the european plastics business is a £200 billion industry with the strongest commitment to the utmost standards in the safety, health, performance and quality of its products. about 25 percent of worldwide demand for plastic products is manufactured by european producers who employ 1.6 million people. all of these companies commit with keenness to the regulation and legislation designed to protect the environment &ndash with process innovation and the product is at the core of this. interesting facts and figures &bull just one tone of polystyrene insulation saves about 1.3tonne of oilyear optimal insulation of all buildings in the eu would save about 460mtonne co2year &bull in the past 15 years, plastic used in cars is up from 3 to 11. at the same time, fuel consumption has fallen by 14. these 11 save about 750litres of fuel over the lifetime of the car. &bull up to date windmills has 70m long plastic solar, rotors, and photovoltaic panels use plastics widely airbus a380 uses 22 plastic, saving 15 fuel. plastics provide an extremely important and necessary role in the society, not only through saving energy in construction, but making leisure more affordable and enjoyable, offering communications and supporting a revolution in health care requirements. plastic is important for thousands of applications such as from lifesaving medical tools like heart valves, blood bags, and hip joints to the packaging which safeguards produced goods from damage and preserves food saving on waste and helping to keep retail prices down. plastic is also crucial in every aspect of modern living, providing the means to communicate in products arraying from lightweight laptops to mobile phones. we can&rsquot even imagine one day without plastic. if there is no plastic, it means &bull no television&rsquos components, computer, mp3 players and radio&rsquos. &bull a day without communications and electrical cabling &bull without drainage systems, water pipes, & dampproof membranes &bull without plastic engineering tools, which ensure lorries, cars, and aircraft are safer and lighter, reducing exhaust emissions and saving fuel. &bull without renewable energy, for example, wind turbines and solar heating panels. pvcu windows can be energy rated, under window energy rating scheme wer, which is being run by the british fenestration rating council, with pvcu windows attaining over 85 of the "a" ratings in the scheme. this wer scheme works on the similar principle as the schemes about which consumers are more familiar with, such as energy rating badges on white goods or cars. the pvcu window sector is one of the most innovative industries within the fenestration industry, with projects such as recovinyl and vinyl 2010 ensuring that recycling and manufacturing continue to see improvements. the fact is that plastics in all their types play an indubitable role across the social, environmental, and economic aspects of sustainable development. the reality is all of the world&rsquos plastics are made up using the equal of only 4 percent of all gas and oil extraction as a feedstock. to complement existing technologies, bpf already has the ability to produce degradable additives and biobased plastics. there are countless milestones of innovation in plastics. even in the motorcars, the everincreasing use of durable and tough plastic components is a main contributor to weight reduction, which results in an average 500litres less fuel consumption over the life of a common modern car. plastic blood concept may sound impossible, but researchers at the university of sheffield have developed a &lsquoplastic blood&rsquo, which is capable to carry oxygen around the body and mimic hemoglobin. not only could this be a groundbreaking stepforward for the medical world, but because of its very nature, the plastic blood is able to be stored and carried a lot easier than &ldquonatural blood&rdquo. the market of medical device is one of today&rsquos most vibrant business sectors. not using plastics in this area is now unbelievable, especially when it comes to the issue of sterility. break resistance, low easy processing, weight and the possibility of alteration for very particular specifications provides definite advantages over traditional materials such as ceramics, metal, and glass. perhaps the biggest contribution of plastics is the restraint of infection risks, with the important revolution being the production of single use products, like the humble pvc blood bag. pvc blood bags, modified atmosphere packs to microelectronic components, bpf have used invention as their base for the future. bpf has developed dosedispensing packs for medicines and pharmaceuticals, developed safety closures including tamperevident and tamperproof packs. the plastics industry plays a crucial role in the development of safe and innovative products for the medical industry, with products such as dosage packs, artificial skin, and blister packs for the pharmaceutical industry and lung and heart bypass sets, to name but a few. a general supermarket delivery vehicle that carries products will have 3 percent of its weight in plastic packaging. on the other hand, if similar products are packed in glass would elevate the packaging weight up to 36 percent of the packed vehicle with huge impacts on road movements, fuel consumption, and exhaust emissions. the guinness widget represents all that is good with regards to the uk plastics industry &ndash unnoticed and unseen but a vital and omnipresent material part of nearly every highprofile manufacturing success story. such dependable and vital precision, which is achieved through the advancement of revolutionary and fully automated technology, is the name of the game. improvement and invention in plastics brings us packaging which is low volume, lightweight and lowimpact, manufacturing products, which preserve and protect so that food is easytocook, readytoeat and available in parts which suit our requirements and individual tastes. in addition, in spite of a more reliance on plastic, the packaging bpf use for their food actually prevents wastage and saves resources. the simple shrink packaging around a cucumber may have turn into a symbol of packaging waste, but its capability to prevent moisture loss offers to maintain freshness and extend its shelf life from three to ten days, bringing major decrease in wastage as well as the transport impacts, required to replace rotting produce. for factual information on plastic packaging and innovation, visit the bpf&39s packaging group. there are many centers of polymer innovation in the uk, with the polymer irc leading the way. it brings scientists from the universities of bradford, leeds, durham and the sheffield polymer centre together to create one of the biggest groupings of polymer specialists in europe. indeed the vinylsum project is an outstanding example of where industry and academia can work together to drive innovation, with tangible results. source of information httpwww.bpf.co.ukinnovationdefault.aspx
