Sustainable development and polymer materials

Abstract

In the last twenty years, a rapid growth in the application of polymer materials occurred in practically all fields of human activities, especially for packaging. Never the less, in the world and our country, quite often one can hear the ideas that polymer materials satisfy all the technical and economic requirements, but because they cannot fit into the circular flow of matter in nature, they pollute the environment and therefore do not satisfy the environmental criteria, so they should not be used for example, for packaging and in particular not for food packaging. In the first part of this article the reasons which led to the pollution of our planet earth are pointed out and also what is done in order to preserve the environment and to accept and introduce into the life ideas of sustainable development. In the second part it is shown, on selected examples, in which amount application of polymer materials based on fossil or renewable raw materials contributes to sustainable development. It is also shown that by recycling of polymer waste into new materials and raw materials or its combustion, significant savings in raw materials and energy can be achieved, which further contributes to sustainable development. In addition, polymer materials have significantly contributed to the rapid development of many technologies, such as: technology of transport vehicles production, construction, electronics and electrotechnics, graphic techniques, textiles, sports equipment and in a specific manner contributed to the reduced consumption of raw materials, energy and CO2 emission. Based on the presented data it can be concluded that the polymer materials are environmentally friendly, which is one of the reason for planned annual polymer production growth of 4 to 8% in the next twenty years.

U poslednjih dvadesetak godina došlo je do naglog porasta primene polimernih materijala u praktično svim oblastima ljudskih delatnosti, a naročito za izradu ambalaže. I pored toga, u svetu, a i kod nas, dosta često se čuju ideje da polimerni materijali zadovoljavaju sve tehničke i ekonomske uslove, ali zbog toga što ne mogu da se uklope u kružni tok materije u prirodi oni zagađuju životnu sredinu i samim tim ne zadovoljavaju ekološke kriterijume, pa ih ne treba koristiti npr. za izradu ambalaže, a naročito ne ambalaže za pakovanje životnih namirnica. U prvom delu ovoga rada ukazano je na razloge koji su doveli do zagađenja naše planete zemlje i šta se čini u cilju očuvanja životne sredine i prihvatanju i uvođenju u život ideje o održivom razvoju. U drugom delu rada je na izabranim primerima pokazano koliki doprinos održivom razvoju se ostvaruje primenom polimernih materijala na bazi fosilnih ili obnovljivih sirovina. Pokazano je takođe da se recikliranjem polimernog otpada u nove materijale i sirovine ili njegovim sagorevanjem mogu ostvariti značajne uštede u sirovinama i energiji i tako dodatno doprineti održivom razvoju. Pored toga, polimerni materijali su značajno uticali na ubrzan razvoj velikog broja tehnologija, kao što su npr: tehnologija proizvodnje transportnih sredstava, građevinarstva, elektronike i elektrotehnike, grafičke tehnike, tekstila, sportske opreme i tako na jedan specifičan način doprineli smanjenoj potrošnji sirovina, energije i emisije CO2. Na osnovu prikazanih podataka može se zaključiti da su polimerni materijali ekološki materijali i da je to jedan od razloga što je za polimerne materijale za sledećih dvadeset godina predviđen godišnji porast proizvodnje od 4 do 8 %.