Page 26 - Plastics News April 2021

FeAtures

want the producers to pay and the large FMCGs [fast pleasant,” he added. Likely public policy will force action,
moving consumer goods companies] don’t want to pay a restricting the sale and export of virgin plastics, the
premium for these recycled products,” he added. Thus former CEO said.“That would be an option – basically don’t
far, the large FMCG players have yet to come out and say allow exports unless the pellets have a recycled content
their cost of raw materials will rise meaningfully in the of at least 30%. Then by default you force recycling at
coming years because they want them to be sustainable. the origin. Then things will change very quickly,” said
If they did and could pass along the costs to consumers, Ramachandran. Forcing recycling at the origin before it
that would work, the former CEO noted. is exported is preferable to only forcing the ultimate end
user to recycle, he noted. “Policy has to come in where
“The consumers cannot get a free lunch here,” said
Ramachandran. “Economically it is really a challenge. you impact exports of virgin resin because that will force
Collection is an issue, and unless municipalities, industry’s hand in realising that there is an economic
governments and consumers change behaviour so that barrier to just increasing production of virgin resin with no
there is collection of these plastics to get them to a consequences,” said Ramachandran. This can be done by
recycling centre to do the conversion, it will continue to the exporting countries as well as the importing countries.
be a challenge,” he added. And once one or two countries start, it will likely have a
ripple effect, he noted.
Alternatives to plastic packaging are expensive and have
much higher carbon footprints, the former CEO noted. In Social Impact of Disruption and Scale
many cases there are no real alternatives. Bans on single- Companies and governments must also consider the social
use plastics such as bags have successfully caused changes impact of waste collection and plastics recycling. Having
in consumer behaviour where they reuse cloth bags for large-scale chemical recycling facilities where plastic
shopping. But packaging for medical supplies, e-commerce waste is directed to may not be feasible.
and durables such as appliances still requires plastic, he “Garbage is a very local issue and typically controlled by
noted. “Activists and industry have to come together to very powerful families in municipalities – and this happens
solve this and public policy has to play a role. Some kind everywhere. The biggest issue [in collection] is the social
of fund has to be established so that consumer behaviour impact. If you’re going to put people out of jobs or take
can be changed to collect these plastics and bring them revenue away from a segment of society, it’s going to
to recycling locations,” said Ramachandran.
take a very long time to successfully implement,” said
Focus on Plastic waste Ramachandran.
Meanwhile, the scale of the problem continues to grow, “So you flip it on its head, accept that reality even though
with masses of plastic bags being found in the stomachs of you don’t like it, and build these small $10m-15m units
cattle in India and camels in Dubai and plastic pellets in of 50-100 tonnes/day to convert the plastic to fuel right
fish – all highly charged and visible public issues. A 23 March next to the municipalities where they have their solid
Washington Post article highlighted the latest example waste collection today,” he added.The resulting pyrolysis
of plastics in wildlife, noting one instance where 2,000 oil can be used as fuel, including to run the pyrolysis
plastic bags were found inside a dead camel. The author facility. It can be shipped off to other locations, including
Marcus Eriksen, co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute – called to crackers to produce new plastics. That ecosystem exists
it “a whole new level of appalling”.“The plastics industry today, he noted.
thinks growth is going to be at 3-5%/year for packaging and “Recycled plastics-to-fuel is a sustainable business
capacity [eventually] doubled. These forces (prevalence model with 10-15% returns and this can be self-funding.
of plastic waste and capacity expansion) cannot coexist. The biggest area that needs to be funded is influencing
It is not going to end well if there is no viable solution,” consumer behaviour to bring the plastic to a place where it
said Ramachandran.
can be easily collected and brought to these centers,” said
“The industry thinks it has a lot of time to solve this Ramachandran.“That ecosystem has to be built and it can
problem. But when I look at the level of activism from be done. Look at the state of mask wearing compliance in
governments and the general public, I am worried that the world [amid the pandemic]… It is possible to influence
we don’t fully appreciate the intensity of the backlash. consumer behaviour in less than a year,” he added.
Something has to be done rather quickly. Otherwise,
someone else will solve the problem for us, which won’t be (Courtesy: ICIS)

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