Chapter 1 Polymers in Modern Life, 1, 
Chapter 2 Environmental Impact of Polymers, 19, 
Chapter 3 Environmental Stability of Polymers, 38, 
Chapter 4 Management of Polymer Wastes, 68, 
Chapter 5 Biodegradable Polymers, 93, 
Subject Index, 126,

CHAPTER 1

Polymers in Modern Life

WHAT ARE POLYMERS?

Polymers are natural or man-made molecules, frequently called macro-molecules. They are composed of smaller units, monomers, which have reacted together to give a long chain, rather like a string of beads. In the simplest polymers, the monomers are identical and the polymer is named by prefixing 'poly' to the name of the monomer from which it is derived. Thus the polymer from ethylene is poly(ethylene), although in common usage the brackets are omitted. The monomers that constitute a polymer may be the same in which case they are called homopolymers or they may contain more than one monomer in which case they are copolymers. Additional monomers in a polymer may be randomly copolymerised to give random copolymers or may be polymerised in alternating blocks of identical monomers forming block copolymers.

-M-M-M-M- -M-N-N-M-N-M- -M-M-M-N-N-N-
Homopolymer Random copolymer Block copolymer

Some polymers contain chemical bonds or cross-links between the long chains. Cross-links may be introduced during the synthesis of the polymer as is the case in the thermosetting polymers, which include the well known phenol-formaldehyde resins, but they may also be introduced into an existing polymer by a chemical reaction. This method of making cross- linked polymers is used in the process of rubber vulcanisation or sulfur cross-linking which was one of the earliest chemical reactions carried out on a naturally occurring polymer [cis-poly(isoprene)] obtained from the latex of the tree Hevea braziliensis. Many other polymeric materials are found in living organisms. The most common are the polysaccharides, which include starch, the food store of seeds, and cellulose, the structural material of plants. A second important group are the polymerisation products of amino acids, the polypeptides, of which the proteins are widely distributed in living organisms. In the polypeptides the sequence of monomer units is much more complex than in the case of man-made polymers and the order in which the monomers are put together changes their nature and biological function.

-A1-A2-A3- where A1, A2, etc.
A4A5- are different amino acids
Polypeptide

Thus muscle, collagen (in bone), keratin (in hair, nails and beaks) and albumin are all copolymers of very similar amino acids but have quite different physical properties. In deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the genetic template, the sequence of monomers is precise and variations are the cause of genetic mutations. Although the polypeptides are of ultimate importance in life processes they are not important in the context of materials and will not be considered further in this book. However, they have had a significant impact on modern polymer science since the synthesis of the first man-made poly amide fibre, Nylon, by Carothers was modelled on the structure of a silk, a naturally occurring polypeptide.

NATURAL POLYMERS

Cellulose

The most easily recognised natural polymer is cellulose, the most abundant organic polymer on earth. It consists of glucose units and is the major component of wood although it is also found in the stems and leaves of many plants. Cotton is a particularly pure form of cellulose.

In woody materials, the long crystalline fibrils of cellulose are bound into a composite structure by lignin, a macromolecule based on polyphenols. Lignin, which is present to the extent of 25–30% in most woods, is a cross-linked polymer rather similar to man-made phenol–formaldehyde resins and may be looked upon as a 'glue' which gives wood its permanent form (Figure 1.1).

The overall effect is a very strong material that can bear enormous tensions and bending stresses without breaking. However, as every cricketer knows, wood can break under violent impact. This is because it is weakest along the direction of the fibres and the lignin which is a weaker polymer delaminates (separates) between the cellulose fibres. It is an interesting tribute to the evolution of natural materials that since the discovery of the synthetic polymers, man has employed the same principle of orientated fibre (glass or carbon) reinforcement in the manufacture of polymer composites with a strength (in the fibre direction) similar to that of steel.

