Welcome to the Plastics Weekly, NEO’s regular news monitoring of the plastics industry.
Every Monday, we publish a roundup of the top developments in plastics and sustainability – from regulatory changes to company news.
This week’s highlights:
- Big Oil’s attempts to solve the problem of plastic waste has largely been a failure, according to a new Reuters study. Reuters examined 30 projects by two dozen advanced recycling companies across three continents to find all are still operating on a modest scale or have closed down, and more than half are years behind schedule on previously announced commercial plans. (Reuters)
- Insatiable demand for plastic has gotten ethane prices skyrocketing, with the key component in plastic production trading at a nearly two-and-a-half-year high in the U.S. The higher price of ethane also threatens to drive up plastics prices, adding to widespread concerns about inflation. (Bloomberg)
- Impact investors are key to creating a plastics circular economy, according to a study by Google and others. Investment is crucial to creating a circular economy for plastics and there are significant opportunities for investors, particularly at the nexus of climate and plastics, the study found. (Forbes)
