European Parliament adopts ban of plastic waste to non-OECD countries

The new rules were approved with 587 votes in favour, eight against, and 33 abstentions

The European Parliament has voted for tougher rules to export waste from the block to countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of mostly rich countries.

Exports of non-hazardous plastic waste to non-OECD countries will be prohibited, whilst those to OECD countries will be subject to stricter conditions. The European Parliament and Council first reached a provisional agreement on the new rules in November 2023. The ban on export of plastics will start two and a half years after the regulation comes into force.

The new rules build on the provisions of the Basel Convention that already bans exports of hazardous waste from the EU to third countries. The European Council said in a statement that since the adoption of the regulation in 2006, exports from the EU to non-OECD countries have ‘increased considerably’. According to the Basel Action Network (BAN), EU plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries rose to 50 million kg/month in May 2023 from 28.1 million kg/month in May 2022, equivalent to 303 shipping containers per day.

Non-OECD countries can apply for exemptions to the ban within five years after the regulation enter into force if they demonstrate ‘strict’ waste management standards. If the European Commission approves the application, it can lift the export ban by means of a delegated act.

The regulation also requires that the exchange of information and data on waste shipments be digitalised within the EU, in order to ‘improve reporting and transparency’. Moreover, shipping waste to another EU country for disposal will only be allowed in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Waste management facilities in third countries, including #OECDcountries, will be subject to audits to ensure they follow ‘environmentally sound management’ of waste.

“The revised law will bring more certainty to Europeans that our waste will be appropriately managed, no matter where it is shipped to,” said Rapporteur Pernille Weiss from the European People’s Party. “The EU will finally assume responsibility for its plastic waste by banning its export to non-OECD countries. Waste is a resource when it is properly managed, but should not in any case be causing harm to the environment or human health.”

Turkey, an OECD country, is the largest destination for #EUplasticwaste exports in recent years. EU exports to Turkey increased from 4.5 million kg/month in June 2021 to 31.7 million kg/month in May 2023, equivalent to 192 truckloads of plastic waste per day.

source : Sustainable Plastics

Hyundai Motor Group and Toray Group Strengthen Ties to Develop Advanced Materials for Future Mobility

The signing ceremony took place on October 24 at #Hyundai Motor Group’s headquarters in Seoul, Korea. Key attendees included Heung-soo Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Strategy Office at Hyundai Motor Group and Miki Terada, General Manager of Advanced Composites Division at #Toray Group.

This agreement marks an important milestone in our partnership, as it represents the first tangible outcome of our strategic collaboration initiated last year," said EVP Kim. “By clearly defining our focus areas and combining our respective strengths, we will work closely together across the entire process—from R&D to production and commercialization in the field of advanced composite materials, enhancing our ability to respond to market demands.”

Building on the strategic cooperation agreement signed in April 2024, the two companies have continued to work together to develop high-performance composite materials, such as #carbonfiberreinforcedplastic (CFRP), to enhance safety and performance in mobility.

Since then, the two companies have identified projects that maximize synergy through close collaboration and have outlined concrete plans for joint development by leveraging their respective strengths.

The newly signed agreement represents a major step forward in their collaboration, accelerating the development of advanced materials and components for future mobility, including high-performance vehicles as well as special-purpose mobility such as lunar exploration rovers and robots.

Hyundai Motor Group aims to accelerate innovation in future mobility and create new market opportunities through close collaboration with Toray Group across the entire value chain—from technology development to production and commercialization in the field of high-performance composite materials.

As part of this effort, Hyundai Motor Group will carry out vehicle-level design, suitability assessments and performance evaluations of advanced materials and components through its Materials Research & Engineering Center, which is responsible for developing and validating new body materials.

The development and production of carbon fiber composites will be carried out by Toray Group’s global subsidiaries: Toray Advanced Materials Korea, Toray Advanced Composites in the Netherlands and Euro Advanced Carbon Fiber Composites in Germany. These entities focus on developing intermediate materials and molded products based on Toray Group’s carbon fiber technology.

source : Hyundai

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Stop Ignoring the B-Side

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Stop Ignoring the B-Side:

In automotive interiors, the A-side sells the car. The B-side sells your brand's reputation for quality. 🎯

That beautiful dashboard or door panel? Its long-term performance, silent operation, and perfect fit are 100% determined by the features you don't see.

