Insights

Refrigerators full of leaking cartons, hands greasy from fast-food packages – welcome to a world without chemistry. Though invisible to the naked eye, chemistry plays a big role in our everyday lives and is a key enabler in the move toward renewable food packaging alternatives.

Chemistry is the invisible magic behind practically every aspect of the way we live today. Medicines, food production and packaging, clean water, and hygiene all rely on chemistry – so it’s no surprise that chemistry brings a lot to the table when it comes to the fight against climate change.

Recycling and regulation emerge as some of the keywords of our time. These topics go hand-in-hand with great global challenges we need to solve. Here, Kemira has valuable expertise to offer.

Jyrki Mattila has been living and breathing the business of energy for more than three decades. He is the expert tasked with helping Kemira create more from less by squeezing the maximum energy efficiency potential out of its manufacturing operations.

Cutting the costs of sludge management and disposal is a constant challenge for wastewater treatment plants. Struvite causes headaches, too. With the help of smart chemistry, Danish wastewater treatment company BIOFOS was able to successfully tackle both these issues head-on.

With the help of Kemira’s expert support and industry-leading chemistries, the water treatment process at Veurne Snack Foods is not only working more efficiently than ever – it’s also making an even bigger contribution to their bottom line.

With water scarcity driving the need to increase wastewater reuse, combined with concerns over the energy consumption and environmental impact of some disinfection methods, many wastewater treatment operators are seeking out new solutions for wastewater disinfection.

In 2015, China accelerated the tightening of its environmental regulations in the face of increasing levels of air, soil, and water pollution. This has had a huge impact on the chemical industry in China.

Most of us take clean water for granted, and don’t even spare a thought for our sewer system and water treatment facilities – particularly when it comes to what we put down our toilets or kitchen sinks. The list of things that can be flushed is short, while the list of things that in reality end up in the sewers is much longer.

The sight of beautifully wrapped gifts under a brightly decorated tree sums up the magic and excitement of the festive period – but it’s easy to feel guilty when you see the piles of waste once they’re all unwrapped. Read on for a few ideas to help us get rid of the festive guilt.

80% of plastic waste in the world’s oceans originates from rivers located in Asia. It would be all too easy to point the finger of blame at others – but the full picture is not quite that simple. For years, Europeans and Americans have been dumping much of their plastics waste on Asian countries to get it off their own backyards. But this era is now coming to an end.

When it comes to smart digital solutions, Jesper Berner, Manager of Advanced Water Treatment at Kemira, compliments switched-on plant operators who expect suppliers to propose new solutions to boost cost effectiveness and efficiency.

It’s a familiar dilemma for many of us: we pick up some trash to throw it in the garbage, only to be left wondering which bin to use. Despite the increasing amount of guidance and people’s good intentions, many items still end up unrecycled.

The EU is currently undertaking an evaluation of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. We want to support our customers and the industry by actively following and participating in the latest regulatory developments. As part of this activity, we have produced a position paper around the water treatment topic – calling for equal implementation of regulation across the member states, as well as for higher utilization of technological advancements also in this sector.

Plant process optimization is all about good planning and meticulous implementation – there’s no quick-fix. Avoiding some common errors goes a long way to improving the situation.

Sami Puttonen, Senior Manager in Sizing & Surface Business Development, sees the bigger picture when it comes to food packaging. After 11 years working at Kemira he believes that the solutions to the global issues of food waste and sustainable packaging could come from many surprising directions.

Even in the beautiful pristine nature of Finland, eutrophication has turned some of the country's famous lakes into a murky soup of blue-green algae where no swimmer dares dip a toe. The good news is that the answer to reversing the problem lies with nature itself – and with a helping hand from some smart chemistry.

Municipal and industrial water treatment is poised to enter an era of significant change, with key regulatory updates on the horizon and cost pressures putting an increasingly tight squeeze on aging infrastructure and operating expenses alike. Wido Waelput, SVP and Riikka Timonen, Marketing Director at Kemira EMEA share their thoughts on the big issues facing the industry today.

Food is wasted at every phase of the production and consumption chain, but the single biggest point of waste are private households – yours and mine. It is within our powers to change this.