Balancing Production Volumes and Environmental Impact: Striking the Perfect Harmony

Broanmain Plastics has taken a significant step by investing in its first fully automated and energy-efficient injection moulding cell. This shift allows the company to look into the positive and negative effects of manufacturing plastic components.

After years of using plastic widely, the growing amount of plastic waste poses serious concerns for our planet. Scientists, governments, and activists voice these worries, often blaming mass plastic production for environmental damage. However, it’s crucial to remember how essential plastic is in our daily lives. Many of the issues tied to plastic come from poor production methods and waste management, not from plastic itself.

When it comes to sustainable production, terms like ‘zero-impact agenda’ and ‘net-zero’ pop up frequently. But all types of production require resources. Even biodegradable materials and recyclates aren’t without their costs. So, how can we make plastic production more sustainable? Thomas Catinat, Operations Manager at Broanmain Plastics, shares his insights on this topic.

The Value of Plastics

Despite some negative views, plastics play a vital role in our lives.

• Plastic packaging helps reduce food waste by keeping products fresh.
• In healthcare, plastics are crucial for safety and effective treatments.
• They reduce transport costs and emissions by making products lighter.

Particularly in injection moulding, the challenge lies in waste reduction and enhancing energy efficiency. The European Strategy for Plastics promotes smarter production to use raw materials effectively, minimizing waste.

Producing More Using Less

Injection moulding is among the most energy-efficient methods for producing plastic. The volume of production plays a key role in maintaining sustainability and cost-effectiveness.

Low-volume production, or small batches of fewer than 10,000 pieces, is helpful for tight budgets, offering lower initial costs. Conversely, high-volume production, ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of parts, can be surprisingly sustainable when managed well. It often results in less plastic waste and lower energy consumption.

Tooling—the equipment needed for moulding—represents a significant one-time cost. Regardless of the production volume, tooling costs can be similar. Some smaller runs might use aluminum tools, but these wear out quickly and complicate scaling up.

To manage costs, it’s important to spread the tooling expense over the lifespan of the products made. This approach can also reveal how tool quality impacts energy usage and other factors.

Surprisingly, mass manufacturing can have a smaller environmental footprint than smaller production runs when waste is managed carefully. With the right strategies—like economies of scale and efficient storage—manufacturers can reduce costs and benefit the environment.

Economies of Scale

Shifting to cleaner, more efficient production not only lowers costs per unit but also drives economies of scale. Better injection moulding machines consume less energy and produce fewer defects, resulting in less waste and cost savings. These savings encourage the adoption of new technologies.

To illustrate, Thomas compares it to a washing machine: using the same energy to wash four socks or a full load shows how important efficiency is. As long as manufacturers avoid overproduction, mass production can be more resource-efficient, helping achieve closer to zero impact.