Use waste plastics as chems feedstocks to drive circular economy

Utilising waste plastics as feedstocks for the production of chemicals should be part of strategies to better deal with waste management, according to the American Chemistry Council’s vice president of plastics. Finding new uses for plastic waste as feedstocks for bio-based materials would help to create a truly circular economy, where petrochemicals firms produce polymer products and then utilise them once they have been used as a means of creating more, according to ACC vice president Steve Russell. Feedstock pricing is crucial in petrochemicals production and development of the bioplastics sector has been slower than expected, but the issue of waste plastic in the form of pollution, microplastics and ocean waste have become increasingly prominent in the popular consciousness throughout 2018.While pricing is likely to continue to be a factor in the growing market, one key to catalysing take-up of bio feedstocks will be to find cheap, reliable sources of material, according to Russell.