Posts By :

  • developer
  • No Comments

Oil’s Dream to Grow in Plastics Dims as Coke Turns to Plants
Oil’s Dream to Grow in Plastics Dims as Coke Turns to Plants 960 583 developer

By Anna Hirtenstein

Companies that make packaging from plants instead of fossil fuels are starting to challenge the oil industry’s ambition to increase the supply of raw materials for plastics.

Use of bioplastics made from sugar cane, wood and corn will grow at least 50 percent in the next five years, according to the European Bioplastics Association in Berlin, whose members include Cargill Inc. and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. German chemical giant BASF SE and the Finnish paper maker Stora Enso Oyj have stepped into the business to meet demand from the likes of Coca-Cola Co. to Lego A/S.

“Biochemicals and bioplastics could erode a portion of oil demand, much like recycling can erode overall virgin plastics demand,” said Pieterjan Van Uytvanck, a senior consultant at Wood Mackenzie, a research group focused on the oil industry. “Provided the challenges facing biomass today are overcome, it will become a larger portion of the supply.”

Moviegoers famously learned in the 1967 film “The Graduate” that “there’s a great future in plastics.” Oil companies make ethylene and other basic building blocks for plastic. They’ve been eyeing that market for growth as electric cars threaten to trim demand for gasoline.

Plastic material’s ubiquity in packaging has left the world literally swimming in disused bottles, bags and wraps. That’s starting to worry both environmentalists and the companies that use it the most. There’ll be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and those materials are finding their way into the food chain.

Bioplastics currently make up about 1 percent of the plastics market, according the industry’s organization in Europe. They are made by processing sugars from plants and tend to have a smaller carbon footprint than their conventional counterparts. Some are also designed to naturally degrade after use. Top producers include Sao Paulo-based Braskem SA, NatureWorks LLC in the U.S. and Novamont SpA of Italy.

“Attitudes are evolving,” said David Eyton, the head of technology at BP Plc. “The question that faces the petrochemicals industry that has yet to really be answered is, ‘How are people going to deal with some of the environmental impacts of petrochemicals? Particularly plastics, which are a growing concern.’”

The International Energy Agency forecasts that growth in the plastics market should boost petroleum demand. It takes about 8.5 barrels of oil-derived naphtha to produce the a ton of ethylene needed to manufacture 160,000 plastic bags, according to Bloomberg Intelligence calculations.

“Petrochemicals will take center stage in driving oil demand,” said IEA analyst Tae-Yoon Kim. “This is why oil majors are very much focusing on petrochemicals.”

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA are expanding their plastic footprints, according to the IEA.

“We’re expecting petrochemicals to grow 4 percent per year,” said Ahmad Al Khowaiter, chief technology officer at Saudi Aramco. “That’s an opportunity we’re really trying to leverage.”

The new technology will have to compete against massive refineries that convert hundreds of thousands of barrels of every day into plastics.

“Alternative raw materials must be competitive,” Stora Enso’s Chief Financial Officer Seppo Parvi said in an interview in London, anticipating eventual price parity with crude plastics. “I’m confident we’ll be able to do it.”

Demand for bioplastics also needs to grow among retailers and consumers, according to Coke.

“It won’t ever work if there’s just one big consumer company like a Coca-Cola trying to drive suppliers,” said Ben Jordan, head of environmental policy at Coca-Cola. “You need more demand out there in industry.”

Source: Bloomberg

  • developer
  • No Comments

UK faces build-up of plastic waste
UK faces build-up of plastic waste 624 351 developer

By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

The UK’s recycling industry says it doesn’t know how to cope with a Chinese ban on imports of plastic waste.

