Industry averages

There are three main reasons for producing industry averages rather than company specific data.

One, is to place robust data in the public domain to meet the external demand for such information for use in product life-cycle studies. This must be done without compromising the need of companies to keep their own data confidential on quantities of energy and raw materials used in their processes.

The second is to encourage environmental improvements in manufacturing through benchmarking. One of the objectives of the PlasticsEurope Eco-profile project is to facilitate internal company benchmarking that can lead to a reduction in environmental impact. By producing industry average eco-profiles of the major plastics manufactured and used in Europe, member companies are able to compare themselves against the European average and are then in a position to target environmental improvements against a standard ‘benchmark’.

The third key factor is the uncertainty surrounding the origin of major raw materials used in polymer production, for example, ethylene or naphtha. The method of distribution of these raw materials through the European pipeline means that resin/polymer manufacturers can only guarantee the polymerisation part of the chain since the actual source of the 'olefin' raw material is difficult to ascertain with any precision. Therefore, as site specific data would be relatively meaningless, except for the rather small polymer plant contribution, and while the upstream effects generally have a large contribution to the eco-profile of a polymer, it is more appropriate to use industry averages.