Pure cellulose biodegrades relatively rapidly in the natural environment. Nature's abundant cellulosic litter in the form of leaves, grass, plant stems, etc. is bioassimilated in one season to give useful biomass. Branches and tree trunks take much longer to biodegrade and it is not always appreciated that, in some parts of the world, tree trunks and branches on the sea-shore present a much more significant litter problem than most of the commodity plastics. It may take decades and in some cases centuries for some fallen trees to disintegrate and biodegrade in the natural environment whereas a polyethylene container in the same situation would disappear due to photo-biodegradation in as many years. The situation may be quite different inside a forest environment, which is much more conducive to biological attack. Both cellulose and lignin biodegrade; the former much more rapidly than the latter by enzyme-catalysed hydrolytic depolymerisation of cellulose to its constituent sugars, which are assimilated by the cell. This process begins with the attachment of microflora to the hydrophilic (water-loving) surface of the tree trunk and the death of the microorganisms in t urn provides humus for the growth of seedlings which eventually cannibalise the dead trunk. Polyethylene which is a hydrophobic polymer (that is it repels water) cannot undergo biodegradation unless it is modified by abiotic peroxidation. Sunlight catalyses this process and the rate-controlling process in the natural environment is photooxidation. This will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.

Wood-pulp cellulose is the basis of paper manufacture. The process involves separating the cellulose fibre from the resinous component of wood by treatment with alkali and carbon disulfide, an environmentally polluting process (Chapters 2, 5). Papermaking has been strongly criticised in recent years by ecologists due to the rapid depletion of the forests and this has resulted in an increase in recycling of used paper.

Cellulose fibres are crystalline and very strong materials when they are dry. However, they are hydrophilic and in the presence of moisture they absorb water, becoming permeable by microorganisms. For this reason paper became much less important as a food packaging material when the cheap hydrophobic synthetic polymers emerged in the second half of the 20th century.

The hydrophilic nature of cellulose is due to the high concentration of hydroxyl groups in the molecule. In the absence of water this gives rise to the association of the long molecules by hydrogen bonding. These 'cross-links' are weak compared to the valency bonds that hold together the repeating units in a polymer but because of the very large number of hydroxyl groups in cellulose, the molecules are held firmly together when dry to give the strong crystalline structure referred to above. Hydrophilic solvents can 'break' hydrogen bonds, resulting in swelling of the fibres. By using appropriate solvents, cellulose can be reformed into fibres (rayon) and films (cellophane) which retain the essential structure (and biodegradability) of cellulose. Replacement of the hydroxyl hydrogen in cellulose by hydrophobic groups such as methyl, ethyl or acetyl decreases its hydrophilicity. It can then be plasticised to give a thermoplastic material that can be processed to films. However, cellulose derivatives are more susceptible to water swelling than the hydrocarbon polymers, which are discussed below and they have been largely replaced by synthetic polymers in packaging applications.

Starch

Starch is the main energy storage system in plants and is closely related chemically to glycogen, the energy storage 'fuel' in animals. Starch consists of two polysaccharide components: amylose, a long unbran-ched chain of D-glucose units, and amylopectin, which is made from the same monomer units but cross-linked to give a much higher number of units in each molecule. It is, like wood, a composite structure in which the amylopectin provides the 'glue' that holds the starch granule together. Starch itself, unlike wood or paper, has no application as an industrial material but it will be seen in a later chapter that corn or potato starches have considerable potential as biodegradable thermoplastic polymers if appropriately plasticised. However, starch is much more readily hy-drolysed to glucose in the presence of microorganisms than cellulose and the main problem is to retain its integrity during use.

Wool, Hair and Silk

Like feathers and hair, wool consists mainly of keratin. This polypeptide contains L-cystine which is the oxidised (disulfide) form of L-cysteine. The former acts as a cross-link which determines the crimped nature of wool. In human hair this process is, of course, carried out reversibly in 'permanent waving':

[FORMULA NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1.1)

Silk, by contrast, consists of fibroin which does not contain cystine and is a straight fibre.