Britain has been shipping up to 500,000 tonnes of plastic for recycling in China every year, but now the trade has been stopped.
At the moment the UK cannot deal with much of that waste, says the UK Recycling Association.
Its chief executive, Simon Ellin, told the BBC he had no idea how the problem would be solved in the short term.
“It’s a huge blow for us… a game-changer for our industry,” he said. “We’ve relied on China so long for our waste… 55% of paper, 25% plus of plastics.
“We simply don’t have the markets in the UK. It’s going to mean big changes in our industry.”
China has introduced the ban from this month on “foreign garbage” as part of a move to upgrade its industries.
Other Asian nations will take some of the plastic, but there will still be a lot left.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has admitted that he was slow to spot the problem coming.
The UK organisation Recoup, which recycles plastics, said the imports ban would lead to stock-piling of plastic waste and a move towards incineration and landfill.
Peter Fleming, from the Local Government Association, told the BBC: “Clearly there’s a part to play for incineration but not all parts of the country have incinerators.

“It’s a challenge – but mostly in the short term… and we will cope. In the longer term we need a much more intelligent waste strategy.”
Any move towards burning more plastic waste, though, would be met with fierce resistance from environmental groups.

‘Wrong answer’

Louise Edge, from Greenpeace, told the BBC: “The government has got us into this mess by continually putting off decisions and passing the buck.
“Incineration is the wrong answer – it’s a high-carbon non-renewable form of generating electricity. It also creates toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
“If you build incinerators it creates a market for the next 20 years for single-use plastics, which is the very thing we need to be reducing right now.”
The government is consulting with industry over a tax on single-use plastics and a deposit scheme for bottles.

Reduce and simplify

Mr Gove told the BBC his long-term goals were to reduce the amount of plastic in the economy overall, reduce the number of different plastics, simplify local authority rules so people can easily judge what’s recyclable and what isn’t as well as increase the rate of recycling.
The UK must, he said, “stop off-shoring its dirt”.
The Commons Environmental Audit Committee said Britain should introduce a sliding scale tax on plastic packaging with the hardest to recycle being charge most and the easiest to recycle being charged least.
There is broad agreement over much of that agenda, but it is not yet clear how the UK will achieve that long-term goal – or how it will solve its short-term China crisis.

Source: BBC

  • developer
  • No Comments

A sea of plastic: Shocking images show how bottles, bags and rubbish are choking our oceans
A sea of plastic: Shocking images show how bottles, bags and rubbish are choking our oceans 962 722 developer

 

  • One image taken near Roatan, an island off Honduras, shows diver grimace as he prepares to enter the water
  • Rubbish was probably washed into sea from nearby Guatemala, carried on rivers swollen by rainy season flowing through towns and villages
  • One ocean protection campaigner said it was the worst example of plastic pollution he has seen 

 

These pictures are unlikely to make it into the glossy tourist brochures that sell the Caribbean as a paradise destination.
For they show the much grimmer reality of clear blue seas increasingly choked by a tide of discarded plastic.
In one photograph taken near Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras, a diver grimaces as he prepares to enter the water almost completely covered by waste.
Another, taken from below the waterline, shows plastic bottles, bags and other rubbish on the surface blocking out sunlight.

Meanwhile, a close-up image of the ocean reveals dozens of disposable knives and forks floating among seaweed.
It is thought the rubbish was washed into the sea from nearby Guatemala, carried on rivers swollen by the recent rainy season flowing through towns and villages.

The sight disgusted photographer Caroline Power, who shared the images online to raise awareness of the problem. She wrote: ‘This has to stop – think about [the plastic you use in] your daily lives.’
John Hourston, of the Blue Planet Society, which campaigns to protect the oceans, said it was the worst example of plastic pollution he has seen.

He pointed out that plastic gets broken down into microscopic particles that enter the food chain when plankton and fish eat them.
He added: ‘It is thought that 90 per cent of sea birds have ingested some sort of plastic, and there are many examples of turtles and whales mistaking plastic for food.
‘We all have a part to play in reducing plastic waste but manufacturers and government need to take the lead. It’s a global problem which needs a global solution.’
The Daily Mail has long campaigned to end the scourge of dumped plastic.
The ‘Banish the Bags’ campaign led to a huge reduction in single-use plastic bags at supermarkets, and now we are calling for a deposit scheme on plastic bottles.
‘In a major victory for our ‘Ban The Beads’ campaign, last year ministers pledged to outlaw toxic microbeads which are poisoning our seas.

Source: Daily Mail

Start Typing