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:
- Single-use plastic items including cutlery and plates face a ban in England, as the UK government seeks to curb pollution in waterways. The country’s environment secretary is set to announce plans to phase out the items and replace them with biodegradable alternatives in the coming weeks, following similar moves by the Welsh and Scottish governments. (Financial Times)
- The cleanup of the world’s oceans is hindered by visa requirements, equipment tariffs and restricted access to local ports and waste management facilities, according to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. APEC in November recommended lifting trade restrictions between the forum’s 21 Pacific economies to support SME and non-profit business models to make remediation more cost effective, including standardization of data and technical standards. (Bloomberg)
- U.S. oil and chemical companies are pursuing the dream of chemical recycling by investing in technology to melt down plastic back into its chemical components. Industry companies argue that this can help address the country’s plastics crisis. Twenty U.S. states have adopted rules favorable to chemical recycling since 2017, and more than 40 companies are getting into the game, including Dow, Shell, Total Energies and Chevron Phillips. The American Chemistry Council envisions 150 plants around the country, which will heat up old plastic and sell the feedstock back to plastics manufacturers. (Politico)
