Re-Thinking the Role of Plastics

Innovative plastics are a key resource in the new economy

We talk a lot about what consumers and governments should do to reduce plastic waste, and rightly so. But as Europe strives for a circular economy and a global crisis reminds us of the importance of economic and supply chain efficiency, what can manufacturers do to help minimise waste and emissions?

Plastics get a lot of stick these days — they seem to be the latest thing that we love to hate. We’re told to think of them as pollution in solid form. We’re bombarded with pictures of islands of plastic drifting around the Pacific every time we open our laptops. Of course, the rapidly growing mass of plastic washing around in the world’s oceans – estimated to weigh the same as 15,000 Eiffel Towers if you collected it all – is deeply concerning, but that doesn’t mean we should reject plastics outright. If we did that, we would produce an extra 124 million tonnes of CO2 per year in Europe alone. No, the real question is how we can use plastics more innovatively in a manner befitting the new economy.

The plastic paradox

Plastics are incredibly versatile materials, and their toughness, lightness, and flexibility means they’re often the most efficient choice for the job. In the case of packaging, the advantage of flexible polymers is their lightness, compactness, and ease of production: the carbon footprint of a PET bottle is 2-4 times lower than that of an aluminium can. Another advantage comes in the fact that, thanks to the development of processing technologies, most plastics can be returned to the production cycle an unlimited number of times, unlike paper, which will eventually decompose and emit methane. You’d have to reuse a paper bag at least 43 times before its environmental cost was equal to that of a single-use plastic bag. And a study by PlasticsEurope suggests that if we tried to replace all plastics with alternative forms of food packaging, the energy required would double and greenhouse gas emissions would increase by a factor of three.

And it’s not just packaging. Nearly a quarter of Boeing’s Airbus A380s are made of plastics, which reduces fuel consumption by 15% during their life cycle due to their lightness. And the use of plastic insulating materials in the EU saved about 290 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2004 alone. The world is increasingly finding that it can’t do without the flexible solutions that plastics provide.

Not all plastics are equal

Plastics play a big role in the circular economy, but some are patently better than others. Bioplastics, for example, use raw materials derived from biomass and can decompose within a matter of months. Then there are oxo-degradable additives, which are not as expensive as biopolymers, but which allow plastics to degrade with the right combination of light, heat, and oxygen. One company producing polymers with oxo-degradable additives is Siberian manufacturer Sibur, Russia’s largest petrochemicals producer, which has also introduced a host of measures to put environmental impact at the centre of its ambitious drive for greater sustainability.

Another category of plastics that is well-suited to the circular economy is recycled polymers. In 2018, China – the world’s biggest manager of recycled waste – stopped importing used foreign plastic. Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia hurried to follow suit. Spotting a gap in the recycled waste market, Chinese company P.E.T. (Plastic Ecological Transformation) is trying to reduce the country’s rapidly accumulating plastic waste by turning used bottles into customisable textiles. Their recycled polyesters have been sold to giants such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and JD.com as well as individual consumers, who can get them in the form of tablecloths, scarves, and even shoes.

The coronavirus pandemic is further stimulating the production of innovative plastics, in a sign that the industry can respond to changing times. Belgian advanced materials company Solvay is providing Boeing with high-grade thermoplastic film for use in the production of medical face shields to protect health workers during the pandemic. And American multinational ExxonMobil’s monthly production of specialized polypropylene increased by 1,000 tonnes to help meet the needs of healthcare workers, enough to make 200 million masks or 20 million gowns. ExxonMobil is also contributing technical expertise and raw materials for a multi-sector development project to rapidly design and manufacture PPE that can be sterilized and worn multiple times, as well as face masks made of filtration fabric (a material the company invented back in the 1960s).

Pioneers of plastic

Aside from designing innovative plastics that are cut out for the modern day, some producers have committed to transitioning to a new economic model in the way they operate. Sibur, ExxonMobil, and Solvay are all members of Operation Clean Sweep, an initiative to cut the loss of polymer particles during production and logistics processes down to zero. Participating companies review their chemical investors by sustainability criteria, and have reduced water consumption using methods like reinjecting rainwater runoff into their sites’ open water cycle and switching facilities to use recirculated water. Sibur’s Energy Savings Program  reduced the company’s C02 production by 788,000 tonnes in 2018 alone, while ExxonMobil has ploughed more than $10 billion into research, development, and implementation of lower-emission energy solutions since 2000.

The responsible operations go beyond the production process: Sibur has contracted Bumatika, a Russian waste management company, that uses Sibur’s polymer waste as feedstock to manufacture paving tiles. Some of the paths leading up to Sibur’s waste treatment facilities are made from its own recycled polymers. Elsewhere, Solvay implemented large-scale clean-up and land improvement campaigns as part of its first World Citizen Day in 2019, during which the company cleaned up rubbish in China and Thailand, planted trees in India and Bulgaria, and turned an unused space in Chile into a public garden. Sibur’s Togliatti-based employees planted 20,000 saplings in 2018, and environmental staff at the company’s Tobolsk production site released 142,000 Siberian sturgeon hatchlings into the Irtysh river.

And that’s just what the companies are doing to contribute to sustainability on the immediate horizon. Their recently released sustainable development targets for 2025-30 enshrine environmental goals for the longer term. Solvay has pledged to double the rate at which it reuses greenhouse gas emissions, while Sibur hopes to recycle 50% of its generated waste and to increase the amount of green energy in the company’s energy balance fivefold.

The new economy

The plastics manufacturers who are refining their production techniques, minimising waste, and developing solutions for recycling show us that plastics have a vital role to play in the transition to a circular economy. Research by Morgan Stanley suggests that the share of recycled PETs in North America as a percentage of its overall plastic use – currently only 6% – might be as much as 25% by 2025. The main driver for this growth, the study posits, will be the voluntary commitment of global consumer goods producers to use more recycled materials in their packaging. The coronavirus crisis is speeding up the development of innovative plastics even further as producers race to develop polymers with antimicrobial properties. And with chaos in global supply chains showing us just how important a transition to a more sustainable economic model is, the future looks bright for the plastics manufacturers who are flexible enough to accept the challenge.