Strategiekreis Kunststofftechnik
For more than 160 years now, the VDI e. V association for engineers and scientists has been growing stronger – both in technical and professional respects. The VDI as it is today sees itself as a pioneer for modern, sustainable technologies, but also as a strong voice for the interests of engineers. The VDI's specialist area of plastics technology is one of 3 specialist areas in the VDI Society for Materials Engineering and provides effective communications platforms for sustainable, active networking amongst partners in the form of committees, workshops and expert forums, delivers important outputs in the form of VDI guidelines, public discussions and gives recommendations for technological developments along the entire plastics value creation chain. Key focal topics are: • Innovative plastics processing techniques • Use of recycling techniques to reduce plastic waste • High-performance materials.There is now a global awareness that materials cannot be obtained for primary raw materials on an infinite basis. To date, however, most products are not given a new material use after their service life has ended. At the same time, global consumption of materials continues to increase. The recycling of these materials takes place only to a relatively small extent. The UN and EU therefore promote sustainable development.
One task of engineers is therefore to retain the value of materials by creating circular added value and to feed the materials that are used back into the value-added cycle after the utilisation phase.
The increasing presence of plastic waste in the oceans and in our environment has become a global challenge and requires immediate action by industry, science, politics and consumers. In order to significantly reduce their quantity in the oceans, a different philosophy must be introduced in all countries, assigning the recyclable material “plastic waste” a high priority level.
For several decades now, Germany has had collection systems for used consumer plastic waste and highly developed recycling technologies for reprocessing used plastic products. In order to close the entry routes into the oceans and our environment, technology transfers to third countries for the collection and recycling of plastic waste are absolutely necessary.