This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Ahorro de energía y CO2 gracias a los envases plásticos

Innovation, profitability and sustainability

Saving of power and CO2 thanks to the plastic containers

Editorial Interempresas17/05/2012

17 May 2012

The plastics offer solutions of efficient packaging that contribute of form very significant to the saving of power and to the reduction of broadcasts of gases of effect invernadero. This is one of the main conclusions of the study Denkstatt, presented by the association plasticsEurope during the day 'Tendencies of the plastic container: innovation, profitability and sustainability', celebrated in the frame of the Living room Hispack 2012.

Ramón Gil, during his intervention.

plasticsEurope Has participated in the living room Hispack 2012 with the day 'Tendencies of the plastic container: innovation, profitability and sustainability'. The event, organised by the European association of manufacturers of plastic raw materials, in collaboration with the Technological Institute of the Packaging, Transport and Logistical (Itene), served to analyse the new tendencies in the plastic containers as well as his contribution to the energetic saving and to the reduction of the broadcasts of CO₂.

In representation of plasticsEurope took part Ramón Gil, general director of the association in the Iberian region, and Juan Ruiz, technical manager of Energetic Efficiency and Normalisation. After the different reports remained patent like the plastic containers contribute of remarkable form to the saving of power and to the reduction of broadcasts of gases of effect invernadero, as they show the conclusions of the study Denkstatt (1), presented in the transcurso of the day.

“Thanks to the utilisation of plastic containers in Europe avoids the broadcast of 61 million tonnes of CO₂ to the year, what equivaldría to remove of the roads practically all the trucks that circulate in Spain”, affirmed Gil. Besides, “the ligereza of the plastic containers allows to reduce the consumption of fuel in the transport of foods, what supposes a saving of 50% of the travel of the fleets of distribution”.

More length and fewer scraps

During the day also analysed the innovations in matter of plastic containers for the conservation of foods. At present, thanks to the new systems of packaging with plastic materials, can triplicar the length of a food and therefore diminish considerably the volume of scraps and the economic losses that the same generate.

The development and the innovation in this sector is continuous, and reflects no only in the improvement of the properties of the container, but also in an aprovechamiento much more efficient of the materials. As it explained the general director of plasticsEurope, “thanks to the technological advances, nowadays can pack 1,5 litres of water with less than 34 grams of plastics, when 15 years ago they needed 45 grams, that is to say almost 40% more than plastic material, to pack the same quantity of water”.

“Thanks to them save every year, in Europe, 27 million tonnes of crude. This figure is slightly upper to the energetic needs for heating of all the homes of Spain and Portugal in a year”, insisted Gil. Finally, the representatives of plasticsEurope stood out the commitment of the plastic industry with the innovation, the efficient use of resources and the protection of the environingingment like basic pillars of his global strategy.

(1) Study: Iimpacto of the containers of plastic in the consumption of power and the broadcasts of gases of effect invernadero along the cycle of life in Europe.