Costs of plastics

A major cost advantage for fabricating products is their usual low processing cost. The most expensive part of the product is the cost of plastic materials. Since the material value in a plastic product is roughly up to one-half (possibly up to 80%) of its overall cost, it becomes important to select a candidate material with extraordinary care particularly on long production runs. Cost to fabricate using most processes and particularly... 

To decrease the dismantling and sorting costs of plastic parts it is necessary to anticipate these steps at the design stage ... 

It is a very seldom situation when a composite manufacturer uses just one stream of its principal plastic. Typically, composite materials are manufactured using variable supplies of a polymer. Manufacturers are maneuvering making a choice between various suppliers, as they always consider cost of plastic and its available properties, listed in the material specihcation. 

A spokesman for one of the largest appliance manufacturers said recently The price of steel has been increasing, while material costs of plastics have... 

For intricately designed pieces the total cost of plastics materials and labor competed successfully with fabricated metals about 1946. For mediumsized pieces plastics were able to compete about 1953. Plastics are expected to invade large-unit fabrication anywhere from 1961 to 1965. For example, all materials needed for an all-plastic refrigerator unit are known it is simply a matter of economics. 

Compounding to change and improve the physical and mechanical properties of plastics makes use of a wide variety of materials as reviewed throughout this book. The major and large market for these materials, such as additives, fillers, and reinforcements, continues to expand as the demand for reducing the cost of plastics, plastics to function in wider or extreme markets, and under stricter regulatory regimes continue to expand. 

As discussed earlier, the cost of plastic can represent a very large... 

This book chapter evaluates the definition, classification, and scope of POCs in different applications. POCs represent one of the most widely used polymeric materials. Synergistic reactions between the polymer matrix and filler materials (particulate, fiber, and structural fillers) result in modified properties. This book chapter contributes a brief introduction followed by a definition of processing and an extensive illustration of the different applications of POCs in a variety of fields (consumer, medical, agricultural, packaging, transportation, electrical, construction, and textile). POCs with natural wood fiber are widely used in consumer applications. They result in wood-like texture and properties with the cost of plastic. 

Students can tabulate how each plastic is used, together with information such as the monomer and polymer formulae, and T,, Tg. This could be extended to include research about costs of plastics and other uses. 

Regional analyses (Dresden, Lahn-Dill district) repeatedly confirmed this picture. Given such framework conditions, it becomes obvious why some two thirds of the total costs of plastics collection and recycling arise in the collection and sorting of lightweight and contaminated—and therefore difficult to utilize—waste, while just one third of the total cost falls to the share of recycling (see Fig. 13.13). 

Plastics, as a class of material, is a truly exceptional one in that within a short span of less than a single lifetime it has pervaded nearly all aspects of modem life in all parts of the civilized world. Examples of successful replacement of conventional materials by plastics are far too numerous to list. What is important to note, however, is that nearly all of these substitutions survived in the marketplace and often continue to increase their market share in the relevant sectors. These obviously provide good value for the money because successful applications of plastics deliver performance comparable to (or better than) the materials they replaced but at a lower cost. A valid argument might be made that the market cost of plastics seriously underestimates the true cost, which reflects the use of common resources and externalities associated with their production. The same, however, holds tme for competing materials as well. The available (albeit incomplete) data suggest that even a comparison based on the true cost of materials would find plastics to be an exceptional value. 

The additional cost of plastic collection includes a landfill savings diversion credit of 94.00/ton. The additional cost of plastic collection using the Labrie truck without landfill diversion credit would be S0.72/hh-yr, S4.32/hh-yr and S4.32/hh-yr for collection scenarios A, B and C, respectively. The additional cost of plastic collection using the Isuzu truck with trailer without landfill diversion credit would be S1.16/hh-yr, 3.33/hh-yr and 3.33/hh-yr for collection scenarios A, B and C, respectively. 

The book is presented in two parts. Part I identifies the compositions of plastics in MSW and in recycling programs, the post-consumer plastics contributions to recycling programs, the cost of plastics collection and some of the end uses for reprocessed post-consumer plastics. Attention is given to curbside collection of recyclables because of its high recovery rate (60-90%) in comparison to other recycling methods (10-30%). 

The most suitable plastics processing technique used for the production of any component will depend upon the shape, size and quantity required in addition, the cost of plastics waste, obtained by different processing methods, must be taken into account. The product may need to be altered to make it suitable for an individual process and may even include material change. 

The open burning of waste plastic causes the emission of gases and chemicals which are toxic [9], and the recycling activities of plastics in electronic waste (E-waste) have resulted in high levels of pollution in the ambient environment. These activities threaten the ecosystem [10] therefore, driven by profit from the increased cost of plastics, primitive waste recycling processes are now extremely active. 

MCPs save money for manufacturers owing to the use of less material and faster cycle time. Since about 70% of the cost of foamed plastic goods is the material cost and since up to 50% weight reduction is possible for some applications, the cost of plastic parts can be reduced by as much as 35%. 

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