Natural Rubber [cis-poly(isoprene)]

The development of natural rubber as the first major industrial polymer was a very significant achievement of the 19th century. Rubber latex, as it comes from the tree, is a very unpromising material. It very rapidly loses its most useful mechanical property, namely elasticity, owing to attack by oxygen in the atmosphere (Chapter 3) which also transforms it into a very biodegradable material. Equally important to the development of rubber as an industrial product was the discovery of 'vulcanisation' (Vulcan, the God of fire) by Charles Goodyear in the USA and Thomas Hancock in England in 1839. Sulfur vulcanisation, or 'curing' as it is still called by rubber technologists, transformed the essentially thermoplastic polymer, which had poor dimensional stability, to a strong cross-linked matrix. Vulcanised rubber was found by Hancock to be a suitable material for bicycle tyres and in the 20th century it was developed for motor car tyres. A comparison of the environmental durability of an early bicycle tyre with that of a modern automobile tyre would be instructive but unfortunately none of the original rubbers now exist since they have all degraded to resinous nonresilient oxidation products. A modern tyre, unlike the early bicycle tyres, has to withstand the stresses and strains of high speed motorway travel (fatigue) at temperatures up to 100 °C and this is achieved by a complex combination of antioxidants which also give it protection against environmental pollutants such as ozone. Evidence for the environmental stability of modern tyre rubbers can be seen in many farmyards where discarded tyres are used as weights to hold down plastic covers. Some of these have been there for decades and show little sign of deterioration or biodegradation. This has nothing to do with the inherent biostability of the rubber molecule since we know that rubber latex peroxidises and biodegrades very rapidly when exposed to the outdoor environment. The durability of automotive tyres is rather a function of the exceptional effectiveness of the synthetic antioxidants that have been developed to protect the rubber from peroxidation during use. As will be seen later, the control of peroxidation is one of the mechanisms that is currently used in the development of polymers that can be programmed to biodegrade in a controlled way in the environment.

SYNTHETIC POLYMERS

Synthetic polymers are made by two main processes. The carbon-chain polymers result from the 'opening' of the double bond in the original olefin by addition polymerisation to give new carbon-carbon bonds:

[FORMULA NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1.2)

The hetero-chain polymers are mainly made by elimination of water between a carboxylic acid and an alcohol or an amine to give a polyester or a polyamide respectively. These are the condensation polymers:

[FORMULA NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1.3)

[FORMULA NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1.4)

Similar products can be made without the elimination of water by 'ring-opening' polymerisation of monomeric cyclic monomers, the lactones and lactams. In this case the 'repeat unit' in the polymer is the same as that in the monomer:

[FORMULA NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (1.2)

Polyolefins

This is the most important group of carbon-chain polymers made by the general reaction (1.2) in which R is hydrogen (polyethylene) or an alkyl group (e.g. CH3 in polypropylene). In practice, polyethylene is not a single polymer. Three main sub-divisions are recognised.

Low Density Polyethylene

Low density polyethylene (LDPE) was the earliest polyolefin to be manufactured by the free radical polymerisation of ethylene. It is not 'pure' poly(methylene). The latter is a very linear polymer and can be synthesised in the laboratory by decomposition of diazomethane. As a result of its method of manufacture, LDPE contains alkyl groups of varying lengths pendant to the polymer chain and some carbon–carbon double bonds. These irregularities reduce its crystallinity compared with poly(methylene) so that it normally consists of 50–60% of crystal-line domains dispersed in amorphous polymer. The amorphous matrix is a very viscous liquid which acts like a rubber and gives the polymer its very high resistance to impact. LDPE is still widely used because of its exceptional toughness.

High Density Polyethylene

High density polyethylene (HDPE) is made by a different (ionic) process which gives higher relative molar masses (Mr) This, coupled with its lower chain-branching (it is sometimes called 'linear' polyethylene), increases the ratio of crystalline to amorphous polymer which makes it much stronger than LDPE. However, the reduction in energy-absorbing amorphous phase also reduces its toughness.

Linear Low Density Polyethylenes

A compromise between LDPE and HDPE has been achieved in the commercial development of linear low density polyethylenes (LLDPEs), which are a series of polymers in which ethylene is copolymerised with a small proportion of other alkylethylenes. This gives controlled branching without sacrificing Mr or toughness.

Polypropylene

Polypropylene (PP) is made by a similar ionic reaction to HDPE and LLDPE, using organometallic catalysts. Unlike the ethylene polymers it exists in stereoisomeric forms due to the asymmetry of the methyl substituted carbon atom. The common industrial material is the isotactic form which can be stretched to give highly crystalline films and fibres. It is less tough than the LDPE but this may be improved by copolymerisation with a small amount of ethylene.

