The next speaker interview is Alex Nguyen, Business Development Engineer for  SIKORA.

Alex is the Business Development Engineer for the Plastics business unit at SIKORA International Corporation. He focuses on helping our customers automate and standardize the process of inspection and sorting of polymers, films, and sheets.

How do you see the industry developing and growing in the next three-to-five years?

Plastics are already a big part of our lives and will continue to be tied in with our daily activities. In general, I think we will see that sustainable plastics market grow as more and more polymer producers look into innovative ways to manufacture/recycle them bringing the cost down.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenges facing the industry at the moment?

The biggest challenges that face the market is the need for more plastics; we’ve all witnessed the importance of plastics first hand and how they are beneficial in all aspects of our lives.  How do we produce more responsibly and in the same token recapture the majority of used plastics and convert them to be used again?  These challenges can be overcome via education and openness to change of our habits to protect this important resource.

In your view, what has been the most exciting development in the industry in the last couple of years? And why?

One of the greatest developments in the past decades are sustainable polymers: Polymers that are derived from renewable resources.

Alex will be presenting a paper on 'Optical and x-ray technology uses in the inspection and sorting of polymers' at the Polymer Testing World Expo Conference 2022.