{"id":131067,"date":"2026-05-31T08:48:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T05:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/?p=131067"},"modified":"2026-06-09T10:16:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:46:04","slug":"is-sustainability-really-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/is-sustainability-really-sustainable\/","title":{"rendered":"Is sustainability really sustainable?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><em>Iranpolymer\/Baspar <\/em><\/strong>Like most people in this industry, I genuinely want to do the right thing for the environment and protect the world for future generations. However, the question I keep coming back to is not, \u201cwhat\u2019s the overall goal?\u201d because I think we\u2019re all broadly aligned on that. It\u2019s actually, \u201cwhat is the customer\u2019s goal?\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As I celebrate my 34th year in the plastics industry, I\u2019ve realised the uncomfortable truth that I\u2019ve been providing \u201csustainable\u201d solutions for over three decades! When I started out, we were looking at reprocessed polystyrene made from yoghurt tubs, sometimes with the foil still in there, creating a unique and entirely unwelcome effect. That same contamination might now be marketed as an intentional aesthetic and sold at twice the price of prime material. It\u2019s funny how things change.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Today, we\u2019re even being asked to create grades with deliberate contamination to offer them a more eco look. If only there were enough foil-topped yoghurt pots to go around! But sustainability has moved on. It\u2019s no longer enough to show you have an eco-polymer. Now it\u2019s about carbon footprint, sustainable manufacturing, net zero targets, recycled content percentages, ISCC certification, traceability\u2026 and the list keeps growing.<\/p>\n<div id=\"1dd2f3b8-5caf-11f1-8b07-12fcdd0a63c7\" class=\"mp-ad-sprocket \" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<blockquote dir=\"ltr\"><p>Which is why I think the first question anyone should ask when requesting a \u201csustainable polymer\u201d is simple: what do you mean by sustainable? Recyclable? Reprocessed? Compostable? Bio-based? Carbon neutral? Polymer selection is no longer a straightforward choice between PP and ABS. It\u2019s about understanding the customer\u2019s environmental objectives and then working backwards through the supply chain to find the most appropriate solution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">High-quality recycled polymers are now available for everything, from food-approved polypropylene to high-performance PEEK. That\u2019s a huge achievement. But most of these solutions come at a cost &#8211; and I don\u2019t just mean the price per kilo. There are hidden costs associated with sustainability, including paperwork, certification, educating end-users, staying up-to-date with constantly evolving regulations and additional manufacturing inputs. All of that takes time, and time, as we know, costs money.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The considerations go even further. Where does the feedstock come from? Is supply secure not just today, but throughout the lifetime of the product? What happens when demand increases, and competition for that same feedstock intensifies? Then there\u2019s end-of-life. Do we actually have the infrastructure to deal with the waste streams created by these new sustainable materials? There also remain many unanswered questions surrounding mass balance claims, green credentials and bold sustainability statements. Transparency from producer to consumer is essential; otherwise, genuine efforts risk being undermined by accusations of greenwashing.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Ultimately, if sustainability goals are misunderstood or if the true costs remain hidden, there won\u2019t be any sustainable manufacturing at all, because manufacturers won\u2019t survive. So, we must decide what value to place on delivering sustainable solutions, and indeed, if that additional effort can realistically be charged for. Beyond manufacturing costs, do customers truly appreciate that sustainability itself has a cost that must be paid somewhere in the chain? To ignore that isn\u2019t sustainable.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As I said at the start, more questions than answers, and if anyone has a brilliant solution to all of this, I\u2019m genuinely all ears.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>interplasinsights<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 20px\" class=\"zaya-short-link\">\n    <span><strong>Short link : <\/strong> https:\/\/zaya.io\/bn41a<\/span>\n    <a href=\"#\" title=\"\u06a9\u067e\u06cc \u06a9\u0646\u06cc\u062f\" class=\"zaya-shortlink\"\n       style=\"font-size:10px;margin-right:5px;background-color:#eee;display:inline-block;padding:0 5px;border-radius: 4px;\"\n       data-url=\"https:\/\/zaya.io\/bn41a\">\u06a9\u067e\u06cc \u06a9\u0646\u06cc\u062f<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<script>\n    document.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function () {\n        \"use strict\";\n        document.querySelectorAll(\".zaya-shortlink\").forEach(function (element) {\n            element.addEventListener(\"click\", function (e) {\n                e.preventDefault();\n                try {\n                    let url = this.dataset.url;\n                    let tempInput = document.createElement(\"input\");\n                    document.body.append(tempInput);\n                    tempInput.value = url;\n                    tempInput.select();\n                    document.execCommand(\"copy\");\n                    tempInput.remove();\n                    this.textContent = \"\u06a9\u067e\u06cc \u0634\u062f\"\n                } catch (e) {\n                }\n            });\n        });\n    });\n<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iranpolymer\/Baspar Like most people in this industry, I genuinely want to do the right thing for the environment and protect the world for future generations. However, the question I keep coming back to is not, \u201cwhat\u2019s the overall goal?\u201d because I think we\u2019re all broadly aligned on that. It\u2019s actually, \u201cwhat is the customer\u2019s goal?\u201d &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":131072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[46459,67215,67216,1547,67214,48265],"class_list":["post-131067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-bio-based","tag-carbon-neutral","tag-compostable-en","tag-recyclable","tag-reprocessed","tag-sustainable-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131579,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131067\/revisions\/131579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}