EDITORIAL
A lot of zeros, but not much behind them – why the announcements of polymer corporations must be put into perspective
 Sven Arnold (Photo: PIE) |
Large corporations like to talk big. But repetition doesn’t make these pronouncements better. On the other hand, it might be too much to expect restraint and nuance from the C-suite elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The latest example of big talk comes from Saudi Arabian polymer producer Sabic (Riyadh; www.sabic.com). Its CEO Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh announced in Davos that his company wants to produce 1 mn t of recycled materials by 2030 – in eight years. Mind you: wants to, not will. In addition to chemically recycled monomers, the materials mentioned include all kinds of polymers, chemically recycled, mechanically reprocessed, bio-based, and – rather ostentatiously – collected from the sea. According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), Sabic has traditional fossil-based production capacities of 19.7 mn t/y for polymers and 39 mn t/y for monomers of all kinds. The resulting factor: 60.
But in order to not single out just one player in the petrochemical sector, here is a comparison with BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Dow (Midland, Michigan, USA; www.dow.com). Both do no better when it comes to the hollow grandeur of their announcements.
BASF aims to replace around 250,000 t of fossil raw materials by 2025 with recycled and waste-based feedstocks. Even if the people of Ludwigshafen have a faster timeline, it’s still not much. On the monomer side, the group claims capacities of almost 12 mn t/y, plus a good 5 mn t/y of polymers – resulting in a factor of 68.
Dow CEO Jim Fitterling recently raised the initially communicated target of 1 mn t of circular and renewable materials to be produced annually from 2030 onwards to a staggering 3 mn t/y. This compares to 14.5 mn t/y of polymers and almost 32 mn t/y of monomers. Still, the factor here is 15.5, down from 47.5. In purely mathematical terms, this is better than the other two groups. But it is still far from good.
Returning to the big statements: the petrochemical giants seem to be primarily interested in making a big public splash with a promising, dynamic brand name. In any case, most of them seem to have succeeded in this. Neologisms like Trucircle, Circulen, Borcycle, or even Ccycled sound green and stimulate the reader’s imagination. The brand, Polymers with purpose, on the other hand, seems less catchy: because anything else would be pointless in today’s times.
Sven Arnold, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Kunststoff Information
The latest example of big talk comes from Saudi Arabian polymer producer Sabic (Riyadh; www.sabic.com). Its CEO Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh announced in Davos that his company wants to produce 1 mn t of recycled materials by 2030 – in eight years. Mind you: wants to, not will. In addition to chemically recycled monomers, the materials mentioned include all kinds of polymers, chemically recycled, mechanically reprocessed, bio-based, and – rather ostentatiously – collected from the sea. According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), Sabic has traditional fossil-based production capacities of 19.7 mn t/y for polymers and 39 mn t/y for monomers of all kinds. The resulting factor: 60.
But in order to not single out just one player in the petrochemical sector, here is a comparison with BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Dow (Midland, Michigan, USA; www.dow.com). Both do no better when it comes to the hollow grandeur of their announcements.
BASF aims to replace around 250,000 t of fossil raw materials by 2025 with recycled and waste-based feedstocks. Even if the people of Ludwigshafen have a faster timeline, it’s still not much. On the monomer side, the group claims capacities of almost 12 mn t/y, plus a good 5 mn t/y of polymers – resulting in a factor of 68.
Dow CEO Jim Fitterling recently raised the initially communicated target of 1 mn t of circular and renewable materials to be produced annually from 2030 onwards to a staggering 3 mn t/y. This compares to 14.5 mn t/y of polymers and almost 32 mn t/y of monomers. Still, the factor here is 15.5, down from 47.5. In purely mathematical terms, this is better than the other two groups. But it is still far from good.
Returning to the big statements: the petrochemical giants seem to be primarily interested in making a big public splash with a promising, dynamic brand name. In any case, most of them seem to have succeeded in this. Neologisms like Trucircle, Circulen, Borcycle, or even Ccycled sound green and stimulate the reader’s imagination. The brand, Polymers with purpose, on the other hand, seems less catchy: because anything else would be pointless in today’s times.
Sven Arnold, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Kunststoff Information
27.01.2023 Plasteurope.com [252046-0]
Published on 27.01.2023