The B-side is where engineering excellence meets manufacturing reality.

It’s not just a "back" of plastic part; it's the functional blueprint for:

✅ Squeak and Rattle Prevention

✅ Error-Proof Assembly

✅ Long-Term Durability

✅ Cost-Effective Production

A flawless A-side with a poorly designed B-side is a problem waiting to happen. True quality is designing both sides with equal attention & passion.

To dive deeper into the feasibility and build Molds with complexity & those already working with longer Tool life — Meeting all customer requirements of Automobile Industry needs today ( ie A-Side, B-Side, C- Cost side with Stringent timelines etc ) . .

It's the premier platform to discover advanced solutions in Press Tools, Injection Molds, Die Casting Dies, Jigs & Fixtures, and Automation—the core technologies that deliver precision parts to meet every industry requirement.

source : NTTF Alumni Association Pune Chapter

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : MFI, high shear viscosity and relaxation time spectrum.

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share
MFI, high shear viscosity and relaxation time spectrum.

Let's look at these two Capillary viscosity curves depicting PC (blue) and HDPE (red).
These show very similar MFI (low shear viscosity) and also similar viscosity at processing rates in Injection Molding.

However there's more to it.

The Cox-Merz rule in rheology tells us that Dynamic Rheology (complex viscosity vs. frequency) would produce the same exact curves. But thanks to what we know in Dynamic Rheology we can bring additional critical information now.

The HDPE does not reach a Newtonian plateau within the shear rate testing range, which means there are still long relaxation present in this material that are longer than 1/gammadot at the lowest rate. Possibly 10's or 100's of seconds.

The PC is way more Newtonian and the green vertical line shows that there are no relaxation times longer than about 1/gammadot of that green line.

So this PC relaxes possibly 100 or 1000 times faster than the HDPE (do not forget the graph is a log-log scale).

This has profound consequences on :

- the final level of molecular orientation and related anisotropy in the part

- the ability to quickly re-entangle and create a strong weldline

This is what we refer to as visco-elasticity and relaxation time spectrum.
In coming posts, I will discuss in more details how these aspects will influence anisotropic shrinkage of semi-crystalline materiaks, still poorly predicted by commercial simulation software.

source :Vito leo

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share :Types of Carbon

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Types of Carbon You Should Know

When we talk about climate change, we often hear the word carbon—but did you know it exists in different forms, each playing a unique role in our planet’s climate system? Let’s break it down 👇

🖤 Black Carbon

Produced from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biomass, and forest fires. A major component of soot, it absorbs sunlight and worsens global warming while also polluting air.

💙 Blue Carbon

Carbon stored in coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes. These ecosystems are natural climate heroes, capturing and storing large amounts of CO₂.

🤎 Brown Carbon

Light-absorbing organic carbon from burning biomass (wood, crops, etc.). Unlike black carbon, it can both warm and cool the atmosphere depending on conditions.

❤️ Red Carbon

Carbon released through biological particles on snow and ice—affecting reflectivity and accelerating melting.

💚 Green Carbon

Carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems—forests, plants, and soils—forming a vital part of the natural carbon cycle.

✨ Understanding these types of carbon helps us see both the threats and the opportunities in the fight against climate change. Protecting ecosystems, reducing emissions, and managing carbon wisely are key to a sustainable future.

👉 source : Greenonoics

👉 Image Credit: Rushalee Gupta

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Microalgae convert CO2 into useful basic chemicals

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Microalgae convert CO2 into useful basic chemicals

Researchers in Saxony are developing biotechnological cell factories that do not require agricultural land or fossil raw materials. Chemnitz University of Technology, Leipzig University, and Fraunhofer FEP are using microalgae to produce the important basic chemical glycolate from carbon dioxide and sunlight - a building block for medicines, preservatives, and polymers that is currently produced from partially toxic fossil raw materials.

The interdisciplinary cooperation project PhotoKon could make a significant contribution to the regional bioeconomy by producing valuable chemicals directly from CO2 and light, bypassing the need for scarce agricultural land or fossil resources. The researchers utilize the microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which they are optimizing for industrial use with novel mutation methods and AI-based screening.

The three project partners have already made significant progress and are working with innovative approaches. PhotoKon is developing the scientific basis for the use of ionizing radiation as a new method for the targeted cultivation and optimization of photosynthetically active cells.

