New plastics recycling alliance is focused on action

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste will be led by an appointed chief executive officer (CEO) and will have a clear direction and drive, CEOs involved with the coalition said on 16 January.

“There is a mission out there now,” Bob Patel, CEO of LyondellBasell, told ICIS in an interview in London following the launch of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. “This is very different. This is an independent alliance; it is across the value chain.”

The Alliance is currently made up of nearly 30 members, and more want to join. It has committed more than $1bn in funding for projects to help tackle plastic waste and pollution in the world’s rivers and oceans and on land, and to facilitate a circular plastics economy. It has a goal of investing $1.5bn over the next five years to help eliminate plastic waste in the environment.

The Alliance is “focused on action,” said Dow CEO Jim Fitterling. Members of the Alliance can learn from the different mindsets of participants along the plastics supply and recycling chain. It can focus resources from different organisations and help communities and individuals tackle the challenges the Alliance has identified as most urgent.

These include: the infrastructure needed to collect and manage waste and increase recycling; innovation to advance recycling and recovery technologies; education of and engagement with governments, businesses and communities to mobilise action; and the clean-up of concentrated areas of existing plastic waste in the environment.

The Alliance is already funding a project involved with the clean-up of some of the world’s most polluted rivers – the Renew Oceans initiative from Renewlogy. This initiative aims to divert plastic waste with biofences in rivers across the developing world, and to renew plastics into fuels while empowering local communities. Renewlogy’s first project focuses on the river Ganges in India, which contributes 635,000 tonnes/year of plastic waste to the ocean.

“We are going to move on all four fronts as an alliance,” Patel said, with the aim to clean up and prevent waste getting into the environment.

One Alliance aim is to enhance the work being done by many plastics companies to improve recycling, eventually perhaps back to monomers or at least valuable feedstocks for the chemical industry.

Fitterling believes that a value must be put on waste plastics to encourage recycling on a much wider scale. He also believes that employee concern and actions can be channelled to produce effective results.

“There is a huge pent-up demand of people who want to be part of the solution,” he told ICIS.

Reaction from governments to the creation of the Alliance has been positive, Fitterling said. Patel added that other companies are keen to join the new coalition.

However, campaigning group, Recycling Netwerk, criticised the coalition because many of its members are investing billions of dollars in expanding plastics production over the next few years. Reacting to the group’s formation, it said: “It is a small step forward that the plastics industry finally recognises the huge problem with plastics. But it’s sad they still cling to symbolic and end-of-pipe measures. Given the fact that they plan an enormous expansion of their plastic production, the Alliance seems to be nothing more than a large greenwashing operation.”

Will Beacham contributed to this article