Introduction

Updating eco-profiles

Since the original eco-profile reports were issued, many technological and commercial changes have taken place within the industry: some plants have been upgraded whilst others have closed. New technologies have been implemented and the fuel infrastructure in many countries has changed - moving away from coal to cleaner burning gas fuels for example. The quality of data reporting by companies has improved as a consequence of benchmarking programmes and more factual information has become available. These changes have combined to render the data in the earlier reports less representative of the polymers manufactured and marketed today.

These early reports also gave essential data that was aggregated, so that external power generation, transport, process and feedstock energies were not completely differentiated. Users of the data frequently commented on this limitation in addition to pointing out data gaps. Such feedback indicated a need for a major revision in content as well as presentation.

The dynamic nature of the petrochemical industry and the sophisticated inter-relation of the different production units make data of this type subject to continuous change. As one part of the production chain changes, there is a knock-on effect to all down-stream operations. This means that continuous updates are an ongoing requirement. By consolidating all data into one clearly dated volume it becomes possible to present a set of eco-profiles, which are internally consistent. This is not possible when the data is published as separate reports at irregular intervals.

The data has now been collated and presented in a very convenient, online, interactive electronic format. This makes data transmission much more convenient and less expensive. It facilitates direct abstraction into software programs for easier manipulation and analysis and will make updating a simpler operation.

PlasticsEurope is pleased to implement these changes to its series of eco-profile reports and thanks all those contributors and users of the data for their constructive criticism and other helpful comments, which has resulted in these reports being widely consulted and utilised.