US film and bag recycling grew double-digit

(chemnet) -- Plastic film and bag recycling in the US is on the increase, jumping 14% in 2010 to 971.8 million pounds, according to a new report.

The annual increase is the first of more than 3% since 2006. "We are excited about the dramatic jump, said Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

"The communication is getting out that plastic bags can be recycled. A lot more bags have messages on them that say bring it back,' he said. However, Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, said the percentage increase was misleading.

"By every measure, plastic bags remain a recycling failure, Murray said. "The reported growth in plastic bag recycling volume of 27 million pounds from 2009 to 2010 was completely swamped by the Environmental Protection Agency's reported 220 million pound growth in plastic bag generation during the same period, he said.


"The volume of plastic bags generated and disposed grew by a substantially greater volume than recycling in 2010, Murray added.

The amount of plastic bags and film collected in 2010 jumped 14% from nearly 854.4 million to 971.8 million pounds in 2010, according to data compiled by Moore Recycling Associates and released by ACC yesterday.

By comparison, the cumulative percentage increase the previous three years was just 5.2%, with yearly individual increases of 2.24% in 2007, 0.25% in 2008 and 2.64% in 2009.

MRC

12 companies to secure commodity supply of raw materials for German industry

(specialchem4adhesives) -- The Federation of German Industry, BDI, recently announced that twelve German companies: Aurubis, BASF, Bayer, BMW, Chemetall, Daimler, Evonik Industries, Georgsmarienhtte Holding, Bosch, steel holding Saar, Thyssen Krupp and Wacker Chemie have formed a collaboration to establish an alliance in order to secure the supply of industrial raw materials for German industry.

"We are working together to build a powerful organization, which aims to improve the security of Germany sustained commodity" said BDI Vice President Ulrich Grillo on Monday in Berlin on the sidelines of the first meeting of the corporate supporters that accompany the start-up phase. The foundation phase is supported free of charge from the Boston Consulting Group, Egon Zehnder, Lovells and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Alliance aims to invest in resource projects in order to improve the long-term supply of industrial raw materials in German industry.
It is open to other companies as well. Priorities of the alliance's foundation phase are raw material clarifying, organizational and legal issues and the establishment of corporate structures. BDI is not directly involved in the financing and operational work.

The managing director of the alliance is Member of the Board of Management of E.ON Energie AG, Munich, Germany - Dierk Paskert. The BDI is developed under the direction of Grillo, the concept for the Alliance. "The company's focus will be on raw materials for which there are strong supply risks for German industry" said Grillo, BDI Vice President.

"The alliance will address raw materials at an early stage of the project and will explore opportunities to create purchase and participation options for German companies", underlined Grillo. In specific cases the raw material alliance will also be active with the extraction and processing of raw materials.


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Mexico's Mexichem buys PVC pipe producer Wavin for EUR531mln

(mexichem) -- Dutch polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe producer Wavin has agreed to a takeover bid from Mexichem for EUR531mln (USD708mln), the two companies said on Wednesday.

PVC producer Mexichem intends to make a recommended all-cash public offer of EUR10.50 per ordinary Wavin share, which values 100% of the issued and outstanding shares at approximately EUR531m, the two companies said in a statement.

The combination of Wavin and Mexichem creates the global market leader in plastic pipe systems with total annual sales of around EUR 4.0 billion.

Mexichem and Wavin are highly complementary with very limited geographic overlap
The combined group will have stronger design, engineering and R&D capabilities whilst leveraging Mexichem's low cost manufacturing platform.
The combined group will have a more diversified end-market profile across the residential, non-residential and infrastructure segments exposing it to different economic and construction cycles.

Wavin will retain a separate operating and legal structure with headquarters in Zwolle, the Netherlands.
Wavin's brand will be retained and R&D innovation centre will be kept in the Netherlands.
Existing rights of the employees, including pension rights, will be respected and the current .

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Russia's Sibur petrochemical output in 2011 grows by 6.7%

(sibur) -- In 2011, SIBUR's gas processing plants received more than 18 bln cubic metres of associated petroleum gas (APG) for processing, a 3,3% increase on 2010 (17.5 bln cubic metres).

Production of dry stripped gas totalled 15.8 bln cubic metres, 2.9% ahead of 2010.
The total volume of petrochemical products produced in 2011 exceeded 14.4 mln tonnes[1], 6.7% higher than the output in 2010 (13.5 mln tonnes).

Mineral fertilizers output in 2011 increased by 3% to 3 mln tonnes. More than 13.4 mln units of tyres were produced, 54% more than in 2010 (8.7 mln units).
As a result of the sale of the non-core tyre and fertilizers production assets at the end of 2011, these businesses will no longer be included in the Company's accounts as of 2012.

In 2011 SIBUR's total investment allocated for the modernisation and construction of new facilities exceeded 58.6 bln rubles. Major completed projects included the launch of a pipeline network in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, the commissioning of a railway complex for NGL storage and loading in the Noyabrsk Region, and road geotextile production lines in the Kemerovo and Tula Regions.
Works on the construction of major polypropylene production facilities are continuing in Tobolsk, as are facilities for PVC production in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, thermoplastic elastomer production in Voronezh, expandable polystyrene in Perm, and a terminal for LPG and light oil products in the Leningrad region.


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Roquette and Rhodia sign agreement to develop plant-based polymers

(specialchem4adhesives) -- Roquette and Rhodia Acetow have signed an agreement to develop new plant-based polymers. This will enable both companies to leverage synergies bringing together respective competencies in the field of plant-based polymer chemistry.

"This agreement will accelerate the launch of new polymers based on renewable raw material, for which the demand is drastically increasing. The plant-based polymer cellulose acetate and cellulose acetate fibre will remain the key products for Rhodia Acetow. This agreement is one first step towards the diversification of our product portfolio," stated Gerard Collette, President of Rhodia Acetow.

Thanks to Roquette's expertise in starch derivatives and Rhodia's industrial technologies, some trials of starch acetate production will be carried out from early 2012 providing several tons which will be available for testing in diverse industrial applications. Potential fields of application include paper, paint and dye sectors and pharmaceuticals.

Rhodia Acetow is a fully integrated global player in the manufacture of cellulose acetate fiber, used extensively in the manufacture of cigarette filters. Rhodia Acetow is the third largest producer of cellulose acetate tow (worldwide market share is over 16%), with facilities in Europe, Russia, USA and Brazil. Its strategy rests on four pillars: world class quality, continuous competitiveness improvement, product innovation and proactive customer support.

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