Sustainability
There are multiple approaches to being a better neighbor
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of the chemical industry to protect health: masks, gloves and other protective items as well as alcohol and hand sanitizer have become a staple of everyday life for the world’s population, while plastic products have allowed for safe food packaging during lockdowns.
All this said, it has been several years already that the petrochemical and chemical industry is on a quest to close the life cycle of plastic products, and the pandemic is not going to make this problem go away. In the words of Juan Diego Mejía, president of Essentia: “The circular economy is here to stay and all of us must commit to it. From both a conceptual and pragmatic approach, we cannot keep using the planet as if its resources were endless.”
Improving sustainability in a company’s operations consists of many aspects, environmental stewardship being just one of them. These include not only recycling and waster management, but also reducing greenhouse emissions and the use of greener raw materials. Sustainability also means being a responsible employer, assuring the health, safety and decent remuneration and working conditions for employees – as well as being a good neighbor, supporting the communities around operations, even more so at a time of crisis like the current one with Covid-19.
This is part of the more traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR), and examples of this are numerous in the region: in Mexico, distributor Grupo Pochteca co-launched an initiative called “Companies for Wellbeing”, through which it committed to pay 6,500 Mexican pesos as a minimum monthly wage – the company has 1,300 employees. Also in Mexico, in the state of Coatzacoalcos, Braskem Idesa has been supporting the authorities with doctors, nurses and hospital infrastructure during the pandemic. In Colombia, Ecopetrol is developing social programs around infrastructure, sports, health and education. In Brazil, Unigel sponsors two schools in Candeias, with a total of 1,300 children. The program “became the benchmark on public-private partnerships in education in the state of Bahia”, according to Roberto Santos, CEO of Unigel.
Greener Operations
With the challenges generated by the planet’s scarce resources and its growing population, it is not surprising that innovation is now heavily geared towards sustainability and no longer towards product performance and cost alone. João Parolin, CEO of Brazilian specialty chemicals producer Oxiteno, described the ‘Greenformance’ concept that guides the company’s developments: “Most of what we do in our innovation activities is to find more sustainable ways to solve our customers’ problems. The Greenformance concept looks at having an end-to-end study for every product.”
As an example, Parolin mentioned a new fungicide for soybean rust that mitigates the side effects for the plants, as well as new high-concentration detergents that save packaging, freights and emissions.
As global warming becomes a reality, governments and industries are seeing how to best reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save water. In Colombia, for example, Ecopetrol has pledged to reduce total emissions by 20% by 2030. The state-owned company is investing in 300 MW of clean energy generation capacity, and has also joined a World Bank initiative to eliminate routine gas flaring in oil and gas fields by 2030. Meanwhile in Brazil, Unigel invested 50 million reais to ensure 80% of the water used in its Candeias facilities is recycled.
Moving toward bio-based raw materials is another strategy for companies in the chemical space. It has already been 10 years since Braskem launched its bio-based polyethylene, a product with the same properties as its fossil-based equivalent, and today the company’s production capacity has grown to 200,000 mt/y of green PE. Edison Terra, executive VP Olefins and Polyolefins in South America for Braskem, affirms that demand for bio-based products continues to increase, especially in Europe and Asia, and Braskem is considering expanding the capacity of its green ethylene unit in Brazil. Braskem also developed a bio-based EVA resin, and is working with Haldor Topsoe to develop a new technology for the production of green monoethylene glicol (MEG) from sugarcane. Also in Brazil, Elekeiroz has developed phthalate-free plasticizers from hydrocarbons, but the company, through its Nexoleum joint venture, can also produce green plasticizers using epoxidized soybean oil as feedstock. Marcos de Marchi, CEO of Elekeiroz, said: “This year we expanded our capacity for production of green plasticizers thanks to stronger demand from shoe and toy manufacturers mainly,” although he recognized that soy bean oil is still expensive if compared to petroleum derivatives.
In many cases, it is final consumers driving change towards more environment-friendly products. In the home and personal care segment, for example, the trend is for more natural ingredients, and those dedicated to trading and distribution are playing an important role in connecting both ends of the value chain and passing on feedback to producers. “We work continuously with supplier partners and customers to introduce clean, green and safer technologies for paints, food, personal care and other markets,” said Jorge Buckup, president Latin America at Univar Solutions.
Managing Waste
While using green feedstock and reducing the amount of raw material required to produce a particular item are very positive developments, ultimately the industry needs to give a new life to the products when they become waste, and some steps are already being taken with the production of post-consumer recycled resins (PCR). The idea is that the concept of ‘waste’ itself must be eliminated.
Jorge Cuetos, VP Americas for standard products at INEOS Styrolution, explained that the company launched a recycled-content acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) last year, and has been working on a number of advanced recycling initiatives, particularly in the polystyrene used in food packaging. “We have proved that we can really transform waste into the raw material, which is styrene monomer. Based on that, we have decided to build two manufacturing facilities; in the US and Europe. This allows us to close the loop infinitely,” he says, although for that to happen, he acknowledges that governments and citizens must also play their part with the proper recycling culture and infrastructure.
Braskem has also been working on different sides of the problem. In Brazil, the company has a program to increase post-consumer waste recycling and improve the lives of thousands of waste pickers, while in the US, the firm has partnered up with the Philadelphia Eagles football team to collect and recycle plastic bottle caps and other plastic materials. On the R&D front, the company is looking at recycling and has successfully tested in its crackers samples of feedstock produced out of the pyrolysis of plastic residues.
The solution, in any case, cannot consist only of the individual efforts of particular companies. Regulations will play a role in terms of setting recycling standards, while chemical segment associations, like ANIQ in Mexico, are also aiming at industry-wide targets. “Many cities and states in Mexico have already banned free plastic bags in supermarkets. By January 2021 single-use expanded polystyrene items will be banned as well, including plates, cups and straws,” says Miguel Benedetto, director general of ANIQ. “By 2020, not just producers but also transformers, distributors and transportation companies should waste zero pellets. By 2030, 100% of the industry’s packaging should be 80% recycled. And by 2040, 100% of all plastics and packaging should be recycled,” he concluded.
Image courtesy of Sara Pinto