Mysuru: “Just within a period of five years, plastic recovery has increased from 6.2 million tonnes to 17.9 million tonnes; environmentalists can take note of this and heave a sigh of relief,” said VTU Vice-Chancellor Karisiddappa.

He was speaking after inaugurating the two-day Polycon-2017,  a National Conference on ‘Novel Polymeric Materials’ organised by the Department of Polymer Science and Technology, SJCE, in association with Indian Rubber Institute, Karnataka branch, at SJCE premises here recently.

He said “It is difficult to do away with polymers products in our life today. They have become an integral part of our everyday life. Synthetic polymers not only improved the usage and acceptance in the society they have also improved the lifestyle of citizen. The consumption is on rising trend and when we go for newer materials definitely there will be some environmental issues. The best way to address the impact is to have solutions to usage of these kinds of polymers recycle and reuse them.”

Manufacturing of plastics increased from 1.5 million tons in 1950 to 322 million tons in 2015 and added that recycling of plastics is encouraging. “This is highly interdisciplinary field and therefore it needs integration with several branch of science and technology which will help in developing useful products,” said Karisiddappa. To meet the present demand especially the industrial demand, VTU is also set to revise its curriculum. “First four semester students can relax a bit, but during the last four semesters they should go all out in their effort. The holidays after four semesters should be learning holidays which should be something behind curriculum. The holidays must be innovative in learning technology,” added the VTU VC.

R.Mukhopadhyay, Director (R&D), JK Tyres and Industries, Ashok Menon, Global Technology Leader, SABIC, Bengaluru, T.N. Nagabhushan, Principal, SJCE, Dr. B.G. Sangameshwara, Vice- Chancellor, JSS Science and Technology University and G.M. Shashidara, Chairman of the Conference, were present.