UN targets 80% reduction in plastics pollution

UN targets 80% reduction in plastics pollution

Ahead of the second round of global plastics treaty talks in Paris later this month, the United Nations Environment Programme on May 16 released a road map that said a well-crafted agreement could reduce plastics pollution by 80 percent by 2040, said Sustainableplastics.

UNEP, which is coordinating the treaty negotiations, called for first eliminating "problematic and unnecessary" plastics and then adopting policies like container deposits, producer responsibility and more reusable packaging, along with better recycling systems and "careful" replacement of items like plastic wrappers, sachets and takeaway items.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen told an online news conference that the report finds that plastic pollution costs the world several hundred billion dollars a year, including from climate impacts of plastics manufacturing, air and water pollution and exposure to hazardous chemicals.

She said the report, "Turning Off the Tap," also suggests steps to help make recycled materials more cost competitive compared with virgin plastics. "As long as virgin plastic is cheaper than recycled, then that becomes an economic dimension that will make us, as a global society, lean back on virgin," she said.

The report looks at levies on virgin materials, which Andersen admits might be a non-starter in some counties, as well as extended producer responsibility programs and container deposits. The U.N. report found that the largest gains could be made toward the 80 percent reduction from policy options like reusables, EPR and bottle deposits. It estimated they could account for a 30 percent drop.

As well, it said building more profitable recycling systems, including removing subsidies for fossil fuels and enforcing design guidelines for recyclability, could account for another 20 percent drop. It estimated those steps could boost the share of economically recyclable plastics from 21 percent to 50 percent.

As well, UNEP estimated that replacing products like plastic wrappers, sachets and takeaway items with alternatives, including paper and compostable packaging, could deliver an additional 17 percent reduction.

Andersen said countries will set their own policies but she hoped the UNEP report can help steer the treaty talks. The second of five negotiating rounds begins May 29 in Paris, with 2,500 diplomats and observers from 170 countries gathering for five days.

"Governments can deliver a strong deal to end plastic pollution," she said. "Businesses [can] ensure innovation and commitment to move away from virgin plastics, starting immediately.

"International financial institutions and other large investors need to move significant investments towards solid waste management and collection systems," Andersen said. "Creative chemical engineers must take a hard look at product design and weed out harmful chemicals and plastics."

The report builds on earlier work by the Pew Charitable Trusts and others. Some environmental groups criticized the U.N. report.

The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives said the report appears to support burning plastics in cement kilns, which it said was dangerous because cement production accounts for 8 percent of the world's carbon dioxide. That would also incentivize what it said is continued overproduction of virgin plastics, as fuel for the cement industry.

"Not only does this pose a grave climate and public health threat, it also undermines the primary goal of the global plastic treaty — putting a cap on plastic production," said Neil Tangri, GAIA's science and policy director.

Other environmental groups, including Greenpeace and Oceana, in statements called on UNEP to put more focus on reducing plastic production in the treaty, a position that some consumer product brands and countries are also pushing.

"UNEP's focus on reduction and reuse is the right approach. Recycling and waste management, on the other hand, will continue to be ineffective until producers cut the sheer amount of plastic they are forcing on consumers," said Jackie Savitz, chief policy officer for Oceana.

We remind, around 3.33 million tonnes of plastic waste were recycled or reused as raw materials in Germany in 2019. More than 38 per cent of this was polypropylene (PP). Yet recycling this PP comes with its own set of problems, caused by the fact that due to the sometimes very long polymer chains, the melt flow index of PP derived from the mechanical pre-sorting of various material streams is often too low to allow for further processing via either injection moulding or extrusion.

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Blow molding machine builder Bekum diversifies into pultrusion equipment

Blow molding machine builder Bekum diversifies into pultrusion equipment

Berlin-based extrusion blow molding machine builder Bekum Machinenfabriken GmbH has acquired the pultrusion business unit of the financially struggling systems provider ProtTec Polymer Processing GmbH to move into the fiber-reinforced plastics market, said Sustainableplastics.

Bekum officials said in a news release they are setting a course for further growth with the deal, which includes ProTec Polymer Processing Shanghai — a part of the business unit that sells systems to the Chinese market for producing longer fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (LFT) pellets and compounds.

Pultrusion, or strand drawing, produces LFTs in granulate form for manufacturing lightweight components. Bekum officials said in a news release that the acquisition offers it more opportunities in the auto and electric vehicle markets.

The transaction was completed April 1 but not announced until May 12. No terms were disclosed. The business unit is operating as Bekum Services GmbH with the assembly of new pultrusion lines integrated at the Bekum site in Traismauer, Austria.

"The company was able to retain both the previous technical managing director of ProTec as well as experienced and leading employees from the areas of design, sales and service from ProTec., which was in insolvency," the release said.

The Shanghai site will continue to offer sales and service in China and Asian countries.

We remind, Berry Global Group, Inc., Peel Plastic Products Ltd., and ExxonMobil are working together to integrate International Sustainability and Carbon Certificate (ISCC) PLUS certified-circular plastics into pet food packaging for household brand names. The collaboration leverages ExxonMobil’s ExxtendTM technology for advanced recycling, which processes plastic waste and attributes it to new plastic for food-grade packaging through a mass balance approach.

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McDermott awarded PMC contract from IOCL

McDermott awarded PMC contract from IOCL

McDermott has been awarded a project management consultancy contract from India Oil Corporation Limited for the Maleic Anhydride (MAH) unit at the Panipat Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, located 62 miles from New Delhi, India, said Hydrocarbnprocessing.

McDermott's scope includes project management and consultancy services for the unit, including front-end engineering design (FEED), review of engineering activities, construction supervision services, assistance in start-up, pre-commissioning, commissioning, performance guarantee test run and project closure.

