Plastic Materials Manufacturers Association

Plastic Materials Manufacturers Association, Washington, D. C., Technical Data on Plastics, ... 

GHG emissions associated with the raw material are determined from the energy used to manufacture the plastic materials and the fuel used to transport them to the plant. The transportation and manufacture of the secondary packaging used to transport the primary raw materials and finished materials may also be considered. The embedded energy of the materials, if made from petroleum products, is also accounted for when it is used as a raw material (Keoleian and Spitzley, 1999 Spitzley et al., 1997). End-of-life emissions may also be included in LCA of milk packaging and include fhe energy used fo recycle the package or emissions in the form of CH4 from a landfill. 

Standards or specifications issued by individual companies are not considered to be of national status, however large or multi-national the concern might be. Specifications issued by local authorities and nationalised industries would be in the same bracket. Organizations such as Rapra Technology (The Rubber and Plastics Research Association), The British Rubber Manufacturers Association, the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining do not issue standards. 

APME. 2001. Environmental examples Material recycling. Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe, ivww.apme.org. 

There are also a number of technical and trade organizations in this country which have prepared and issued specifications dealing with specialized aspects of the plastics field. The Laminated Products Section of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association has official specifications for laminated sheets, rods, and tubes 20) and for decorative laminated materials 19). The Aeronautical Material Specifications Group of the Society of Automotive Engineers has written specifications for plastic materials to be used in aircraft construction 22). The Society of the Plasties Industry through its Engineer-... 

Two other significant costs in the manufacture of micromolded parts are material costs and operational costs. The material cost associated with micromolding is piimaiily the cost of the plastic from which each part is made. Therefore, the excess volume of the part should be mininiized so as to use the minimum amount of material. The operational cost is directly related to the cycle time for each part. In typical micromolding runs, 70-80 % of the total machine cycle time is spent waiting for the molten thermoplastic to cool and solidify in the mold before part ejection. 

Plastics rely on a feedstock used for energy production, but at the same time they need less of it per ton of product than other materials. The European Association of Plastic Manufacturers (APME) in Brussel has made a big effort over the last decade to develop a life-cycle analysis approach for an environmental positioning of all major plastic materials [1]. Meanwhile, the data for most polymers for resource demand and major emissions have been evaluated and published based on the average data of all European production sites. 

Responsible use of non-renewable resources is one of the three emphasis areas in the sustainable growth (Chapter 2). Any technologies that help conserve fossil fuel reserves help achieve that goal. Using renewable bioresources to make plastics, especially types of plastics used in high volume, is therefore a sustainable move by the industry (Philp et al., 2013 Reddy et al., 2013). Biomass raw materials can yield the same basic chemical intermediates that are derived from fossil fuel raw materials, making bio-based synthesis of conventional and novel plastics a possibility. The option is particularly attractive where the embodied energy as well as the carbon emissions associated with manufacture of the bio-derived variety is at or below that of conventional plastic material. 

NEMA NEMA stands for National Electrical Manufacturers Association. More particularly in the plastics industry, NEMA develops standards for high-presstrre laminates used for electrical applications, which is the first and largest use of these materials. 

Standard test methods for plastics are provided by many different agencies including, American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM), the US Government (Military and Federal Specifications), National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), etc. 

From 1992 to 1997, the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and Rutgers University, along with several RPL manufacturers, carried out a project to optimize the production process for RPL and develop demonstration projects. In 1998 to 2000, the Plastic Lumber Trade Association and BatteUe, with four RPL manufacturers, several government agencies, and others, completed a three-year cooperative effort to develop the use of RPL in structural applications in decking, marine waterfront, and material handling.As a result of these and other projects, the usefulness of plastic lumber in several types of applications is now accepted. 

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