The major application of the polyolefins is in packaging (films and bottles). HDPE is aesthetically as well as technically an alternative to paper since it has the 'crinkly' feel of paper but unlike paper it has high resistance to water and hence microorganisms. PP is also widely used as a hydrophobic outer wrapping in the packaging of many commodities (e.g. cigarettes) where it has largely replaced cellophane, and in bottles as a replacement for glass.

There is little doubt that the emergence of the polyolefins in the mid-years of the present century transformed food distribution because of their effectiveness as sterile barriers against microbial contaminants. These advantages over glass, coupled with higher impact resistance and lower cost, were immediately obvious to the consumer but more recently it has also been recognised that the use of plastics in the packaging of foodstuffs is much less energy intensive than the use of traditional packaging materials (Chapter 2).

An important use of polyethylene films is in 'shrink-wrap' packaging in which the films are given a 'built-in' stress which is released on heating with contraction of the film over goods to be packaged. This is a convenient and economic alternative to traditional 'boxing' in cardboard. A rather similar packaging application is 'stretch-wrap' polyethylene film for hay and silage. This mainly black wrapping film has replaced hay stacks in the countryside and is also a major source of plastics pollution in the countryside (Chapter 5).

Another important use for the crystalline polyolefins is in industrial and, to a lesser extent, domestic fibres. Polypropylene fibres have also largely replaced the naturally derived sisal in agriculture. This fibrous material physically resembles sisal but unlike the natural product it does not readily biodegrade during use or after discard. Agricultural twines are often made very cheaply by slitting uniaxial stretched polypropylene sheets in the direction of the applied stress. The non-biodegradability of discarded PP twines has been overcome in recent years by making the polymer photo-biodegradable (Chapter 5).

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Polymers and the Environment by Gerald Scott. Copyright © 1999 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Excerpted by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry.
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PBShop.store UK

Fairford, GLOS, United Kingdom

5-star seller

AbeBooks seller since June 11, 1999

Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.

Item	10 to 20 business days	10 to 20 business days
First item	£ 3.29	£ 3.29

Delivery times are set by sellers and vary by carrier and location. Orders passing through Customs may face delays and buyers are responsible for any associated duties or fees. Sellers may contact you regarding additional charges to cover any increased costs to ship your items.

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Store description

**Please note our transit times are from the date of dispatch.** We first started out as “The Paperback Exchange,” a chain of physical bookstores where we would part exchange your beloved books for new stories to transport you to faraway places. However, as shopping started to evolve to online shops and marketplaces, we bid our stores goodbye to become “PBShop.” This transition has only allowed us to blossom as we now ship thousands of titles to book lovers across the globe. We pride ourselves in being a community of local book lovers which allows our passion and devotion to shine in everything we do. In 2020 we not only celebrated our 20th birthday but our 1st birthday as being completely employee owned after becoming an E.O.T in September 2019. We are proud to be different and embrace standing apart on a book mountain by working from a virtual inventory which allows us to provide thousands of books that may be difficult to get for your bookshelf or your studies. Working with a number of different suppliers allows us to explore other avenues such as puzzles, sheet music and even stationery so we really do have something for everyone. Life is about being versatile in all realms of existence. If this is your first purchase with us, or you are a returning customer, we would like to welcome you to the PBShop family, for there is no friend as loyal as a book. We are a company who put our customers at the centre of everything we do as we understand the importance of reading because once you learn to read, you will forever be free. There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours that we are yet to explore, which is why we will forever inspire curious minds.…

Specialty

Hardbacks, Paperbacks

Seller's business information

Pbshop.co.uk

Unit 22 Horcott Industrial Estate, Horcott Road
Fairford, United Kingdom GL7 4BX

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Terms of sale

Returns Policy
We ask all customers to contact us for authorisation should they wish to return their order. Orders returned without authorisation may not be credited.
If you wish to return, please contact us within 14 days of receiving your order to obtain authorisation.
Returns requested beyond this time will not be authorised.
Our team will provide full instructions on how to return your order and once received our returns department will process your refund.
Please note the cost to return any unwanted order to us is borne by the buyer.
Should your order arrive damaged, not as advertised or faulty, we must be advised of this within 14 days of delivery. Please contact us so we can find the best solution for you.