"McDermott has a long-standing relationship with IOCL and is currently executing three large-scale projects at their Barauni and Haldia refineries," said Vaseem Khan, McDermott's Senior Vice President, Onshore. "Our unrivaled project management and execution capabilities, combined with our decades of experience in India, uniquely position us to successfully execute this project."

This is India's first mega-scale MAH plant to manufacture chemical products. MAH is used to make specialty products like polyester resins, surface coating plasticizers, agrochemicals and lubricant additives. Other chemicals that will be produced from the plant include Tetra Hydro Furan (THF), which is widely used in adhesives and vinyl film, and Butanediol (BDO), which is used in engineering-grade plastic and biodegradable fibers.

Work on the project will be executed from McDermott's Center of Excellence in Gurugram, India.

We remind, McDermott has been awarded an engineering, procurement services and construction management (EPsCm) contract from Slovnaft, a.s., for the steam cracker intensification off-gas processing project at its plant in Bratislava, Slovakia.

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Veolia PET Germany to shutter Rostock site

Veolia PET Germany to shutter Rostock site

Veolia PET Germany has announced plans to close its PET recycling plant in Rostock, in the northeast of Germany, on 31 December 2023 as the rPET market in Europe continues to be characterised by uncertainty and volatility, said Sustainableplastics.

High energy prices and uncertain economic conditions, as well as competition from low-cost Asia-Pacific virgin PET imports have created a challenging market environment for European rPET producers, who have seen both rPET flake demand and prices come under considerable pressure.

Veolia PET Germany is part of the Veolia Umweltservice GmbH corporate Group. The Rostock plant, spanning an area of 12,000 m2, handles over one billion PET bottles a year, annually producing some 32,000 tonnes of food-grade recyclate primarily for bottle production and high-quality recyclate for use in film and thermoforming production.
The company, which has successfully operated on the European PET market for over 20 years, said its decision was the result of the market’s ‘unwillingness to create a sustainable closed loop for PET beverage bottles’.

This is despite the fact that, under the provisions of the Single Use Plastics Directive, all PET beverage bottles will be required to contain 25% R-PET by 2025. Veolia said that failing the security provided by long-term purchasing commitments from the beverage industry and/or retailers, keeping the PET recycling plant in operation was no longer economically viable.

Meanwhile, at the end of March, following a petition lodged by PET Europe to do so, the EU issued a EU’s notice of initiation of an anti-dumping investigation against Chinese PET resin. The product under investigation is PET with a viscosity of 78 ml/g or higher originating in the People’s Republic of China, currently classified under HS code 39076100.

However, it will take at least 13, but not more than 14 months after the date of the publication of the notice for the investigation to be completed and even longer before any measures are implemented. As a result of Veolia’s decision to shut the plant, some fifty employees are set to lose their jobs.

Veolia’s production facilities in Frauenfeld (Switzerland), Fetsund (Norway), Norrkoping (Sweden) and the central marketing company for all plants in Hamburg will not be affected by the closure.

We remind, PET Baltija, one of the largest PolyEthylene Terephthalate (PET) recyclers in Northern Europe and part of Eco Baltia, the largest waste management and recycling group in the Baltics, announces the investment of over EUR10 million as part of the development of a new PET recycling plant in Olaine, Latvia. This joint project is being delivered by Eco Baltia, which is backed by the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, in collaboration with PICHE, a leading industrial park developer in Latvia. The total investment exceeds EUR35 million.

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Joint event highlights the benefits of recycled plastics

Joint event highlights the benefits of recycled plastics

Wholly-owned BASF subsidiary trinamiX GmbH, a provider of mobile spectroscopy solutions and chemicals company BASF have teamed up with two other businesses to raise awareness about the value of recycling used materials into new products, said Sustainableplastics.

Together with Net Your Problem, a company that works with fishing communities, recyclers and sustainable brands to recycle end?of?life fishing gear, and Grundens, a leading manufacturer of fishing apparel and footwear, the companies organised events in the Puget Sound area around Seattle on 9-10 May demonstrating the potential for circularity of plastics in harbours.

A key part of the event took place at the three participating ports of Bellingham, Seattle, and Port Townsend; here, fisherman could hand in their old fishing and rain gear to be recycled.

Volunteers from different companies collected, identified, and sorted the incoming materials, using a new tech solution developed by trinamiX to identify the different material types in a matter of seconds. This enable the items to be sorted into pure material streams prior to being recycled.

“Sorting is at the crux of a functioning recycling system, and the trinamiX solution allows us to do this on the spot, increasing the purity of the products we provide to recyclers and helping educate fishermen about what is recyclable,” explained Nicole Baker, founder of Net Your Problem. Use was made of local resources to minimise the carbon emissions associated with the event, thus enhancing and safeguarding the sustainability of the project itself.

Not only were many of the participants local volunteers including students from Western Washington University, but after collection, the materials were compressed onsite with balers provided by machinery manufacturers Bramidan Group and Blankenship Equipment. Baling reduces the amount of space materials take up in trucks, resulting in more efficient transport to the nearby recycling facilities.

The multiple material streams generated from the collected fishing gear and apparel will be processed by different companies. The nets provide new raw material for Grundens to create new products such as jackets, boots, and pants. BASF’s Performance Materials business is also looking at applications for the recyclate derived from these products.

“For trinamiX and BASF, the event shows that joint commitment along the value chain and innovative approaches turn recycling challenges into business opportunities,” concluded Brian Schmatz, Business Development Manager at trinamiX GmbH.

We remind, BASF announced that it has received the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS for certain grades of plastic additives produced at its manufacturing sites in Kaisten, Switzerland and McIntosh, Alabama, United States.

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