Welcome to the Plastics Weekly, NEO’s regular news monitoring of the plastics industry.
Every week, we publish a roundup of the top developments in plastics and sustainability – from regulatory changes to company news.
This week’s highlights:
- Bank of America will convert all of its credit and debit cards to 80% recycled plastic starting in 2023. Based on its annual card issuance of around 54 million cards, Bank of America estimates that the change will save over 235 tons of single-use plastics. Citi has also announced plans to introduce Recycled PVC (rPVC) across its corporate card portfolio. The rollout will start in the Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, and then it will be extended to the rest of the world. Every rPVC card will be made with 85% recycled industrial waste per finished card, representing a 36% reduction of CO2 emissions compared to a standard PVC card. (FinExtra)
- Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) and Austrian chemicals producer Borealis AG reportedly hope to raise about $2 billion from an initial public offering of their plastics joint venture. The two producers plan to sell a 10% stake in their Borouge plastics unit by the end of the quarter. The sale would value Borouge at about $20 billion. Adnoc and Borealis could announce the deal as early as next month. Borouge manufactures plastics used in everything from automobiles and food packaging to medicine vials and piping systems. Its main plant is in Abu Dhabi. The company employs more than 3,000 people and serves customers across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. (Bloomberg)
- Sources say that Nova Chemicals Corp. is mulling the sale of its majority stake in a Louisiana cracker plant. The Canadian petrochemical group bought a controlling interest in the cracker plant for $2.1bn from Williams Partners LP in 2017. The facility is used for breaking down – or “cracking” – oil and gas molecules into ethylene, a key material for plastic production. (Bloomberg)
