INDUSTRY INTRODUCTION: PLASTICS

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1 PLASTICS

2 INDUSTRY INTRODUCTION: PLASTICS A day without plastics is unthinkable in a modern, sustainable society. Plastics is used in an endless number of items in our daily lives and is extremely valuable for the individual and society. We use plastics to insulate our houses and in district heating pipes; we use it to manufacture sustainable energy solutions and solutions for clean drinking water. We also reduce food waste by wrapping food in plastics. In Denmark, the plastics industry and its suppliers of raw materials, machinery and services are represented by the Danish Plastics Federation. Its mission is to strengthen the industry s competitiveness and increase the population s knowledge about plastic. The Danish Plastics Federation helps create the framework that enables Danish plastics companies to supply solutions required by society to improve the quality of life of the population, preserve resources and protect the environment. The Danish plastics industry employs around 30,000 people. The plastics companies are characterised by a high degree of innovation and knowhow, which enables them to manufacture products of high value to society: medical equipment, wind power, infrastructure solutions, insulation and packaging. Around 70% of production is exported. Environmental management and management of health and safety and energy are integral parts of the day-to-day running of companies on production sites in Denmark and abroad. Twenty-six per cent of Danish Plastics Federation members with production facilities are certified according to the ISO environmental standard. In addition, the Danish plastics industry is the most energy-efficient plastics industry in the EU. Danish plastics companies even manage to see plastics waste, which normally presents a challenge, as a potential resource. The trade association works on an ongoing basis to develop services and tools to strengthen the CSR work of plastics companies. The digital life-cycle assessment tool (LCA), the Plastic eco-calculator, is the latest addition to the family. The industry is also responsible for ensuring that we, as a society, make optimum use of plastics material, and that it does not end up in the sea and along our shores. The Danish Plastics Federation therefore endeavours to find solutions to these problems. World view on CSR in the plastics industry From a global point of view, plastics waste is a growing problem due to the lack of strategies and infrastructure to handle plastic products once discarded. Waste in the ocean and along our shores threatens fauna, eco-systems, the fishing industry and tourism. Fifty-six global plastics industry organisations, including the Danish Plastics Federation, have therefore joined forces and signed the Declaration for Solutions on Marine Litter to find a solution to the problem.

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4 DANTOY The Danish toy manufacturer, dantoy, focuses on making toys more environmentally friendly and safer for children to play with. The company is the first toy manufacturer in the world to obtain the Nordic Swan (Svanen) eco-label for plastic toys. dantoy is one of the largest toy manufacturers in the Nordic countries and has manufactured children s toys for more than 50 years. All the toys are manufactured in Denmark. The company has 47 employees and focuses on manufacturing toys with high play value that are durable and safe for children to play with. First with the Swan dantoy is the first toy manufacturer in the world to obtain a licence to use the Nordic Swan eco-label on a series of colourful beach toys in 100% plastic. dantoy wanted to send a signal to consumers that plastic toys can be an environmentally safe and responsible choice and that plastic has a number of advantages compared with other materials. As a result of dantoy s strategy to obtain a license for the Swan eco-label, the company has phased out certain substances and has changed the raw materials used in order to comply with the strict environmental criteria for the eco-label. The toys do not contain any PVC or phthalates, for example. Today, 85-90% of dantoy s range of toys is eco-labelled, and the company is working on obtaining the eco-label for its remaining toy products. Resource consumption under control dantoy aims to keep harmful environmental impact to a minimum and has obtained ISO certification. The company has introduced a number of processes to manage its electricity, water and raw material consumption and to prevent any emissions from the production. This strategy implies constant monitoring of the consumption of electricity and water and comparison with the consumption of plastic granulate to enable the company to optimise its processes and produce the largest possible number of toys with a minimum of electricity, water and plastic granulate. As a measurable result of these efforts, consumption of electricity, cooling water and plastic granulate has been reduced. Read more on:

5 RPC SUPERFOS RPC Superfos strives to make plastic packaging solutions as environmentally sustainable as possible. The company has successfully reduced the consumption of resources and energy and is continuously increasing the recycling capabilities. RPC Superfos invents, designs and produces plastic packaging for food and non-food producers. The company is one of the European industry leaders within injection moulded plastic packaging solutions. RPC Superfos has its headquarters in Taastrup and operate Europe-wide from a backbone of eight production facilities and 14 distribution centres. The company has 1300 employees. RPC Superfos is part of UK based RPC, which produces rigid plastic packaging from a total of 50 manufacturing sites in Europe. RPC Superfos works to reduce the carbon footprint of their own production by effective environmental stewardship and helps their customers reduce theirs by offering thinner and lighter packaging solutions, products with higher contents of recycled materials and advanced barriers to offer long shelf life. Lightweight packaging Many of the packaging solutions are lightweight and through continued research and development efforts the company strives to make the products even lighter. This lessens the carbon footprint of the packaging since it requires less material to produce and less fuel for transportation; you can load a truck with up to four times the amount of plastic containers compared to reference containers. Recycled materials RPC Superfos uses polypropylene or polyethylene plastics only, which do not give off unwanted substances to contents and ensure a high level of hygiene. After usage, the products can be reused, recycled or incinerated with energy recovery, or disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. Thanks to innovative processes RPC Superfos is able to inject recycled materials between layers of virgin material, also called co-injection. The recycled material can derive from industry scrap or post consume waste. Non-food customers are also offered mono layer packaging made of recycled post consume materials. Barrier packaging RPC Superfos has developed award winning oxygen barrier solutions, which offer long shelf life and high convenience. The packaging solution is lightweight and may both improve product quality during shelf life and help reduce food waste. Calculating the footprint To assist customers in making the right sustainable decisions RPC Superfos has developed their own CO 2 - calculator, certified by the independent British organisation Carbon Trust. The calculator makes it possible to establish the carbon footprint of the different varieties of packaging solution. Read more:

6 LOGSTOR LOGSTOR is the world s pre-eminent supplier of energy-efficient pre-insulated pipe systems designed specifically to keep energy loss from district heating and cooling systems to the absolute minimum. LOGSTOR is a world leading district energy company with more than 40 years of experience in providing district heating and cooling distribution solutions. LOGSTOR pre-insulated pipe systems enable the society to optimize every single aspect of the design, implementation and maintenance of infrastructure for moving energy from A to B by pipe. LOGSTOR has its headquarters in Denmark and 10 factories located in Denmark, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Romania and China as well as 14 sales companies worldwide. The company has 1250 employees. The company has implemented the ISO standard for environmental management. Reducing CO 2 emissions Based on years of experience in many countries, especially in Scandinavia, it is clear that district heating and district cooling are economically advantageous, extremely reliable and perhaps most importantly environmentally safer than other solutions being employed today. Combined heat and power generation is actually the single biggest solution to the 2020 EU target of reducing CO 2 emissions by 20% and increasing the renewable share of energy to 20%. Converting to district heating saves more than 3 tons CO 2 per year/home. LOGSTOR pre-insulated pipe systems are designed specifically to keep energy loss from district heating and cooling systems to the absolute minimum and may thus play a vital role in helping achieve better energy efficiency and reduced CO 2 emissions. Reuse and recycling facility The heart of all LOGSTOR pre-insulated pipe systems is the unique cyclopentane-blown CFC-free polyurethane cellular foam. LOGSTOR was the first company in the world to build a facility for chemical reuse of polyurethane and recycling of polyethylene for pre-insulated district heating pipes. After treatment the waste is used in the production of new pre-insulated district heating systems. The investment in the waste generation facility is a vital part of the company s environmental strategy towards providing climate solutions. The recycling technology reduces the consumption of raw materials saving more than 600 tons of virgin polyethylene a year. The recycled polyethylene is reused in the production of new polyurethane foam. The solution enables the company to increase resource efficiency and demonstrate environmental responsibility fulfilling the company s aim of offering the most environmental products in the market. Read more:

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8 The Danish Plastics Federation Nørre Voldgade Copenhagen K Danish Responsibility means striving for a sustainable future, while building competitive companies and a stronger society. Danish Responsibility is a mindset which ensures that we combine economic growth with responsible behaviour. When social and environmental responsibility is incorporated throughout the supply chain, from design and production to use and disposal, the end result is better products, and better products create a better world. Learn more on