| Tittel: | Eco Panplas: better recycling of lubricant containers | | Ansvar: | Monica Miglio Pedrosa | | Forfatter: | Pedrosa, Monica Miglio  | | Materialtype: | Artikkel - elektronisk | | Signatur: | WIPO Magazine | | Utgitt: | Geneva : WIPO, 2022 | | Omfang: | S. 37-40 | | ISBN/ISSN: | 1564-7854 | | Serie: | WIPO Magazine ; 2/2022 | | Emneord: | Forurensning / Miljøvern | | Geografiske emneord: | Brasil | | Note: | Open access (CC BY 4.0) | | Innhold: | In 2020, global demand for lubricants rose to 37 million metric tons, according to Statista. Lubricants play a key role in optimizing the efficiency and safety of machinery. However, the disposal of the plastic containers in which lubricants are delivered to customers is a major environmental threat and their decontamination is a longstanding industrial conundrum.
It takes just 1 liter of lubricant to contaminate up to 1 million liters of water. In Brazil alone, 1 billion plastic containers of lubricating oil are discarded every year. When drained, some 2 million liters of lubricant remain in these containers and are dumped in the environment. Currently, only 9 percent of containers are recycled. Traditional recycling methods require heavy use of water and fail to remove all the residual lubricant, meaning the containers are a low-quality material for recycling.
Recognizing the scale of the problem and its far-reaching environmental impact, the Brazilian company Eco Panplas has developed an award-winning, clean, safe and sustainable solution that is 30 percent cheaper than traditional recycling methods. The company is planning to open five new sites across Brazil to recycle up to 24,000 metric tons of packaging every year. Eco Panplas’s CEO, Felipe Cardoso, discusses his entrepreneurial journey, the importance of patents to the company and future plans to expand into international markets.
Nøkkelord: Resirkulering, gjenvinning, patent | | Del av verk: | WIPO Magazine 2/2022 |
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