MUNDOMATERIAL

Have you been wondering what those swimmers have been wearing at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games? Me too! If only because of all the discussions about the fairness of using technology in sports and how many of the new world records are due to the suit and not the swimmer. But what is the technology behind Speedo‘s swimwear and is it really that much of an advantage? What is clear is that with its price tag, not all kids dreaming of becoming olympic swimmers can afford it, especially those from developing countries. But then this debate should be touching almost all sports, not only swimming, because technology is used in many of them, from carbon fibre bikes to running shoes. But let’s take a closer look at our suspect, the Fastskin LZR Racer suit produced by Speedo and then you can decide by yourselves. What is it? Although it is creating a bit of upheaval right now, the LZR Racer is just the last suit in a series that started in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with the S200 swimsuits.... 
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In March 2008 the European Commission adopted Regulation EC 282/2008, setting out the requirements for recycled plastics to be used in food contact applications. The aim of the regulation is to level the field accross Europe, since up to now the legal status of recycled plastics varied from country to country. Also, the lack of specific legislation made it more difficult for recycled plastics to compete with virgin polymers in this type of end market. The EC is just being consequent with what is already established in Directive 94/62/EC, promoting the recycling of packaging waste. However, the recent regulation covers not only food packaging, but also cutlery, dishes, processing machines, containers, etc. Only plastics already used in food contact applications, or complying with food contact requirements, are covered by the Directive. Excluded from it are the following: materials obtained by chemical recycling, which are covered instead by Directive 2002/72/EC on monomers and additives recycled... 
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I’m totally fascinated by a new experiment being done by a BBC reporter, Chris Jeavans: A month without plastic. As the title of her already popular blog suggests, she is going to go without plastic for a whole month. The rules of her experiment are simple: She must not buy or consumed new plastic for a month and she can keep using whatever she had before. To prepare for her experiment and fully realised of its impact, she first collected all the new plastic she consumed for a month. If you want to see a video of it – which I totally recommend – follow this link, with WRAP‘s expert Paul Davidson. He explains to her what plastic is used in each product, how it can be recycled and some of the easy alternatives to reduce plastic usage. To start with, she is getting a huge response in the media and creating a very healthy debate on how we use plastic. Just to see all the plastic an average person uses in a month can be quite a shock to some people. It has to be said... 
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I’ve found this video, which I think exemplifies quite graphically why a part of the population is so upset about plastic. It’s the 2007 Winner of Friends of the Earth’s Best One-minute green film award and it was directed by Ulla Jacobsen (Denmark). Go to YouTube’s Friend’s of the Earth page to watch more interesting short films or maybe try to redeem plastic! Absurd and redundant packaging like the one showed in the film it’s just a waste of material. It is also a screen that sometimes don’t allow people the useful applications of plastic. Those in you in the business of packaging, please, please, be sensible. AKPC_IDS += "1730,"; 
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Thermoplastic elastomers, or TPEs, deserve a post of their own, as they are an interesting polymeric family that is not very well known. You can find a good introduction in Wikipedia. If you are not familiar with Wikipedia, give it a go, you’ll be surprise how thorough it can be considering is free. Just be careful to check the facts elsewhere afterwards, as anyone can edit an entry and some are almost like corporative pages. Coming back to the initial issue, TPEs have rubber and thermoplastic properties. This combination of properties is achieved by blends of elastomers and thermoplastics or by using copolymers. Usually elastomers are thermosets and the crosslinking is by a covalent created during vulcanisation. TPEs crosslinked thanks to weaker bonds or by bonds being created in only one of TPE’s phases. In the previous table you can see types of TPEs commercialised, some companies that produced them and their trade name. Links are at the bottom of the post. Arkema and DuPont... 
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