Underestimated lifesavers: How plastics form our everyday lives

Plastics are rightly criticized—microplastics, resource consumption, and disposal problems are real challenges. But in the discussion about bans and alternatives, one crucial question is often ignored: What happens in safety-related areas if we do without plastics?

In hospitals, vehicles, and fire protection systems, there are currently no equivalent alternatives. The reason: specific material properties such as sterilizability, energy absorption, and flame retardancy cannot be achieved with today's biomaterials or conventional materials – at least not without significant safety risks.

Disposable syringes, infusion systems, catheters: polymers dominate medical technology not for convenience, but for safety reasons. The alternative—reusable products made of glass or metal—fails on three counts:

First, plastics can be sterilized at lower temperatures (important for heat-sensitive active ingredients).

Second, they are shatterproof and prevent injuries from glass splinters.

Third, they enable airtight, sterile individual packaging that minimizes the risk of infection. Glass or metal alternatives would not meet these safety standards. At the same time, disposable products pose a disposal problem. Processes such as the reprocessing of disposable products are therefore becoming increasingly important for the industry – without compromising safety standards.

Metal bumpers sound robust—but in a crash, they are anything but safe. The reason: metals hardly give way on impact, so the impact energy is transferred directly to the occupants. Plastics, on the other hand, absorb energy in a controlled manner, thereby massively reducing the risk of injury. A concrete example: 

Modern bumpers consist of three layers: metal support (stability), expanded polypropylene (EPP, energy absorption), and outer plastic cladding. EPP is crucial here: it absorbs up to 80% of the impact energy, does not break, and returns to its original shape. Metal, on the other hand, would deform and transfer the energy directly. A steel bumper would protect the vehicle in collisions at 15 km/h, but would expose the occupants to stronger G-forces, i.e., inertial force per mass. EPP reduces these forces by up to 60%.

Thanks to processes such as compressed air forming, key material properties can be specifically adapted – from component geometry and density to thermal, acoustic, and mechanical properties, as well as color. This means that EPP can be tailored precisely to different safety requirements.

Flame-retardant plastics in cable sheathing and insulation materials slow down the spread of fire and give people time to evacuate. Alternatives such as untreated natural fibers would burn faster, while metals would conduct heat too quickly. The key point is that safety, functionality, and sustainability can be combined through durable construction, design for recycling, and the targeted use of recycled materials.

This article was created with additional AI tools.