As CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, Fitterling said he strongly believes the chemical industry's future success hinges on its ability "to get sustainability right."
"It's not something that we just have to be simply aware of or something we can just give some money to and call it done," Fitterling said. "It has to be part of the core foundation of every business to prosper."
Participating in a panel titled "The Golden Age of Chemicals: A Question of Sustainability" at the World Petrochemical Conference 2019 by IHS Markit, held recently in San Antonio, Fitterling said there are myriad areas in which the industry can make a significant impact.
"Greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy, more sustainable processes, clean water, climate change -- the list is as long as the topic is serious," he said.
"There's no lack of work to be done to make our planet safer and more livable," he continued, adding that there is also "no industry that is better positioned to make a positive impact on every one of those topics than the chemical industry."
"Our industry touches every aspect of life on Earth," he said. "So who better than us to develop innovative new products and processes and, frankly, new ways of working together to get the [sustainability] job done?"
Identifying the problem
Fitterling zeroed in on plastic marine waste as an imminent threat to sustainability.
"Plastics waste is going to be the sustainability issue of our time," he said. "It represents not only the biggest risk to our industry, but also one of the biggest opportunities."
Recent industry research indicates as much as 8 million tons of plastic waste accumulates in the oceans every year.
"Arguably, part of that comes from fishing vessels and offshore gas and oil platforms, but only a small part," Fitterling said. "The vast majority of this, as much as 80 percent of it, comes from land-based sources."
Three-quarters of this waste is attributable to uncollected debris, with the remainder coming from gaps in existing collection and recycling systems.
This problem is especially acute in Southeast Asia, Fitterling noted, where the rising quality of life and rapid development have fueled a greater use of plastics, "especially in the food chain, where consumers now have greater access to a wide variety of pre-packaged foods with longer shelf lives."
The gap in the systems has led to worldwide, massive pollution of the world's rivers.
"Everyone knows the old adage, 'All rivers eventually lead to the sea,' and that is what is happening with plastics waste," Fitterling said, adding that the Ocean Conservancy estimates as much as 150 million tons of plastics is currently circulating in the world's oceans.
"It's a huge and growing problem -- so much so that there are many active measures around the world right now to deselect plastics as a resource," Fitterling said.
But some of these efforts to eliminate plastic straws, shopping bags and similar consumer staples are "a slippery slope, not only because they threaten our industry but, more importantly, because these kinds of misguided policies could actually do more environmental harm than good," he said.
"Let's be clear, the issue is not plastics," Fitterling said. "The issue is the lack of an effective collection recycling and reuse system. Nevertheless, we are starting to see these misguided policies targeting plastics, so we have pulled together a group across the entire plastics value chain to work on this issue."
Seeking sustainability solutions
Spearheaded by a core of five industry leaders who are intent upon mitigating the threat of plastics waste and the necessity to find workable solutions, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) formed in June 2018.
An executive team of representatives from ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell Industries, Shell Oil, BASF and The Dow Chemical Company convened at that time to scope out the AEPW. The alliance was formally launched in January 2019.
"We have already got more than 35 members in the alliance and committed contributions of more than a million dollars, with the goal of investing more than $1.5 billion in the next five years to end plastics waste," Fitterling said.
Fitterling extended an invitation to like-minded leaders in the industry chain, whether "people who make resins, convert them, use them, sell them, collect them or recycle them," to join the alliance.
"There's no reason that this public/ private partnership can't be 200-300 members," he said. "There's plenty of room for everybody, and I think we've got an absolutely good start and some good momentum to tackle this issue."
Fitterling implored conference delegates to remember the many ways plastics have positively impacted modern society.
"We need to continue to tell our story about plastics that make our cars and planes lighter and safer, that create sterile medical environments, that preserve food and reduce waste in the food chain, which in turn is a tremendous advantage to communities that are food challenged," he said. "Modern society is what it is today because of the miracle of plastics. We cannot forget that."
Neither can it be forgotten or ignored, Fitterling said, that plastics waste is a global crisis that requires immediate, expert and global attention.
"This is the time when our industry and our partners need to step up and demonstrate our amazing ability to innovate new solutions," he said. "The risk of us failing is immense, but there's also an amazing opportunity for us to collaboratively solve one of the greatest sustainability issues of all time while at the same time advancing our industry and society."
Education, development, innovation
Fitterling was joined on the panel by Yusri Yusof, vice president of Refining and Trading for PETRONAS.
Sustainability has always been key in all of PETRONAS' programs, Yusof said, emphasizing the company's sustainability program focuses on community well-being and development, education and the environment.
"We have advanced our sustainability commitment by aligning our efforts to our sustainability goals," he said.
As an AEPW partner, PETRONAS is committed to education and engagement, infrastructure development, innovation "and even cleanup," Yusof said.
"We believe in balancing our business goals against sustainability in this economy," he continued. "As such, we are also exploring development of bio-based chemicals, not only as a way to lessen the impact of our chemical operations, but also as a complement to our current business operation."
As global awareness of its consequences increases, the issue of plastic waste is something the industry must address, Yusof observed.
"As producers and manufacturers, we cannot do it by ourselves," he said, encouraging partnership through AEPW and similar organizational efforts. "We must leverage what we have to make a practical contribution and get everybody involved."
While the industry has been working actively to develop more biodegradable products, Yusof noted that "just putting the product out itself, without education and awareness," is insufficient.
"You have to educate [consumers] that this is a different product," he said. Otherwise, Yusof said, "the product doesn't work" and is viewed as a product "that is not very good."
Four focuses
Fitterling outlined four key areas AEPW considers integral to its success, starting with education and engagement.
"In my mind, this is the most crucial area for all of us. We must help everyone -- governments, businesses and communities -- understand what the issues are so they know where and how to mobilize action," he said. "We all have plenty of resources, but if we can focus them collectively on the right areas, we can support and leverage each other's work."
The second key is infrastructure development.
"There are regions in the world that desperately need new infrastructure to collect and manage waste, increase recycling and establish markets for post-use," Fitterling said.
Fitterling cited one study that estimates as much as 90 percent of plastics waste comes from just 10 major rivers: eight in Asia and two in Africa, where collection and recycling infrastructure are currently nonexistent.
"If we can focus our infrastructure development there, we can make a tremendous impact," he said.
The alliance's third area of focus is innovation.
"We're committed to advancing and scaling new technologies and new business models that make recycling and recovering plastics easier," he said, adding that it is simultaneously essential "to pledge our deep science capabilities as well as our understanding of capital markets to model new solutions that are shared broadly."
The alliance's fourth focal point is cleanup.
"Any effort focused on plastics waste must also focus on the waste that is already in the environment," Fitterling said. "And we are committed to sharing best practices as well as best efforts to do just that."
Fitterling admitted that this is a sizable task for the industry to tackle. "And we can't do it alone," he said. "But we also know from past efforts that collective action and public/private partnerships do work."
Lyn Tattum, vice president of Oil, Mid- Downstream and Chemical for IHS Markit, moderated the discussion.
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