Re: [greenyes] Sharp uses Plant-based and recycled plastics

[Helen Spiegelman <hspie@no.address>]

This story raises some questions (details below). Can anyone provide answers?
H.


At 01:11 PM 9/2/2005, amy perlmutter wrote:
> 4. Sharp Develops New Technology to Blend Plant-Based Plastic with Waste 
> Plastic
>
> DATE 2005
>
> SOURCE Sharp Corporation [website]
>
> ABSTRACT Sharp Corporation has developed a new technology to blend 
> plant-based plastic that uses corn as the raw material, and waste plastic 
> recovered from scrapped consumer electronics.  Using a mix of plant-based 
> plastic and waste plastic blended by means of this technology in consumer 
> electronics can significantly reduce environmental impact compared to 
> using common plastics derived from petroleum-based feedstocks.

Will this blended plastic, in turn, be able to be recycled?

> In the future, Sharp will be conducting tests to assess commercial 
> potential, with the goal of using blended plastic in Sharp products within 
> fiscal 2006. In the future, when the price of plant-based plastics is 
> reduced to a level on a par with general plastics, it is estimated that 
> the percentage of renewable resources (plant-based plastic and waste 
> plastic) used in all products will increase to 30% by fiscal 2010. At 
> present, raw materials used in consumer electronics rely almost entirely 
> on fossil materials such as petroleum, but efforts to shift as much as 
> possible to renewable resources (plant-based and recycled materials) are 
> moving forward from the perspective of limiting emissions of greenhouse 
> gases, with the aim of building a sustainable recycling-oriented society.

How will the blended material reduce GHGs?
Repeat Q #1 above.

> At the same time, plant-based plastics have the potential to reduce the 
> impact on the environment given that incinerating these materials does not 
> cause the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere to rise.

Why not?

> However, problems remain in terms of impact/shock resistance, thermal 
> resistance,

That is, fire-retardant additives will be needed?

> cost and other factors, and their adoption in the area of consumer durable 
> goods, particularly electronic products, remains limited.

What is the role of regulation in creating level field and raising industry 
standard?

> Against this background, Sharp has been conducting research since 1999 on 
> technologies to recycle waste plastic from consumer electronics, and in 
> May 2003, put such a recycling technology into practical use to enable 
> repeated re-use of polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) recovered from 
> four categories of discarded household electrical appliances falling under 
> the Home Appliance Recycling Law (air conditioners, TVs, refrigerators and 
> washing machines) in components in new manufactured products in these four 
> categories without loss of physical properties such as material strength.