Building a sustainable future at JEC World 2022

Camille Serres | 17 Jan 2022 | European Perspective

From 8th to 13th March 2022, the leading international trade show on composites, JEC WORLD, will take place in Paris, under the theme of Composites for a Sustainable World.

France is the third highest European country in plastics demand with 4.8 bn tons of plastics used every year. This consumption is mostly driven by packaging, which represents 46% of plastic usage.
However, these figures do not work well with the environment. A single plastic bottle can take between 100 and 1000 years to decompose. Nowadays, France only recycles 26% of global plastics, which is a low figure compared to Germany (50%) or Norway (97% of plastic bottles recycled).

The French Government has the objective to ban all single-use plastic packaging by 2040. Reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic packaging is becoming a challenge due to the continuous production and sorting of plastics. Consumption and production habits in this field are changing, and thanks to national and European regulations, new opportunities are arising for the composite sector.

The plastic and composite sector is well-developed in France. Composite materials are used for several different markets such as thermoplastic, natural fiber, and resin transfer molding.

Their industrial application can be diverse and multiple – the Aerospace sector uses it to produce airplane wings and many other parts, as composite is more rigid, resistant, and lightweight. The automobile sector had already built its cars with 15% of composite and sometimes 50% in the vehicle’s interior. This therefore reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions thanks to more lightweight cars. Composite has a huge potential in the building and civil engineering railway vehicles and infrastructure sector. It can be used for wall coverings, composite wood, fiber optical cables and fiberglass amongst many others.

Using bio-based and recycling raw materials, composite works well with the circular economy and ensures a sustainable future for many industries.

The JEC WORLD show is an opportunity to communicate and advance the sustainability benefits of composite materials. Following the European strategies Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle linked with circular economy goals, the event offers the perfect occasion to connect business and end-user communities towards a willingness to share knowledge, networks, and innovation, in order to Rethink the way things are done and Research new and better solutions.

OCO Global’s French team is ready to support startups and SMEs at the TradeShow and schedule matchmaking and networking sessions. Join us at the JEC!

 

For more information, please contact us:

OCO Global France

Camille Serres, Project Manager – Trade
camille.serres@ocoglobal.com
+33 (0)6 44 10 43 05

36 rue de Ponthieu
75008 Paris, France