GPCA ’18: Chem players need to speed up efforts on plastic waste crisis – execs

DUBAI (ICIS)–The petrochemicals industry will need to speed up its efforts in innovating and collaborating with other industries to solve the global plastics waste crisis, key industry executives said on Tuesday.

Adopting a circular economy business model – which involves optimisation of consumption of finite resources, maximising product use, and the recovery of byproducts and waste – is paramount to the future of the chemicals industry, they said.

The chemicals industry, and polymers in particular, have come under heavy pressure to meet the recent swell in environmental concerns, the executives added.

They were speaking to delegates at the 13th Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) Annual Forum.

The chemicals industry is also facing the dual challenge on how to empower society by providing useful, innovative, materials critical to progress while at the same time addressing the issue of plastic waste, said Dave Andrew, vice president of sustainability at US energy and petrochemicals major ExxonMobil.

The plastics industry is now ultimately the “poster child” of the circular economy as the backlash against marine plastic waste grows, added Andrew (pictured right).

“The headlines, the social media activity … Ocean plastic waste has become the galvanising lightning rod,” he said.

While plastics have proven to be one of the most sustainable materials that society has, their bad public image could start eating away at petrochemical players’ growth in the future.

“The threat is that legislation and de-escalation, in which brand owners further down the value chain move away, will start to eat away at growth … And put us in a stagnating or negative position,” said James Seward, vice president of sustainability, technology and joint ventures at US major LyondellBasell.

Seward (pictured right) is also the chairman of the World Plastics Council (WPC).

LyondellBasell’s executive added that waste collection and sorting need urgent investment, while innovation and collaboration by industry players would be required to work on areas such as better recycling and waste-to-energy systems to solve the plastic waste issue.

This will require the involvement of the whole value chain, including materials and package makers, brands, retailers and waste companies, Seward said.

ExxonMobil’s Andrew told delegates that some 400m tonnes of plastic – including additives, fillers and fibres – are made each year, and half of it end up as “zero or negative value” waste.

“The world is losing $300bn-400bn of economic value through that waste,” he added, while at the same time some 70m tonnes of plastic are leaking into the environment.

While plastic needs globally will double over the next 15 years, if not solved the waste issue will quadruple plastic litter over the same period, said Andrew.

While there has been regulatory pressure in Europe on plastics, the key issue still remains with Asia, he added.

“If we made recycling in western Europe absolutely perfect, we would have not done anything with the plastic waste [issue],” Andrew said, adding that solving the basic waste management in southeast Asia is key.

However, the mounting legislation in Asia will weigh on the industry’s efforts to achieve their circular economy goals, according to Craig Halgreen (pictured right), director of sustainability and public affairs at Austrian polymers and fertilizers major Borealis.

Recent regulatory moves in Asia include a ban in plastic waste imports in China and several southeast Asian countries, India’s pledge to ban all single-use plastics by 2022, and Indonesia’s recent pledge to reduce plastic waste by 70% by 2025.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are also keen on eliminating problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and advocating the move away from single-use to re-useable packaging models, he said.

“As a result, customers’ requirements throughout the value chain will change,” added Halgreen (pictured right).

The business case for the shift from a linear to circular economy, however, remains strong as chemicals companies aim to capture “more value from critical resources, means of production and supply”, according to Lorraine Francourt, director for chemicals management policy and circular economy at US chemicals major Dow Chemical.

Francourt (pictured right) added that Dow has pledged to incorporate at least 100,000 tonnes of recycled plastics in their products in the EU by 2025.

The GPCA Annual Forum runs in Dubai on 26-28 November.

Picture sources: Gary K Smith/FLPA/imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock (main picture) and LinkedIn, Borealis, and Dow Chemical

Focus article by Nurluqman Suratman