One industry's waste is another industry's raw material. These one tonne bales of scrap card are the by-product of cardboard box manufacturing. A single cardboard box production line may produce up to 4,000 boxes per hour. And while waste has been reduced to a minimum, offcuts are inevitable.

This may be waste material from one factory, but these bales of card are the raw material for another – paper pulp production. The card is shredded, pulped and moulded. At the end of its useful life the moulded pulp can be recycled once again, or composted (it's fully biodegradable).

Polyethylene (PE) is an exceptional material. Not only is it used to make a wide range of commodity products, including plastic bags and drink cartons, it is used as a ballistic material by the US and UK military. It is suited to these applications because it has exceptional resistance to punching and tearing. Its properties are partly determined by its molecular weight.

In 1970s DSM developed Dyneema, which is classified as an ultra high density PE (UHDPE). As a drawn fibre or sheet it is up to 40% stronger than DuPont Kevlar and 15 times stronger than steel. As a result of its superior resistance to impact, laminated sheets up to 25 mm (1 in.) thick provide the protective lining for armoured military vehicles. Other high performance applications include parachute strings, ropes and bullet proof vests.

Image: PE milk cartons