Sustainable design of structural and functional polymers for a circular economy

Today, polymers face some of the consequences of their pervasive success in society: plastics littering, discussions about microplastics and environmental persistence, and the emissions from their fossil production. For a circular economy within the planetary boundaries, polymer design, production, use and end of life have to change: Recycled and biobased feedstocks are needed to decouple from fossil resources, together with CO2 neutral production technologies. A circular transformation does not only apply for structural polymers, such as in packaging or engineering plastics applications, which today are a visible reminder of the unsustainable linear value chain model. The challenge extends to “invisible” functional polymers in liquid formulations, such as adhesives, lubricants, thickeners or dispersants. While structural plastics must be either collected and recycled via a technical pathway at the end of life, non-collectable, dispersed polymer applications can be addressed in the biosphere loop. Advances in polymer chemistry, processing and mechanistic understanding open the way to addressing these issues comprehensively by designing for recyclability, biodegradability and carbon neutrality.

This talk will highlight current efforts and examples to leverage such approaches at scale and to put the industry on the required path of transformation.

Speaker: Bernhard Ulrich von Vacano, BASF