The present moment is one of unprecedented challenge; for the world of engineering thermoplastics, there has been a chance to serve the needs of key workers, providing materials for protective masks, shields, and gowns. Details of some of these developments are given in the latest Engineering Thermoplastics Chemical Business Focus, which focuses on how exotics are being put to work to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
But even as the industry hastens to produce advanced polymers with extraordinary properties, for single-use medical applications, we have begun to recognize that we have to seize this singular moment and ensure that we consider the impact on our environment with the same sense of urgency as the challenge of the virus.
The World Economic Forum has reported that the COVID-19 pandemic must make us look again at the problem of plastic waste and the circular economy as single-use plastics disposal grows along with the spread of the virus; in the article below, Tecnon OrbiChem’s Doris de-Guzman looks at how new developments in advanced recycling techniques can help with this endeavour.