EuPC sets priorities for 2008

Sustainability themes rank high amongst the top priorities for Europe’s Brussels-based plastics converters’ body, EuPC (www.plasticsconverters.eu), in 2008.

EuPC will put the spotlight on four areas in 2008, namely, implementation of the Vinyl Foundation and its associated Vinyl 2010 Voluntary Commitment, global trade issues, bio-plastics and the impact of high oil prices on the plastics industry.

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EuPC has set up the Vinyl Foundation as an independent trust to administer converters’ funding of projects designed to promote the sustainability of PVC within the framework of the Vinyl 2010 Voluntary Commitment.

‘Now, PVC Converters will be able to use promotional and marketing tools to show how they are recycling PVC products and using safe additives. The Foundation represents a fair and consistent means of supporting Vinyl 2010 alongside our partners from the PVC resins and additives supply industries’, according to Alexandre Dangis, Managing Director of EuPC.

‘Since 2000, the whole of the European PVC industry has been committed to a Voluntary Commitment called Vinyl 2010. Synergy between the converters and the rest of the industry is key to the future of the PVC industry in Europe’, he added.

A ‘European Pavilion Stand’ will be proposed by EuPC for international exhibitions and fairs in 2008-2009 in order to promote the EU plastics industry outside the EU. This was stimulated by a survey of attendees from the SME sector attending the Kunststoffe fair in Düsseldorf in October. Dangis explained that ‘The plastics industry expressed particular interest in the Russian market as it is experiencing continuous growth, particularly in the construction, packaging and automobile industries’.

EuPC intends to promote an understanding of bioplastics in terms of their properties, applications and life cycles. ‘The Plastics converting industry supports innovation that offers society and the plastics value chain a wide range of new opportunities’ said Dangis. ‘Bioplastics are a promising alternative for the plastics industry, but as energy is used in the growing, harvesting and conversion of agricultural crops to bioplastics the inputs and outputs involved in their manufacture are not understood with precision and their immunity to rising oil prices is sometimes overestimated Today the most common end use market is for packaging applications. We see more and more biodegradable plastic shopping bags, compostable waste collection bags or biomass-based food trays as existing applications. Various applications in other sectors are currently under development, especially in the automotive and electronic sectors’ added Dangis.

EuPC is seriously concerned about the uncertain economic conditions for 2008 and predicts that the prices of plastic products will have to rise further due to the high oil price now at $100 per barrel. ‘Oil prices have more than quadrupled since 2002 and seem to be heading in only one direction: upwards’, said Dangis. ‘In a sector where raw materials account for sometimes up to 70% of the selling price, the influence of oil prices on our selling prices is high’. This is particularly so at a time of escalating demand for oil and polymers in the growing world economy. The fast growing plastics industries in China and India are leading to even higher polymer prices. Alongside the price increases announced by raw material manufacturers, EuPC is already anticipating supply shortages in 2008.

European Plastics Converters, Brussels, Belgium

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