A Beneficial Bacteria or a Virus for the Earth? It All Depends on Our Choices!
Can you imagine anything in the ground that is not recycled or does not renew itself? A tree, soil or water? That’s true, nothing fails to recycle itself until humankind interferes with it. Especially nowadays, people are starting to liken humankind to a virus, which increases its population unrestrainedly, survives artificially by destroying nature and is constantly on the look-out for new places to destroy. But is this really the only way to survive? This is the question that everybody has started to ask, whether individually or as a community, particularly in the light of the most dire pandemic of our time, which has manifested itself across the globe. And we have been reminded of those small things that are crucially important for a responsible and better life. We have experienced again what it means to live with minimum requirements, which are quite enough for our physical and mental health and which are actually better for life on earth.
The consequences of destruction have been revealing themselves for a long time: global warming is now obvious to the naked eye, and we can taste the pollution of water sources with all of our senses.
We have also started to appreciate how crucial plastic has become for our lives — even single-use plastics have become significantly important during the pandemic. The important thing is how to ensure that plastics and other materials are safe for the earth, how to keep them out of the ecosystem but within the value chain.
This is possible thanks to responsible communities, who are striving for a sustainable future for our children. At Kordsa, we are proud of the pioneering steps we have been taking for sustainability over the years, and we are happy to have been supporting our partners through different solutions.
Sustainability is the trending topic par excellence. Just a few years ago, for example, in the automotive industry OEMs were making regulations that stipulated the upper limit of recycled material within their products. But today, the same OEM companies are asking what the minimum proportion of recycled material is that they can include in the products which we supply to them. In 2018, Volvo Cars announced that at least 25% of all plastics in cars that they will launch after 2025 will be made from recycled materials. Audi says they are using recycled PET bottles to produce seat upholstery in their new A3 compact model and they will increase the ratio of recycled materials in the days to come.
There is no doubt that a quick transformation is underway, driven by the sustainability requirements in Europe especially, which
are strongly supported by the actions and incentives taken by governments. But, the question is, how much are we building sustainable solutions into our businesses, and how fast is this taking place?
Europe has set targets for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions progressively up to 2050. The EU key target for 2030 is at at least 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels), and the Union aims to be climate-neutral by 2050, which means creating an economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Kordsa is one of the biggest NY6.6 tire cord producers in the world, and we are happy to provide the best quality cord and cord fabric to our customers. For many people, the waste involved in the process just means scrap, unless they see the biggest opportunity hidden beneath it, which for us is “raw material”, material that can represent a new source for us, for our partners, for the automotive industry,
for aerospace & aviation, for white appliances and so on. It can be
a great source of raw material for the industry, when it is processed with the correct know-how and the right value is derived from it.
For many years now, Kordsa’s exploitation of waste has been a huge contribution to the NY66 polymer value chain. We keep the plastics within the value chain by re-processing the polymer, as a near-prime reprocessed NY66 chip. This is just one of the examples of actions we have taken for the sake of sustainability, and we are saving 7830 tons CO2 alone by using our reprocessed chips. Thanks to the huge efforts of our R&D and production teams behind the scenes, for many years we have been creating value for our partners in the polymer value chain, and we are justifiably proud of that.
In terms of the Circular Economy, we are proud of being a pioneer
in the industry with our sustainable solutions and the contribution to the polymer value chain that we have been passing on to our partners for many years. The industry is still discussing alternative solutions for sustainability, such as bioplastics. However, discussions still need to take place on questions such as “How much of the biograde materials are biodegradable and under which conditions?” According to an article in www.plasticstoday.com”, IDTechex says that “Only about half of bioplastics are, in fact, biodegradable — just because a material is sourced biologically does not necessarily
mean it will break down in the natural environment.” That’s why re-use and re-cycling technologies still occupy pride of place in the chain. Authorities within the plastic industry think that biograde materials are still a challenge, as they are neither recyclable nor 100% biodegradable, which is why the mantra of reduce/reuse/recycle continues to be important and why Kordsa will continue to develop technologies for a better contribution to our world. The chart below from IDTechex estimates the potential growth of polymer recycling in the global as well as the circular economy:
At Kordsa, we have been following the latest technologies and taking an active role in developing these emerging technologies, and we believe this will bear fruit in us creating ideal sustainable plastic solutions for the earth. As a member of the Polynspire project (supported by Horizon 2020), with our partners, we are looking forward to changing the game through depolymerisation, which will lead on to additional solutions for the plastic industry and for our value chain, releasing pure, alternative raw materials. As Reinforcers in Kordsa, we take pride in being part of this revolution and growing responsibly.
Maybe it’s time to reflect on the example of the Martu people, Australian aborigines, who do not waste a single drop of their water. Indeed, they know it’s not their water but the entire species’ water, and that’s why they use it consciously, for the sake of a better goal! Now we also know how to do this responsibly. Humankind is such a small part of our world, which makes it all the more obvious that it is better for our future for us to be beneficial bacteria. Let’s create our future responsibly and grow together!
SOURCES:
• https://www.idtechex.com/en/research-report/green-technology- and-polymer-recycling-market-analysis-2020–2030/695
• https://group.volvocars.com/news/sustainability/2018/volvo-aims- for-25-per-cent-recycled-plastics-in-cars-from-2025
• https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/strategies_en
Written by Buğra Selenbaş,
Market Development Project Manager, Kordsa