Our Customer Care Team can be contacted by emailing alborders@paperbackshop.co.uk, or by calling our UK Office on +441285 712 917. We are available 9:00am till 5:30pm GMT Monday to Friday.

Right of withdrawal

If you are a consumer you can withdraw from the contract in accordance with the following. Consumer means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.

Information regarding the right of withdrawal

Statutory right to withdraw

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the last good or the last lot or piece.

To exercise the right of withdrawal, electronically fill in and submit a clear statement on our website, under "My Purchases" in "My Account". We will communicate to you an acknowledgement of receipt of such a withdrawal on a durable medium (e.g. by e-mail) without delay.

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

Effects of withdrawal

If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).

We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.

We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract.

We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

We may withhold reimbursement until we have received the goods back, or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest.

You shall send back the goods or hand them over to PBShop.store UK, Fairford, United Kingdom, +44 1285 712917, without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you communicate your withdrawal from this contract to us. The deadline is met if you send back the goods before the period of 14 days has expired. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.

Exceptions to the right of withdrawal

The right of withdrawal does not apply to:

The delivery of newspapers, journals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts; and
The supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium (e.g. on a CD or DVD) if you accepted when you placed your order that we could start to deliver it, and that you could not withdraw once delivery had started.

Shipping terms

Orders are shipped from our UK warehouse. Delivery thereafter is between 4 and 14 business days. Please contact us if you have any queries about our services or products.

Privacy and security

We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal data. This policy tells you how we will collect and use your personal data, and what you should expect in respect of the personal information about you that we have collected.

We are PBShop.co.uk Limited (registered in England & Wales with Company No: 9366362). Our registered office is at Swatton Barn, Badbury, Swindon, SN4 0EU, United Kingdom.

The person with responsibility for our data protection compliance is the Managing Director and they can be contacted via email at help@pbshop.store.

We are the data controller of the personal data that we keep and use, and we are therefore responsible for making sure that our systems, processes and people comply with the relevant data protection laws in respect of that personal data.

We will act in respect of personal data to comply with the six principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which are:

Lawfulness, fairness and transparency;
Purpose limitation;
Data minimisation;
Accuracy;
Storage limitation;
Integrity and confidentiality.
You have rights in respect of how your personal data can be processed; these include the right to request:

a copy of your personal data;
that inaccurate data is rectified; and
that your personal data is, in certain circumstances, erased or restricted.
You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner, which you can do by contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) directly. Full contact details, including a helpline number, can be found on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). This website also has useful information on your rights and our obligations. However, please raise any concerns or issues with us first so that we may deal with this as quickly as possible for you.

COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA
We collect and process data for the following reasons:

personal data collected and created in relation to our selling books and other items; and
personal data relating to our people (which means those people working for our company, or providing services to us, or potentially working or providing services to us, including employees, consultants, temporary or casual workers and contractors).
All of our people are required to abide by our Privacy Policy when handling personal data, and are provided with appropriate data protection training. Any breach of data protection will be taken seriously, and may result in disciplinary action.

Selling books and other items
COLLECTION:
We will collect personal information which may include names, addresses and other information for our customers. This will be done for the management of the commercial relationship with our customers.

We may collect this personal data from you directly, and also from third parties, including publicly available third party sources. Additional personal data will be collected as it is created by or supplied to us in the course of anything we do for you.

USE:
We will use the personal data in the course of making sales and to comply with requirements that we are required to undertake.

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

in performance of a contract (the agreement to sell books and other items); and/or
compliance with a legal obligation; and/or
vital interests of the data subject; and/or
where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
We may also use your personal data in the following situations, which are likely to be far less common:

where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests);
where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.
DISCLOSURE:
We may share personal data with third parties as is necessary in the sale of books and other items, including to third party providers who deliver services to support the operation of our company.

In respect of all disclosures of personal data, we will only share the personal information which is necessary for the particular purpose for which it is provided, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, and we will ensure that the personal data is appropriately protected.

