Experts including Unilever and BASF join academics, trade associations, research institutes, and policymakers to help reduce the environmental impact of millions of industrial and household chemicals. The individual parties will be collaborating under a new initiative, called Sustainable PLFs 2040, catalysed by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Royal Society of Chemistry
Former RSC president, Professor Gill Reid from the University of Southampton.
Found in a wide range of products, polymers in liquid formations (PLFs) are used in paints, coatings and water treatment, cosmetics, personal care and household cleaning products. PLFs are worth around $125 billion each year, with none of the 36 million tons of these near ubiquitous chemicals either recycled or recovered after use. The initiative will work to find innovative ways to make, use, and dispose of PLFs with a deadline of 2040.
“We encounter PLFs every single day, but in terms of research and development, they are the ‘forgotten’ group of polymers. There is an urgent need to make them more sustainable by developing biodegradable alternatives and developing circular economy infrastructure to stop the waste of these valuable chemicals, which in many cases, go directly down the plughole,” explained Professor Anju Massey-Brooker from the Royal Society of Chemistry. “We cannot overstate the scale of the challenge – so it’s tremendous to have so many of the world’s largest producers and users of these chemical ingredients committing their expertise and resource to help clean them up and create new tools and knowledge that will benefit business, the environment and society as a whole.”
The Sustainable PLFs 2040 initiative will feature a foresight and coordination group that will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of the initiatives plans against a previously published roadmap. Additionally, the Group will collaborate across different sectors to promote inclusive decision-making and drive coordinated actions that should lead to long-term, sustainable change.
The group comprises:
- Professor Anju Massey Brooker from the Royal Society of Chemistry.
- Professor Andreas Künkel and Dr Martin Klatt from BASF.
- Dr Paul Jenkins from Unilever.
- Former RSC president, Professor Gill Reid from the University of Southampton.
- Professor Matthew Davidson from the University of Bath.
- Dr Jen Vanderhoven from the BBIA.
- Dr Damian Kelly from Croda.
Foresight and Coordination Group Member and RSC past-President Professor Gill Reid said, “This is a truly exciting area for innovation, and the Royal Society of Chemistry’s unique approach will be instrumental in delivering real, tangible results—from pioneering research to market-ready products. The emphasis on developing sustainability assessment and reporting tools that are accessible to all on a pre-competitive basis is particularly promising, as it will empower industry-wide progress and accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future by 2040.”
“Polymers for liquid formulations represent a critically important class of chemical products that are essential ingredients in many different liquid formulations across various end applications,” added Dr Damian Kelly from Croda. “Polymers have historically been developed to deliver a cost-effective specific performance within a formulation, with little attention given to how they are produced or what happens to them once they have served their purpose. The Sustainable PLFs 2040 initiative will bring together leading companies operating across the supply chains with the capability to develop, scale and commercialise novel polymers with significantly improved environmental credentials.”