Innovative, original concepts for quick-consumption or disposable products that exploit the potentials of specific plastics production and conversion technologies will be given accolades at the upcoming Plast 2015 to be held 5-9 May in Fiera Milano, Italy. The Plastic Technologies Award, the international competition is launched by Promaplast, the show’s organiser in collaboration with POLI.design, a consortium of the Milan Polytechnic.

This year’s Plastic Technologies Award focuses on the disposal and recycling of products, components and packaging characterised by rapid obsolescence, temporary use or disposability, such as household utensils and the packaging of quick-consumption products.

Recently, the names of the projects making it into the finals have been released:

Eat&Play (Ice cream pack); Palingenese (Recyclable container); ASAP, a.k.a. As Sustainable As Possible (Compostable cup); Yin&Gnam (Disposable flatware); Bione Pack (Sugar packet and spoon).

According to the organiser, many of the products, packaging and disposable or temporary components charactersing the new consumption paradigms are designed without considering issues relating to the disposal, which is also inevitably quick, of materials or complexes of materials that are often non-separable or non-recyclable and thus not conducive to proper disposal. The competition addresses this by giving recognition to sustainable products.

Italian and foreign companies exhibiting at Plast are constantly seeking to develop concrete solutions to the issues of disposal and recycling. One example is Novamont (Hall 9, stand D82), which recently introduced the first completely compostable Italian-made espresso capsule, in collaboration with Lavazza. The capsule will be made of Mater-Bi 3G, the third generation of Mater-Bi, which features a high percentage of renewable raw materials. After use, the capsule can be put in with the compostables and sent to industrial composting processes just like loose coffee grounds. Novamont’s other partners, API (Hall 9, stand C41) has created a new 100% compostable and biodegradable mono-use capsule for hot beverages using a compression technology starting from a formulation of API Apinat Bio thermoplastic compounds, which can be processed using the most common conversion technologies to suit a wide range of applications, from footwear to packaging.

“The new challenge posed by the Plastic Technologies Award 2015 to designers from all over the world is that of conceiving projects that lower disposal impact, exploiting the potentials of production and materials technologies, introducing smart features into the product itself that meet with the needs of prospective consumers. Thus projects that can redevelop the entire sector of products subject to rapid obsolescence or temporary use in a more sustainable way,” says Mario Maggiani, Managing Director of Promaplast, organiser of Plast.

Joining Maggiano in the panel of jury of experts to judge the winning projects are: Francesco Trabucco, Professor of Industrial Design at the Milan Polytechnic School of Design and director of the course “Design for Plastics” (POLI.design);Luciano Galimberti, President of Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI);Matteo Ingaramo, Director of the Poli.design consortium; and Claudio Celata, Managing Director of CESAP.

After completion of the first phase of competition, the jury assessed the projects both for their innovative content and for their success at exploiting the possibilities and constraints of the given technologies. The finalists chosen for the second phase of the competition will further develop their concepts based on the feedback provided by the jury.

The second phase will end with the selection of the winning projects, which will share the overall prize money of EUR8,000. The initiative is sponsored by the companies Amut, manufacturer of extrusion and thermoforming lines and recycling systems, and NegriBossi, thermoplastic injection systems, thermo-hardeners and elastomers, both participating in Plast, and by the trade associations Plastics Europe Italia, an Italian association of plastics producers, and Assocomaplast, Italian Plastics and Rubber Processing Machinery and Moulds Manufacturers’ Association.