Issue 06/2021

Useful sample kit
PositivePlastics is bridging the gap
Materials
Positive Plastics (Karjaa, Finland) recently launched its
first sample kit, featuring plastic materials with a reduced
environmental footprint: PCR, PIR, biobased, biocomposite
and mass balanced plastics of various manufacturers.
Positive Plastics, aims to convey a more accepting
outlook on plastics to designers, engineers, and product
managers. In October, they launched their first Positive
Plastics Kit, an invaluable tool for materials understanding
and communication between non-technical and technical
team members.
The founders, Efrat Friedland, Erik Moth-Müller, and
Markus Paloheimo, experts, consultants, and educators
in the materials and polymers field, created and curated
a sample collection of various innovative, commercially
available polymers. The kit holds Arkema, Biowert Industrie,
Borealis, Lignin Industries, Mocom, Sappi, Sirmax, Stora
Enso, Trinseo, UBQ, and UPM materials. The kit includes
post-consumer recyclates (PCR), post-industrial recyclates
(PIR), mass balanced grades, biobased grades, and biocomposites.
All grades are suitable for injection molding to
produce durable products, such as consumer electronics,
home appliances, sports goods, automotive interiors,
accessories, etc.
Positive Plastics will continuously expand the kit as new
responsible polymers reach the market.
“Try to imagine your life without plastic” proposed Efrat,
“not without plastic waste, but without products and services
we have all grown to rely on in almost every aspect of our
lives. It seems that we can’t get along without this material,
but we must eliminate its waste and negative impact.”
“Thinking positively about plastics,” adds Erik ”there
are many new grades on the market that are composed
of natural materials or recycled materials, or both….they
can replace traditional, fossil-fuel based plastics in every
industry and product imaginable. Sadly, very few designers
and engineers are familiar with them. Our goal is to change
that.”
Besides presenting new materials, Positive Plastics
offers a novel design of the plastic sample, no longer a
flat, square, piece of plastic that reveals little about the
material’s characteristics.
“Our unique sample design portrays the material’s
properties and its possible applications tangibly,” explains
Markus. “Holding our sample, one can easily discover
various surface structure options, different wall thicknesses,
corners, hinges, fluidity indication, draft angle, shrinkage,
warpage…so many features in one piece!”
Positive Plastics will present a complimentary kit to
one hundred brands and design agencies to encourage an
informed choice of materials and sensible implementation.
Kits will be available for purchase online.
Positive Plastics is definitely a useful toolbox for
discovering plastics with a positive impact. MT
www.positiveplastics.eu
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/21] Vol. 16 19