What will the World of Plastics Look like in the future?
Scott Newton
Managing Partner, Thinking Dimensions ? LinkedIN Top Voice 2024 ?Bold Growth, M&A, Strategy, Value Creation, Sustainable EBITDA ? NED, Senior Advisor to Boards,C-Level,Family Office,Private Equity ? Techstars Lead Mentor
What will the world of plastics look like tomorrow?
And how will it impact you?
8 Million Tons of plastic waste enter into our oceans each year.
Germany has introduced a national target on plastic waste recycling to reach 63% by 2022, up from 40% today.
373 global investors that manage over $35tn of assets seek to rein in carbon emissions. The Global Climate Action 100+ group are adding pressure to big fossil fuel producers. As Petroleum Economist explains “Big investors put pressure on big oil. Institutional investors are starting to demand emissions reduction measures”
How is the world of plastics responding?
Judging from the world’s largest plastics industry trade fair, the K show, which is taking place this week in Dusseldorf Germany this week, they are starting to take action.
The K show this year has several features dedicated to the recycling and reduction of plastic waste including:
- A Science Campus
- A Circular Economy Forum
- A Special Show entitiled “Plastics Shape the Future” including an entire day dedicated to “Plastics for sustainable Development.”
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Stapf, from the Karslruher Institut fur Technologie Institut fur Technische Chemie explained the challenges in recycling plastic waste and the R&D that is being combined with financial models to achieve goals that not only reduce plastic waste and are also economically possible.
Friedrich Barth, Geschaftsfuhrer of ISC3, the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre noted that there has been a five year major shift towards responsibility. Yet business models still need to change much more quickly. He also noted that disruption would be more likely to be driven by Startups than established players.
Innovative Startup companies were demonstrating new solutions.
Bureo, founded by two American engineers, is focusing on recovering the plastics materials in fish nets.
Given that 10% of all plastic waste in the oceans are fish nets, the traceability, recoverability, and recycling of this material makes a material difference. Bureo demonstrated how they recovered more than 515,000 kg of materials and used this as a supply for the manufacture of skate boards, sunglasses, and other high quality consumer finished goods.
P&G together with Lenor presented a PET bottle with up to 50% recycled content during the October 17th packaging day.
Alba Recycling GmbH, which operates five of Germany’s largest sorting plants for recycling of packaging waste detailed how they sort 33% of all packaging waste collected in Germany, and how the use of materials including Procyclen could reduce emissions by 54%.
KraussMaffei demonstrated how to use their recompounding and production solutions to reuse a plastic bucket as an automobile A pillar.
Covestro exhibited an Adidas project for a show made for the circular economy, which is recyclable.
The recurring theme from the largest producers including BASF and Covestro through to government agencies and NGOs was clear “The entire industry and community must work together and collaborate for innovative solutions.”
Which brings me to one of the most interesting new digital platforms that is being demonstrated during the K Show:
The new and innovative m-hub is exhibiting as “the ultimate community for meeting new partners and engaging with any stakeholder of the manufacturing industry linked to the plastic supply chain.”
M-Hub explains, they are “building the innovation community to tackle technical challenges for Molders, Materials Suppliers, Toolmakers, Components Suppliers, Equipment Manufacturers, and Service Providers.”
Are we moving fast enough?
I think the answer is still No. The innovative companies however, with a focus on the importance of building the community for change, are moving in the right direction.
The opportunities are tremendous for those who can successfully transition from old linear models towards a new circular system.
Owner, Body Sense
5 年Thanks for the information [email protected]
Procurement & Supply Chain Executive | Strategic Sourcing | Energy | O&G | Nuclear | Mining | EPC
5 年Hi Scott, interesting article on a very complex subject. Standardisation of products is still a top priority if we are looking at recycling as a measure to avoid pollution at the end of life cycle and to partially decrease the consumption overall; polymers as you know are hardly compatible and frequently mixed in packaging, hardware, automotive. Single plastic products design must be imposed by law and presented to the market and understood by consumers as a feature. Laws must be redesigned to consider reuse. Energy recovery is a valid option to be accepted with the current technologies available in the market. ? ? ? ? ?
Managing Partner, Thinking Dimensions ? LinkedIN Top Voice 2024 ?Bold Growth, M&A, Strategy, Value Creation, Sustainable EBITDA ? NED, Senior Advisor to Boards,C-Level,Family Office,Private Equity ? Techstars Lead Mentor
5 年First Henkel bottles made of chemically recycled plastic. Dr. Thorsten Leopold from Henkel will be presenting the pilot project together with BASF during a live talk at the K2019 trade fair in Düsseldorf on October 23, 2019, stand C21/D21, hall 5.
Operations Program & Project Manager at Red Bull
5 年Hi Scott Newton, thank you for your article! With m-hub we aim to help people and companies in the plastic industry to find partners and technologies which allow them to achieve a more sustainable use of plastic.
Payments Solutions & Strategy | Client Partnership & Growth | FinTech | Project Management (PMP) | MSCS (Professional Member of SCS)
5 年A radical mindset change is also essential among the consumers. One use plastic habits should change as even though it can be biodegradable, it is also creating greenhouse emissions in its manufacturing process down to transportation.