PRESIDENT’S LETTER

COMPETITION. As someone who grew up playing every sport possible, I enjoy competition and tend to look at things through that lens. Houston just hosted the Men’s College Basketball Final Four Championship, and it was amazing to see the four finalists (and their fanbases) battle it out for the top spot. Next January Houston will host my favorite, the College Football Championship Game. Again, winner take all culmination of a year’s worth of hard work by teams to take home a championship.

Given our mission to grow the regional economy, capturing capital investment dollars is also a competition. When companies are deciding where to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, they have choices where they will locate. The competition for those dollars is real and the impact is far reaching. Capital investment impacts our cities, county, schools, and colleges, but as important, it creates jobs which drive housing and retail demand and allows our communities to grow and prosper.

The factors considered when competing for those investment dollars include:

• Infrastructure – to efficiently move product and people through the region

• Public Policy and Regulations – sets the ground rules for companies to succeed

• A ready and trained Workforce – to build maintain and operate facilities

• Quality of life of regional communities – to raise families and draw a workforce

Our committees, led by our members, work hard on each of these key competitive initiatives so that this region is the most attractive when companies are considering where to locate or expand. We have to work that process daily to keep our competitive advantage. As Alabama Head Football Coach Nick Saban says, “the results will take care of themselves if we stay focused on the process” of making this region the best place to invest.

God Bless, Chad Burke

President & CEO Economic Alliance Houston Port Region

203 Ivy Avenue, Suite 200 Deer Park, TX 77536 (281) 476-9176

Economic Alliance Executive Board

Chair: Bob Bradshaw, INEOS

Treasurer: Dr. Brenda Hellyer, San Jacinto College

Secretary: Rob Bacon, ExxonMobil

Vice Chair: Ryan Sitton, Pinnacle

Vice Chair: Mayor Michel Bechtel, City of Morgan's Point

Vice Chair: Monty Heins, DOW

Past Chair: Steve Cote, Brady, Chapman, Holland & Associates

Communications Advisory Board

Sarah Arroyo, Lubrizol

Heather Betancourth, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC

Jessica Blackmore, Shell Deer Park

Sara Cronin, TPC Group

Amanda Fenwick, San Jacinto College

Jason Lee, Exponent Prosperity Accelerator Advisors, LLC

Lori Pace, ADIM Media, LLC

Kara Slaughter, LyondellBasell

Bill Stephens, Chevron

Aaron Stryk, ExxonMobil

Connie Tilton, ExxonMobil

Dennis Winkler, Winkler Public Relations

Tess Hammock, Community First ER

MaryJane Mudd, East Harris County Manufacturing Association

Sabrina Schwertner, Texas Chemical Council

Brian Waddle, Lee College

Economic Alliance Staff

Chad Burke, President & CEO

Chad Carson, VP of Economic Development

Bridget Yeary, Financial & Administrative Manager

Marisela Ramirez, Events & Membership Director

Amanda Baucum, Marketing & Communications Director

Patti Bell, Workforce Development Manager

Karen Gregory, Contracts Manager

Layout And Design

Amanda Baucum, Marketing & Communications Director

EDITORIAL & SPONSORSHIP SUBMISSIONS amanda@allianceportregion.com

Newsletter archive: https://allianceportregion.com/newsletters/

ExxonMobil announced successful startup of one of the largest advanced recycling facilities in North America. The facility at the company’s integrated manufacturing complex in Baytown uses proprietary technology to break down hard-to-recycle plastics and transform them into raw materials for new products. It is capable of processing more than 80 million pounds of plastic waste per year, supporting a circular economy for post-use plastics and helping divert plastic waste currently sent to landfills (items like synthetic athletic fields to bubble wrap and motor oil bottles).

There is substantial demand for recycled plastics and advanced recycling can play an important role by breaking down plastics that could not be recycled in traditional, mechanical methods. ExxonMobil is collaborating with government, industry and communities to scale up the collection and sorting of plastic waste that will improve recycling rates and help customers around the world meet their sustainability goals.

The company helped form Cyclyx International, a joint venture created to collect and sort large volumes of plastic waste and is investing in a first-of-its-kind plastic waste processing facility in Houston to help supply ExxonMobil’s Baytown advanced recycling facility.

Advanced recycling is a proven technology that can help accelerate a circular economy and address the challenge of plastic waste. With effective government policies in place to modernize the recycling system and improve waste collection, more plastic materials can be collected, sorted and recycled, especially plastics that aren’t easily recycled today.

ExxonMobil plans to build advanced recycling facilities at many of its other manufacturing sites around the world, which would give it the capacity to process up to 1 billion pounds of plastic waste annually by year-end 2026.

Advanced recycling can process a broader mix of plastic waste

Necessary