Ron Abbott, sustainability technology manager for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP, is proud that the accelerated pace of sustainability is “part of our DNA now.”
The company, he said, is focused on emissions reduction, advanced recycling and corporate and social responsibility.
“We take it very seriously,” Abbott said. “We see this as being a holistic approach toward sustainability. Our five thousand employees are all on the same team. We have a lot of team people in our company who are rallying around this cry, which is so gratifying to me to be part of this team effort.”
Abbott’s particular focus is on advanced recycling.
“We’ve worked so hard to develop plastic resins that are capable of all kinds of amazing properties and performance,” he said. “We’ve light-weighted, we’ve been able to improve fuel performance in vehicles and we have plastics packaging for food products that are just amazing in how they perform. People have poured their souls into developing these kinds of resins, and to make them as efficiently as possible.”
The next challenge, Abbott said, is to find ways to adapt these materials from a linear economy to a circular economy.
"That's what our commitment is," he said. “Today, we’re taking materials and collecting waste plastics through third parties, we’re working toward converting those materials to liquids and then taking those liquids back and converting them to feedstock — and then back to plastics.”
CP Chem has developed a product called Marlex Anew, a type of plastic that meets these circular goals.
“We’re really excited about where this momentum is taking us,” Abbott said. “It’s a team effort.”
Ron Abbott, sustainability technology manager for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, LP at the Economic Alliance’s Gulf Coast Industry Forum.
Craig Cookson, senior director of plastics sustainability for the plastics division of the American Chemistry Council, noted at the Economic Alliance’s Gulf Coast Industry Forum in Pasadena, Texas, that as many as 400 companies globally have committed to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to achieve higher levels of recycled plastic in their packaging and products.
“In the U.S., packaging and plastics activators have committed similarly to 30 percent recycled content, or sustainably sourced bio-content, in their packaging by 2025.”
Millennials and Generation Z help drive this demand by wanting “to see their brands deliver more ‘non-virgin’ plastics, either from renewable or recycled content,” Cookson said.
Charles McConnell, energy center officer at University of Houston’s Center for Carbon Management in Energy, has strong feelings regarding this demographic’s often-pervasive attitudes about sustainability.
“These are the ones who are still living in their parents’ basements, for God’s sake. They’re talking about how much they want this and that and the other thing, but what are they willing to pay for them?” McConnell stated.
The issue that must be addressed, McConnell continued, is how much these individuals are willing to pay for products that satisfy their demand for increased sustainability.
“I believe strongly that people are clearly interested in “magic” from the chemicals industry,” he said. “They want magic, but they don't want to pay a nickel more for it and think it's your job to figure it out, not their job to use less.
These are the same people who are lined up seven-deep at Starbucks in the drive-through lane, idling their vehicles while they’re texting on their phones, waiting for their lattes. They do care about the environment, don’t they? I don’t think so, and that’s what the issue is.”
McConnell said he believes “People in this country have been spoiled.”
“We’ve done it to ourselves,” he said. “We’ve given them magic for the last 150 years,” referring to the relatively recent era of when paper products were used to wrap food items, which lead to more rapid spoilage.
“Don’t tell me that plastics are a bad thing,” he said. “Here we are today with a plastics industry that has delivered magic in terms of food preservation, medical systems, clothing, building materials and everything else. This is an industry that, in many ways, is going to be challenged those demands. People are going to want it cheap and plentiful, and that’s where the race is.”
