Plastics are Future Seminar

On 6 and 7 October, AIMPLAS will be holding the third edition of the international seminar Plastics are Future. Held in a hybrid format, the seminar is co-ordinated by Adolfo Benedito, who here talks about some of the event highlights.

Who is this event addressed to and why in a hybrid format?

From the beginning, one of the clearest aims was to try to give the information on the different topics to be discussed at Plastics Are Future to as many experts as possible from the most diverse sectors. In this sense, we are convinced that Plastics Are Future needs to broaden its target audience. The event should awaken interest, innovation and creativity where it seems impossible. We, therefore, hope that researchers, professionals, entrepreneurs, students, teachers and even experts from other disciplines who can enrich the future, understood as a social and economic benefit, will attend.

Plastics Are Future has a bit of a provocative edge since we aim to raise awareness and boost disruptive ideas. We have chosen the hybrid format because the pandemic has obliged us. The uncertainty in the short and medium term means that it is not possible to opt for an entirely face-to-face event, which would always be the first choice. Secondly, the philosophy of a hybrid format opens doors to the universality of access that Plastics Are Future 2021 aims to achieve: any idea, any technology, any invention, however complex and distant it may seem, we want it to awaken, to raise the awareness that gives rise to the generation of great and surprising solutions.

What is the aim of this edition?

One of the purposes of this edition of the event was universality – that is to reach as far as possible and broaden the target audience. We are convinced that, despite the biased vision of a part of the society in terms of plastic materials, these materials are versatile and universal. From my point of view, this universality means that we can find plastic materials in any application, anywhere, and in any sector. For this reason, we want to erase the limited image of plastics and show how far they can go, from saving our lives to space exploration, so the most powerful tool we have is information and the ability to disseminate it correctly. At Plastics Are Future 2021, amazing and incredible applications will be discussed, and we want it to reach the widest audience possible.

What can plastic materials do to help solve environmental issues?

In order to answer to question properly, I think we need to go back to the origins and consider who, exactly, is responsible for climate change? It can be said that a large part of this responsibility, to put it simply, falls on a whole series of gases that cause a widely known greenhouse effect. Many of these gases have in common that they are methane-type carbon-based compounds, CO2, among others, and this constitutes what I call the ‘carbon balance’, which needs to be restored.

Plastics, since they are carbon-based products derived from various hydrocarbons, can play a key role in this process of restoring the balance and reducing the concentration of these harmful gases in the atmosphere. This involves capturing them and, for example, transforming them into plastics or their precursors. This is what we call ‘fine chemistry’. In fact, at AIMPLAS, we are working on the production of foams, adhesives, and polyurethane paints from CO2, or polycarbonates, or polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene. Using CO2 or methane as a source for manufacturing plastics is one of the most ground-breaking responses – we must minimise climate change and play a key role in the efficient capture of these gases, both in industrial environments and in urban emissions. In this sense, for example, polymeric membranes – again the universality and versatility of plastics – are the future in terms of a clean and efficient capture of CO2 both environmentally and industrially.

The sustainable and safe production of food is another issue to which plastics have been providing answers for years. What innovative solutions will we learn about at this event?

We are aware of the great media impact that the issue of waste from food packaging generates in our society. Without digging into this topic, since there are other, more appropriate forums, Plastics Are Future 2021 aims to highlight all the positive aspects that plastics can bring to food production and logistics. Common areas that we are going to focus on will be related to weight reduction and increased food protection. In this sense, when we talk about protection, we do not only refer to durability and shelf life, but also protection.

Minimising the risks of contamination and proliferation of microbial and/or viral agents is of critical importance, since it is well known that new strains with increasing resistance and persistence are a threat for the present and the future. Food safety is therefore one of the main focuses of Plastics Are Future 2021, including the advanced sensorisation of the entire food packaging chain, which will have a major impact on both the quality and performance of food packaging. Artificial noses, self-repairing and smart packaging and shape memory will be recurring concepts throughout the event.

What lines of research are currently being developed in plastics for healthcare applications?

If we study in detail the common, traditional characteristics of plastic materials, we can conclude that they are the perfect materials, the essential tool for any improvement and medical advance that involves an impact on people's health. Our event, as a vector of the future, wants to present some of the most innovative and current lines of plastic materials in the development of paradigmatic medical technologies.

Superbacteria and their tendency to mutate and become increasingly resistant to current treatments have been and will continue to be discussed. In fact, it is a mantra that has often been repeated. By 2050, unfortunately, there will be more deaths related to bacterial infections than from cancer. New treatments based on the biomimetic effects of modified biopolymers can provide great tools in the fight against this enemy, and we will talk about them.

We will also talk about the generation of artificial tissues and organs using plastics as stem cell supports, the fight against cancer through the development of polymers to improve the effectiveness of detection and treatment systems (anti-tumour vectors, improvements in image contrast systems), or even a whole new generation of bio-absorbable devices to support robotic surgical systems.

What technological tools will be needed to make all these solutions a reality?

All these innovations and future developments must be associated inevitably with modern, cutting-edge tools that help to make them a reality. In previous editions of Plastics Are Future, we discussed topics related to process integration, 3D printing, and, mainly, we gave special relevance to the arrival of Industry 4.0.

It is curious. Times change and we are already talking about the next revolution, the so-called ‘Industry 5.0’, which, in my opinion, is nothing more than an organic evolution of 4.0. Beyond organisation and communication, 5.0 focuses on fundamentally humanistic paradigms. Everything is based on the development of robotics and artificial intelligence as tools, not to replace human labour, but to enhance its intrinsic value in complex industrial processes. Undoubtedly, the application of artificial intelligence systems in such industrial processes is already emerging as one of the archetypes that will be fundamental in the second half of the 21st century. Its application implies a revolution in all areas, from more environmentally sustainable processes to stricter and more rigid control over productivity and the resources allocated to it, minimisation of systematic or casual errors, and even support for creativity such as the optimisation of industrial designs, selection and development of new materials.