Plastic Injection Moulding: Facts and Figures, and its Environmental Impact

This video looks at the importance of plastic in our lives and especially focuses on the Importance of Plastic Injection Moulding as a process which accounts for a very large proportion of the total plastic products manufactured in the UK. The video also gives facts and figures about plastic manufacturing, plastic injection moulding and the environmental aspects of plastics production and recycling.

 

Environmental impact of plastic

The news is full of the environmental impact of plastics at the moment, with discarded items and bags littering landscape & oceans.

 

Fortunately, new legislation means that recycling is much more efficient and fewer plastics end up in landfill. The carrier bag charges in place in shops and supermarkets throughout the UK should reduce the litter even more. Hopefully, single use plastic bottles and bags should be phased out in the near future.

 

Plastic can in fact be beneficial to the environment in many ways. Plastic is a very durable & lightweight product. When it is used as an alternative to steel, in for example aircraft, the difference in weight significantly reduces the aircraft's fuel consumption. Plastic insulation materials used in buildings help save energy. Biodegradable plastic bags make the home-recycling of food waste easier. The process of making injection moulded products is continually improved and newer injection moulding machinery is much more energy efficient.

Reduction of environmental impact at Toolcraft

Here at Toolcraft, we do not make single use plastic products. To reduce wastage from our production processes, we regrind leftovers (sprues & runners) from the precision plastic injection moulding and the vacuum forming process and we either use the plastic granules again ourselves, or work with VanDen Recycling to ensure these products are used again.

 

Our old injection mould tools are also recycled and the metal re-used. In our offices, we ensure we use paper sparingly – printing both sides and then recycling. Our packaging materials are sourced from UK suppliers, reducing our carbon footprint.

 

We're also proud to be involved with several eco-friendly pioneering companies, such as Pavegen – creating energy from people's steps; Oxford PV – making thin-film solar cells; and PVAXX – creating bio-compostable plastics.