RETENTION PERIOD:
We will keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. Normally, our retention period for personal data collected for this purpose is a minimum of 6 years after the end of the period that we are selling books and other items.

Our people
COLLECTION:
We will collect names, addresses, contact details, education and employment history, identity and other background checks (which may include appropriate criminal and financial checks and confirmation of the right to work in the UK), marital status and information on next of kin and dependents, financial information (such as bank details and NI numbers), date of birth, gender, a copy of your passport and driving licence, performance information and compensation history, recruitment information (including references), salary, benefits, pension and annual leave information, disciplinary and grievance information, photographs, information about your use of our information and communications systems and CCTV footage or other information obtained through electronic means.

We may collect and use special categories of personal data as required in the carrying out of obligations and exercising specific rights of us or the data subject in the field of employment. This may include information relating to matters such as health, racial origin, religious belief and offences or alleged offences.

Personal data may be collected from you during the selection process (for example via your application form and CV) and during your employment (including holiday forms, expense claims, performance reviews, any disciplinary or grievance processes), or from third parties, including referees, health service providers, background check providers.

USE:
Personal data of our people will be used for HR administration and management, both in respect of the selection of people to work for us (including suitability, eligibility and/or fitness to work), and those who do work for us, to include learning and development, disciplinary and security (of people, offices and data) requirements, providing and liaising with benefits providers, business management and planning (including accounting and auditing), paying you and dealing with tax and NI deductions, assessing and deciding on salary reviews and compensation, conducting performance reviews and managing performance, dealing with legal disputes involving you or others, preventing fraud, monitoring your use of our information and communications systems, ensuring compliance with our policies, and equal opportunities monitoring.

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

In performance of a contract with you; and/or
compliance with a legal obligation; and/or
vital interests of the data subject; and/or
where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
We may also use your personal data in the following situations, which are likely to be less common:

where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests);
where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.
In respect of all disclosures of personal data, we will only share the personal information which is necessary for the particular purpose for which it is provided, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, and we will ensure that the personal data is appropriately protected.

In respect of special categories of personal data, we may process this in the following circumstances:

in limited circumstances with your explicit written consent; and/or
where we need to carry out our legal obligations and in line with our policies; and/or
where it is needed in the public interest (such as for equal opportunities monitoring or in relation to our occupational pension scheme), and in line with our policies; and/or
where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.
Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your (or someone else’s) interests and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public. We may also process such information about our people (or former people) in the course of our legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

The special categories of personal data may be used in the following ways:

in relation to leaves of absence, to comply with employment and other laws;
in relation to your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety in the workplace and to assess your fitness to work, to monitor, manage and administer benefits and absences;
in relation to your race, national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.
DISCLOSURE:
Personal data may be transferred to service providers who support the operation of our business (such as payroll service providers), to other third parties reasonably necessary in the conduct of our business (including insurers, professional advisors, regulators). These third parties may be acting as processor, or controller of personal data in their own right.

RETENTION PERIOD:
We will keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. We will normally keep personal data of applicants who we do not employ for six months after we receive it.

We will keep personal data of employees throughout your employment and normally for a minimum of six years after your employment ends.

Changes to your personal data
It is very important that the personal information that we hold about you is accurate and current. Please tell us if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

Data Security
We have put in place measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those of our people and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and the ICO of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Where we store your personal data
We principally store data, both electronically and on file, at our office.

Personal data may be transferred outside of the EEA by processors acting on our behalf. For transfers to countries not considered adequate by the EC, we will ensure that personal data is adequately protected, as required by the GDPR. This would include by use of the Standard Contractual Clauses adopted by the EC to protect personal data.

Your rights
Under certain circumstances, you have the right by law to request:

access to your personal data. This enables you to ask to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
correction of the personal data that we hold about you.
erasure of your personal data.
object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on our legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
restriction of processing of your personal data.
transfer of your personal data to another party.
Links from our website
Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of third parties that we permit to make such links. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We recommend that you check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on our website, so please ensure that you are viewing the correct version.

Please contact us if you have any questions, comments or requests regarding this Privacy Policy.

Last amended May 2021.

Polymers and the Environment

Item description from seller

Bibliographic details

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About the title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.