Energy Efficiency for Plastics Manufacturers

Plastics manufacturing is an energy intensive industry. Energy represents between 5 and 8% of total costs for a plastics manufacturer.

The plastics industry in New Zealand uses more than 1.7 petajoules of energy every year, at an estimated cost of more than $66million. That’s the equivalent of the amount of energy used by more than 41,400 households.

The New Zealand Plastics industry is actively trying to reduce its energy use and improve its carbon footprint. Plastics New Zealand has developed the Best Practice Energy Programme to assist members in a very practical way to save energy.

New Zealand plastics manufacturers participating in the Best Practice Energy Programme have been finding energy savings equivalent to between 10 and 20% of their total energy use.

Many savings can be found with little or no up-front cost. Most businesses can save at least 20% of their energy costs – 10% through simple low and no-cost changes (a payback of 12 months or less) and a further 10% with some investment (payback of 1 – 5 years).

The pages on this website contain information that will be useful to plastics companies wanting to reduce energy use.