Ever since Greenpeace started releasing its Greener Electronics Guide, a number of high profile manufacturers have removed many of the harmful chemicals from their products. But one material that’s tough to replace is plastic. It’s cheap, very hard-wearing, and easily molded into complex shapes. The problem is, it isn’t very environmentally-friendly as it doesn’t degrade very quickly.
A solution is on the horizon, however, and you may be surprised to find a replacement has been found for plastic made of paper. That’s right, in the future the laptop you buy may not be encased in plastic (or metal). Instead, it will use an environmentally friendly paper alloy.
The new material is actually called Paper PP Alloy. It is made using a combination of recycled paper and polypropylene–a thermoplastic that is widely recycled while remaining hard-wearing. Because it uses only materials that can be easily recycled it is a desirable replacement for plastic. The Paper PP Alloy can also easily be molded, even using injection molding, meaning if you can form a shape in plastic you can probably do the same with paper alloy.
The alloy has been developed by PEGA, who say that even the manufacturing process is similar to that used for plastic. All we need now is for tech manufacturers to jump on board and start using Paper PP Alloy in their products. And it doesn’t just have to be laptops. Think of anything that needs a casing, or ships with plastic parts, and paper alloy forms an alternative.
If a well-known manufacturer does embrace paper alloy, they will certainly benefit from the eco-value it offers in terms of marketing. Who knows, maybe a future iPad will ship with a paper alloy back.
No comments:
Post a Comment