Bookings are now open for the fourth Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) virtual training course, to be held on 11 August.
The course is called the New World of Plastics Technology: Polymers and Recycling. It is open to anyone to attend from anywhere in the world.
The course will be led by AIP education director Prof Pierre Pienaar MSc, FAIP, CPP, who is also president of the World Packaging Organisation.
AIP said the course would discuss the field of polymer science, which covers several disciplines, including chemistry, physics, and engineering. Today there are hundreds of identified species of synthetic polymers. Any of these are available in a range of molecular masses, most can be influenced by processing conditions. Therefore, the choice in plastics is close to limitless.
AIP said the course is intended for those that have spent several years in some related plastics industry. It is intended to extend those attending to new levels of understanding the complex world of polymer science. Every attendee will learn new aspects of polymers.
Anyone wanting to know more about the complex world of polymer science are welcome. The course will cover certain aspects of organic chemistry, revisit the raw materials, syntheses, and applications, only touching on the manufacturing and moulding aspects. It will ensure that those attending are reminded of the main classes of plastic materials as a function of the molecular properties of polymers used in the plastics industry.
The course will cover the molecular structure of plastics in relation to the two main families of plastics: thermosets and thermoplastics.
Plastics recycling will also be on the agenda. Plastic is versatile and inexpensive to produce, it's no surprise that it's used so much, but it doesn't belong in our environment forever. Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastic and reprocessing the material into useful products. Since the majority of plastic is non-biodegradable, recycling is a part of global efforts to reduce plastic in the waste stream, especially the approximately 8 million tonnes of waste plastic that enters the Earth's ocean every year. We will learn how and what we can do about attaining a better environment with less plastics around.
Course objectives:
- Revisit the basic knowledge of polymer chemistry
- Know how to quickly identify the mainstream plastics
- Learn why we use plastics as much as we do, and what are the alternatives
- The future of plastics and its correlation to recycling of plastics
- Learning collection systems for recycled plastics
- What do recyclers do with the plastics
- What valuable products can be created from recycled plastics
- Environmental considerations
Additional Training Courses in the series still to come include Implementing the Sustainable Packaging Guidelines within your Business (New Course) on 1 September; Use of LCA Tools for Sustainable Packaging Design Training on 30 September; and Tools to Help you Meet the 2025 National Packaging Targets: ARL & PREP in October.
To register, click here to go to the AIP website.
