-cycling” of the polymer for use in less demanding applications.  Therefore, as detailed in our blog Circular Economy: New technologies rise to the challenge, innovators are identifying clever ways to reduce the level of degradation during such processes.

Another approach is chemical recycling, in which polymers are broken down into their constituent chemical units, to be used as the feedstock for making new polymers, or for some other purpose (such as fuel).  As discussed in our recent blog Circular Economy: New technologies rise to the challenge, exciting recent chemical recycling developments are opening up the possibility of commercial-scale recycling of traditional plastics, including technologies based on the use of plastic-hungry bugs (see A Taste for Waste – Plastic Recycling with Enzymes).  Other innovators are seeking to develop entirely new polymer types suited to chemical recycling, as discussed in our blog Plastics recycling: polymers unzipped.

Polymers have moulded the society of today, and will continue to shape the society of tomorrow.

The emergence of 3D plastic printing from sci-fi dream to off-the-shelf reality has changed society’s approach to manufacturing.  The use of such technology has become widespread in industry, particularly for prototyping, and is now sufficiently cheap to find its way into people’s homes.  As this trend continues, society will have to grapple with the way it approaches buying products, the implications for regulations (as evident over the debate surrounding 3D printing of guns), and the impact on intellectual property rights.

Lightweight composite materials, formerly the preserve of high-end applications such as aircraft, wind turbines, and high performance cars, will expand into more and more uses.  As these applications grow, the light weight and adaptability of these materials will provide scope for other innovations, such as more efficient battery-powered cars.

Polymer products will also increasingly be provided with new functionality, either through clever design of the polymer or marrying polymers with other technologies.  For example, “smart tyres” incorporating internet-enabled electronic feedback mechanisms to improve fuel efficiency, safety and longevity will change our driving experience.  Cheap and transparent electrically conductive polymers will begin to move from curio to commonplace, as existing materials (such as indiium tin oxide) used in conventional technologies become rarer and more expensive (see World Economic Forum article 5 synthetic materials that will shape the future).  We may yet see flexible plastic LED screens displace traditional LED screens, just as LED screens themselves displaced CRT technology. 

Polymers will also likely play an increasingly important role in medicine. The development of “smart” polymers which respond to external stimuli, such as pH or other chemicals have applications in targeted drug delivery (see ScienceDirect commentary on Smart polymers for the controlled delivery of drugs).  Additionally, synthetic polymers such as PLA, polyglycolic acid (PGA) and polycaprolactone are expected to play an increasingly important role in the production of 3D porous scaffolds to regenerate tissues within the body (see ScienceDirect article Bioactive polymeric scaffolds for tissue engineering).

All the while, consumers and society will continue to push not only for improved performance during a polymer’s lifetime, but also for improved sourcing and disposal of the polymers.

As we mould polymers, so too will new polymers mould our future.  Find out more about our expertise in the polymer space.