Fraunhofer FEP in Dresden has developed a novel mutation method based on low-energy electron radiation (< 300 keV). Prof. Simone Schopf from Fraunhofer FEP emphasizes: “Accompanying dosimetry experiments with commercial film dosimeters and in-house dose measurement methods enable us to precisely control the mutagenic effect.”

Leipzig University has already demonstrated the basic feasibility of photocatalytic glycolate production and is developing an innovative pH-based screening method. This method uses color indicators on agar plates, which change as a result of glycolate excretion by the algae cells. This approach is based on the experimental observation that the accumulation of glycolate in the surrounding medium correlates with a decrease in pH.

#ChemnitzUniversity of Technology has made significant progress in robotics-assisted mutant screening using AI-based image analysis. The team is developing automated screening routines that can independently analyze thousands of algae colonies and identify promising mutants.

“This interdisciplinary approach enables us to specifically utilize the natural photorespiration of algae - normally an unwanted side effect - for targeted glycolate production," explains Prof. Severin Sasso from Leipzig University.

AI-based technology and intelligent process control

Screening and isolation of positive mutants are performed using an AI-based image recognition process with transfer learning approaches. By isolating promising cell factories, it is possible to investigate the biological basis of the effect of ionizing radiation on cells and to implement scaling in technical bioprocesses.

“We aim for a biologically and technologically improved process, which will be validated on a laboratory scale at the new Controlled Environment Agriculture Lab at Chemnitz University of Technology,” reports Dr. Felix Krujatz. Through intelligent control technology for the efficient production of glycolate on a laboratory scale, PhotoKon technology opens the door to sustainable, bio-based conversion of CO2 into the base chemical.

source : Fraunhofer FEP

Sunday's Thoughtful Post :GREAT WRAP MEETS A TOUGH REALITY

 ✅Sunday's Thoughtful Post

It's a wrap. A great idea meets a tough reality. I've just read the sad news that Great Wrap has ceased trading. With a great product idea, an alternative to the plastic cling film, & strong branding, why did it fail? Where did it go wrong? I didn't understand, so I did some research and found out what the lessons were for others in the purpose driven products & circular economy space.

✅ What the company was

Great Wrap, founded in 2019 by Jordy Kay and Julia Kay in Melbourne, Australia, developed compostable cling wrap & pallet wrap made from foodwaste and plantbased polymers.

It was positioned as a sustainable alternative to conventional plastic stretch wrap, with strong media attention and investor support (inclu a A$24 million funding round in 2022).

The business had ambitions to scale: in 2022 it expanded its production facility to allow manufacturing of up to 30,000 tonnes of compostable wrap per year.

🚨 Why it ended

The company never achieved profitability: It incurred losses every year since its founding, with cumulative losses reported of over A$26 million.

Market shift

Its business model was built around compostable packaging, but many retailers and FMCG companies shifted strategy away from compostable materials & instead toward recycled content plastics / their own recycling operations. This reduced demand for Great Wrap’s products.

Over-capacity & demand shortfall

The manufacturing plant and equipment were built based on demand forecasts that did not materialise, meaning the cost base was too high for the realised revenue.

Insolvency

On 17 September 2025, the company’s operating entity (Plantabl Packaging Pty Ltd) entered voluntary administration with debts of roughly A$39 million. All 5 employees were made redundant, operations at the facility ceased.

🔍 Key take-aways & lessons

Strong idea, great brand and visual identity + sustainability credentials aren’t enough:

Commercial viability, market timing & cost structure matter just as much.

Innovation in manufacturing & sustainability is capital-intensive & risky when demand doesn’t scale as planned.

Market trends can shift rapidly

What looked like a growth opportunity (compostable packaging) was overtaken by other strategies (recycled content plastics) that proved more attractive in practice.

My own thoughts

With high fixed costs in manufacturing, things can go bad very quickly when sales slows down. I've seen this happen to a few purposedriven companies where manufacturing fixed costs are high & they grow too quickly, overordering stock they think will sell but doesn't.

Possible answers

With smaller products selling online, people have been successful in creating waiting lists and getting people to pre-order. Is this one solution? Or will people not wait and go elsewhere.

Buying & manufacturing in scale brings the cost/manufacturing price down but at what cost to the business. It's a difficult balance to get right.

source: Emma Geraghty