Today’s refrigerators use plastics in their insulation systems to ensure that your food and drinks stay fresher and cooler for longer whilst using less energy!

At home: Making people’s life easier.. and nature’s, too

Washing machines, refrigerators, flat-screen monitors, dishwashers – plastics have become so commonplace that we hardly notice them anymore. Plastics, however, not only make our lives easier when it comes to cooking or washing the dishes. Modern polymer materials help us economise on valuable resources such as energy and water in a way that would have been inconceivable only a few years ago.

Using less electricity

Until recently, cooling devices and refrigerators were rated among the most substantial energy wasters of modern households. Today’s modern refrigerators in the efficiency class A operate with up to 50% less energy than those built in 1990. Devices equipped with state-of-the-art technology of efficiency class A++ consume even 70% less. This is the benefit of premium- quality plastic insulation foam. It keeps the cold in where it belongs – now there is a real energy saver!

Thanks to smart plastics engineering, the water consumption of modern washing machines is as low as never before: the plastic tub enclosing the drum fits accurately and minimises the occurrence of dead spots, where unused water could gather. While in the years between 1985 and 1990 washing machines used about 100 litres of water per washing cycle, modern machines and modern detergents have helped cut this figure to between 50 and 60 litres. In 24 million households in France, which use their washing machines about 100 times a year, this improvement saves at least 950 million litres of valuable drinking water.

Correspondingly, heating it consumes less energy. Even our little plastic showerhead offers more than meets the eye: a sophisticated water system reduces the water consumption by up to 50%.