MUNDOMATERIAL

The 11th of April Solvay announced its intention to buy Rhodia for €3 billion. This is the last announcement in a long list of acquisitions in the chemical industry in a year that is breaking records. The number of acquisitions is motivated by a market recovering from the economic crisis and that has cash again after 3 years of strong readjustment measures. Solvay buys Rhodia Specialty polymers of Solvay. Source: Solvay The main products of Brussels based Solvay are sodium carbonate, hydrogen peroxide and specialty polymers. It employs 16,800 people in over 40 countries and in 2010 its consolidated sales were €7.1 billion. The sale of its pharma business for €4.5 billion to Abbott was finalised. This sale focused the rest of the business in the chemicals sector and it has probably facilitated Rhodia’s acquisition. Rhodia employs 14,000 people worldwide and in 2010 its sales amounted to €5.23 billion. Its internal structure is a bit complicated, with 5 clusters and 11 business... 
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ANAIP, the Spanish trade association for plastic professionals and COFACO, a consortium of companies transforming rubber, just signed the Foundational Act of the FEITCAP or Federación Española de Industriales de la Transformación de Caucho y Plásticos. ANAIP y COFACO are two of the oldest trade associations in Spain, with 53 and 61 years of existence each. Their decision to join forces has been motivated by the need to reduce the effect of the economic downturn in one of the most important manufacturing sectors in Spain. Plastic and rubber manufacturing decreased by 17% during the first 9 months of 2009. This has to be added to the 12% drop already registered by the segment during 2008. The recently created federation, FEITCAP, represents more than 4,450 companies that directly employ 118,000 people. Its volume of business in 2008 was over 19,000 million euros, i.e 1.8% of Spanish GDP. José Antonio de la Cruz, former President of ANAIP will be the first to preside FEITCAP and José... 
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I’ve been using Twitter (@luciacd) lately and I’ve found a few interesting people there providing info about many of the topics covered here, like bioplastics and other materials.  I’ve collected a small list of twitter users, provided below with links and bios. Many are publising information about materials in a journal or in a blog, so you may want to check their sites too. Others are professionals related to the industry, like consultants, students or associations. 09-11-2009: Just a couple of days after I published this post, Twitter launched its lists, a new feature that allows users to create groups of twitterers with something in common. I’ve created one with contacts related with materials, which I’ve been updating.  You can find my materials list here. @IslemYezza: Packaging innovation and biomaterials @LucAverous: Expert in Bioplastics, Biomaterials and Biobased Materials @EuropaBio: The European Association for Bioindustries @ArgosBiotech: gateway... 
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I’ve already written a couple of posts about bloguers boycotting plastic, not purchasing items made with it. Anti-plastic bloguers are a good source of information if you are looking for trends in the way the general public perceives plastic. The economic downturn suggests that austerity will define many markets, forcing down demand for non-essentials items that are particularly hated by anti-plastic bloggers. It is up to you to decide the importance that the blogging community may have, but like many other activist movements that inspire them, they are now profitting from social networks. I’d like to discuss which methods they are currently using and how they are ideas are being incorporated into society. Anti-plastic bloggers are similar to other activists in their effective use of new technologies to spread their message. For example, A month without plastic had a reporting format that is becoming common nowadays – the 30 days experience. Morgan Spurlock made Super... 
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Introduction I’ve been following closely some of the blogs I discussed in my post Blogs boycotting plastic and paying attention to the most hated plastic items. Disposable bags are probably the first on the list, but no doubt that plastic bottles are quickly following the same path. Many different issues converge on plastic bottles, angrying activists and worrying a bigger part of the population. So what are plastics bottles made of? What are the main issues related to the way we use them today? I’ll start with the basics, then. photo credit: bbaunach Common types of plastics used in bottles Most of bottles used for drinks are PET, or polyester terephtalate. Now, PET is one of the biggies in the plastic market, with Western Europe usage reaching 3.5 million tonnes in 2006. PET is used in many other applications apart from bottles, but packaging remains its turf. It’s resistant, transparent and it doesn’t break easily. Bottles made of HDPE are also used but not... 
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