Eight organisations in six European countries have launched a three-year project for the European Commission to identify cost-cutting potential in development, production and processing of plastic products. The main task of “RECIPE” (Reduced Energy Consumption in Plastics Engineering; www.eurecipe.com) is to document existing practices in plastics processing throughout Europe, compare them and publicise particularly successful solutions as a guide for others. The project is part of the “Intelligent Energy for Europe” programme funded by the EU. Early estimates show a large potential for saving, the project´s partners say.

Some 27,000 plastics converters employing around 1m people are to be contacted for a benchmarking survey this year, and the organisers say they will guarantee a return quota sufficient to ensure that the results are representative. After the results are evaluated, the initiative will draw up a “toolkit” for energy managers in the industry, showing a cost-of-ownership model calculation for plastics processing equipment A key aim of the project will be to alter business owners´ perception of energy costs as fixed overheads and to demonstrate that energy purchase should be considered a variable materials cost with substantial potential for reduction, says project leader Rebecca Dolbey.

Partners in RECIPE include the UK´s Rapra Technology (www.rapra.net) as coordinator and pioneer in energy saving processes, the British Plastics Federation (BPF; www.bpf.co.uk), the ICT Fraunhofer-Institut für Chemische Technologie in Germany (www.ict.fhg.de), Pole Europeen Plasturgie (PEP; www.poleplasturgie.net) in France, CRIF (www.crif.be) in Belgium, the Danish Technological Institute (www.danishtechnology.dk) in Denmark, along with AIMPLAS (www.aimplas.es) and ASCAMM in Spain.