According to Kenneth Lane, interim CEO and executive vice president of global olefins and polyolefins for LyondellBasell, when addressing the challenge of eliminating plastic waste from the environment or developing new products from advanced or mechanical recycling, many of the technologies needed to achieve those goals already exist.
LyondellBasell's strategy to promote sustainability and circularity in plastics, he said, focuses on "developing these technologies, scaling them up and bringing them to market."
Participating in a panel discussion during CERAWeek by S&P Global are, from left, Jacob Duer of Alliance to End Plastic Waste, Thomas Salmon of Berry Global Inc. and Kenneth Lane of LyondellBasell.
"What are the economics and business models that can be successful to that end?" Lane asked during a panel discussion at CERAWeek by S&P Global, held recently in Houston. "The only way we're going to be successful is to get these technologies developed and scaled up, because it will be very hard to compete with virgin plastics until we do."
To that end, Lane encouraged industry leaders to collaborate across the value chain. "We see the demand is there," he said. "Ten years ago, we may have looked at circularity as a threat. Today, we see it as a market opportunity.
"We've got to turn our thinking around. Society demands these products, no differently than it is demanding electric vehicles. There are a lot of parallels you can draw between what we have to do regarding circularity and decarbonization and what is happening with electric vehicles. They're going to follow a very similar curve."
Sustainability and circularity are core strategies to LyondellBasell, and the company intends to continue to be a leader in this space, he said.
Thomas Salmon, chairman of the board and CEO of Berry Global Inc., stated that his company has been forward-thinking in recognizing that sustainability is an opportunity for growth, dating back to 2018.
"When we talk about 'net-zero by 2050,' plastics are an essential part of getting that done. Whether it's the greenhouse-gas footprint, solid waste, energy or water, it has a very strong value proposition," he said.
Salmon touted plastic as a material that has been in existence for 100 years, and its versatility has been proven to end users to be more innovative than any other material. "And we're listening to our end users," Salmon said. "We ask them how we can help them address their customers' concerns, and how they can reduce, reuse and recycle."
The demand for sustainability and circularity is real, he said. "The demand from the consumer base for these materials to help them meet their sustainability goals and objectives are not just slogans on a piece of paper. The demand is real, and we need to speed the pace by which we get access to these precious raw materials."
Private sector participation
Jacob Duer, president and CEO of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, said the private sector plays "an absolutely fundamental role" in addressing the challenges of sustainability and circularity.
"The political pressure is there," Duer said. "Activism is behind it, and this is driving a lot of the efforts that we're seeing right now."
No single company can address these pressing environmental issues alone, Duer said. "We have to come together as a community across the entire value chain to be part of the solution that is required," he explained. "Solutions are not going to happen through policies alone. They're going to happen through innovation, investment and initiatives, and this is where the private sector is needed. [The private sector] sees an opportunity to be at the center of addressing one of the biggest challenges the world faces today."
Duer concluded that reducing plastic waste in the environment is good business, "but it needs to be backed up by the right regulations at the global, national and regional levels."
