Chemicals & Biochemicals news

NEWS

New developments in the Chemicals & Biochemicals

Unilever NA Invests $15

Million In Plastics Recycling

by Ash Jones

Unilever North America is set to invest $15 million (€12.6 million) into a plastics recycling programme that aims to allow the company to help recycle more than 60,000 metric tonnes of plastic packaging waste per year by 2025, coming as part of a commitment for the company to collect and process more plastic than it sells.

Unilever has consistently been among the world’s top plastic’s polluters, coming in fourth place in terms of plastic waste last year in Break Free From Plastic’s annual report, behind Nestlé, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

The impact of the new investment represents more than half of the company’s plastics footprint.

Half of the 118,000 metric tonnes of plastic used by Unilever North America is post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics and some of its largest brands, such as Dove, Hellmann’s and Seventh Generation already use 100% PCR bottles.

These plans all come as part of Unilever’s “Waste-Free World” commitment which, among other things, includes a dedication to only using virgin-grade plastics, ensuring all its plastic is reusable, recyclable or compostable and using at least 25% plastic in its recycling.

The investment in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund will help secure additional PCR plastic supply for Unilever brands and increase access to recycled plastic feedstock processed by the companies the Fund invests in.

Fabian Garcia, President of Unilever North America, said: “We believe plastics’ place is inside the circular economy where it is reused, and not in the environment. We’re advocating to transform the recycling system for a waste-free world, and we urgently need business investment to help make it happen.”

Ron Gonen, Founder and CEO of Closed Loop Partners, said: “Unilever is a pioneer and leader when it comes to recognising the economic, social and environmental value of embedding circular economy principles throughout their business, critically moving from ambitious commitments and goals to tangible action and progress.

“Unilever’s investment in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund, in addition to its existing investment in our Infrastructure Fund, will help accelerate the shift toward more circular supply chains by scaling best-in-class circular business models and supporting the technological breakthroughs and sustainable innovations that keep valuable materials continuously cycling in manufacturing supply chains.”

Unilever is also looking to encourage more producer responsibility to increase broader investment to help transform the plastics recycling system.

The company is working with major CPG companies through the “Circular Economy Accelerators” programme to promote a plan for brands to fund needed recycling infrastructure investments in the US In Canada, Unilever North America participates in extended producer responsibility programs in provinces with established programs.

Visit: www.unilever.co.uk

Plastics Industry Financiers Under Scrutiny As Pollution Concerns Rise

by Steven Gislam

Anew report published by research network portfolio.earth has calculated that banks have provided $1.7 trillion (€1.39 trillion) in financing to 40 companies involved in the plastics supply chain without imposing compulsory measures to combat plastic pollution accumulating in the rivers and oceans.

With banks in Europe and the US increasingly spurning fossil fuel projects, campaigners are urging lenders to take a similar approach to plastics and make loans conditional on increased recycling measures.

“What the financial sector needs now is someone to step forward and say ‘okay, we’re going to take a look at plastics,’ and then others will follow,” said Robin Smale, director of Vivid Economics, a consultancy which audited the report.

The report, entitled ‘Bankrolling Extinction’, named Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co as the three largest financial backers of plastics respectively between January 2015 and September 2019.

The report found that each of the three banks provided between $144 billion (€117.5 billion) and $172 billion (€140.3 billion) in loans and other forms of financing to a range of companies including producers of chemicals, packaging and drinks manufacturers.

In Europe, the largest financiers of plastics were named as Barclays and HSBC, providing $118 billion (€96.3 billion) and $96 billion (€78.3 billion) respectively.

Public awareness over plastic pollution has risen sharply in recent years, with highly publicised incidents of plastic contamination appearing in previously untouched environments from the Arctic to the ocean floor.

The report shows that, of the 20 global banks providing the majority of the plastics manufacturing industry’s financing, not one had brought in criteria for due diligence or exclusion.

Banks have the power to reduce the impact of plastic pollution by making financing contingent on strict and ambitious reuse and recycling schemes, as well as by lobbying governments to lend their support to such measures, the report said. Visit: portfolio.earth

NEWS

Legal Loophole Allows Britain To Ship Plastic Waste Abroad

by Ash Jones

The UK has been accused of failing to live up to its promises in managing plastic waste as new information reveals post-Brexit laws regarding the issue are far less stringent than their counterparts within the EU.

Britain is reportedly still allowing tonnes of plastic waste to be shipped and dumped in developing nations, despite the 2019 Conservative manifesto promising to ban the practice.

The government have maintained their pledge to not allow environmental standards to slip post-Brexit.

The EU banned exporting plastic waste from OPEC countries from January 1.

The UK is currently the world’s second-largest exporter of plastic per capita, behind only the US.

The UK’s exports will now be made under a platform of informed consent, where the nation receiving the waste must accept before anything is shipped and are offered the right of refusal.

The UK reportedly shipped 7,133 metric tonnes of plastic waste to other countries in 2020 alone. Recipients include Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Turkey.

Several plastics financiers have recently come under scrutiny for not applying the same measures to combat pollution that exist within the fossil fuels industry.

The report found these companies often donated in excess of hundreds-of-billions of dollars with no consideration as to what will happen to the waste once its life-cycle has ended.

American companies Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, as well as controversial Swiss food and drink giant Nestlé, were revealed to be the world’s top plastics polluters, according to a yearly audit released in early December.

Coca-Cola alone is responsible for 2.9 million tonnes of plastic waste per year.

Both the EU’s ban and the UK’s policies have been spurred by calls to tackle the global plastic issue.

Under the Basel convention, new international rules have been prompted to tackle the issue.

Jim Puckett, director of the Basel Action Network, told The Guardian that the EU has

INDUSTRYNEWS

been planning an outright ban of plastic exports since April 2019.

He said: “We had assumed the UK would at least follow the EU, and so it is a shock to find out now that instead, they choose to have a far weaker control procedure, which can still permit exports of contaminated and difficult-to-recycle plastics to developing countries.

“They are talking the talk, but they have failed to walk the walk.”

He concluded that 90% of the UK’s exported plastic waste would be considered dirty or unsorted.

The UK government have confirmed it will be making efforts to bring in the legislature to block the exporting of plastic waste to other parts of the world, but have not offered a timetable of events at this time.

BP And Sabic Team Up For Circular Plastics

by Ash Jones

BP and Sabic have signed a new agreement to drive a circular economy in the petrochemical sector by teaming up for a new renewable plastics initiative.

Based at the Gelsenkirchen chemical complex in Germany, the agreement will see the two companies hone their relationship to produce circular products that use used mixed plastics as feedstock, thus reducing the amount of fossil resources needed in the petrochemical process.

BP and Sabic have had a working relationship at the site for decades, which is the starting point for the chemicals value chain in its local area.

Sabic already operates a number of green plastic polymers under its current portfolio which are produced using advanced recycling to convert low quality mixed and used plastic, otherwise destined for incineration or landfill, into pyrolysis oil.

The oil, which acts as an alternative feedstock to traditional fossil materials, will be processed at BP’s refining site and then used by

The Gelsenkirchen plant, located in Germany

Sabic in its polymer plants to produce certified circular products.

The final product has identical features to virgin-based polymers - the main basis for most plastics, fed directly from the source material, be it crude oil or natural gas - with the primary difference it being recyclable repeatedly.

Following on from successful trials in December 2020, polymer production using the alternative feedstock started at the site early this year.

Sabic hope the use of polymers such as these will minimise or otherwise eliminate plastic waste.

“Advanced recycling allows us to increase the production of more sustainable materials and use our planet’s resources wisely, whilst reducing the use of conventional approaches such as landfill and combustion,” said Fahad Al Swailem, the Vice President for PE & Sales at Sabic.

He added: “Advanced recycling has a crucial role to play in the current recycling mix as it can capture value from plastic waste streams that have traditionally been ignored or discarded.

“We continue to increase our collaborations with upstream suppliers and downstream customers, and this new initiative with our long-term partner bp takes us one step further to achieving our vision.”

This move puts BP closer in line with its 2030 climate goals of achieving up to 30% of its ethylene and propylene production from sustainable, recyclable raw materials.

Wolfgang Stückle, the Vice President of Refining and Specialities Solutions for Europe & Africa at BP, said: “It is a fantastic achievement on the part of the Gelsenkirchen team, after more than a year’s preparation, to set up the new initiative with our partners at SABIC. At the same time, it is what bp’s recently announced Net Zero strategy is all about.” Visit: www.bp.com