Industry reacts: Minderoo report labeled “misleading” for not recognizing plastics’ key role in fighting climate change

20 May 2021 --- The American Chemistry Council (ACC) and Veolia have come out in defense of plastics after a Minderoo Foundation report suggested global polymer producers and their financial backers should be held responsible for the global plastic pollution crisis. 

The report identified 20 companies supported by a small group of financial backers as responsible for producing over 50 percent of the single-use plastic ending up as waste worldwide.

However, the ACC says the report misconstrues the relationship between plastics and carbon footprint, highlighting studies that have found replacing plastics with other materials would drive up waste and carbon impacts.

Meanwhile, waste management giant Veolia refers to plastic as an “engineering masterpiece,” offering unparalleled packaging and hygiene capabilities.

Veolia sees industry and manufacturer partnerships and a shift in consumer behavior as integral to overcoming the plastic pollution crisis.

What about climate change?
The ACC responded to The Plastic Waste Makers Index by suggesting it fails to factor in plastics’ critical role in lowering greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) while also flagging that Minderoo is funded in part by one of the world’s largest suppliers of iron ore.

“The report from The Minderoo Foundation misconstrues the relationship between plastics and our carbon footprint. Some of the most comprehensive studies to date have found replacing plastics with other materials would drive up waste and carbon impacts,” explains Joshua Baca, ACC’s VP for plastics.

“A renowned analysis by the environmental firm Trucost found replacing plastic in consumer packaging and products with common alternatives would increase environmental costs nearly four times.”

“And a separate study found that switching from plastic packaging to many alternatives would increase the amount of packaging generated annually in the US by 55 million tons and GHGs by 130 percent.”The ACC warns replacing plastics with alternative materials would drive up waste and carbon impacts.

According to the ACC, recognition of plastic’s critical role in enabling innovations needed for sustainable infrastructure, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles and charging stations, is “glaringly absent” from the report.

“The world needs plastic to live more sustainably, and America’s plastic makers are leading the development of solutions to end plastic waste,” continues Baca. “We’re innovating and investing in efforts to create a more circular economy, where used plastics are systematically remanufactured to make new plastics and other products.”

“In the last three years, the private sector has announced US$5.5 billion in US investments to dramatically modernize plastics recycling. We also support an international framework to eliminate plastic waste leakage into the environment that allows for locally relevant solutions, addresses the need for investment in national waste management infrastructure, and recognizes plastics’ essential role in driving down GHGs.”

A waste management issue
Meanwhile, Tim Duret, director of sustainable technology at Veolia UK and Ireland, says plastic is “not a material that we should shy away from” but rather an “engineering masterpiece” offering unmatched packaging and hygiene potential.

“What this report clearly highlights is the issue of single-use plastics. We need to transform the way we approach this type of material, working collaboratively between industry and manufacturers and creating a shift in consumer behavior to move toward a circular economy.”

“We are actively working with companies mentioned to develop new value chains and address this issue. Plastic is durable and there are solutions, whether that be investing in new recycling techniques or altering products.”

“We are part of the UK Plastic Pact, which aims to ban unnecessary plastic, reduce and improve the design of necessary plastics. The Plastics Packaging Tax is the key to this. By financially encouraging the use of recycled material, eco-design and investment in infrastructure is incentivized, and we will begin to reap the benefits of an overarching pre-production to treatment view when approaching plastics.”

The UK government has released draft legislation and a draft policy paper on the tax – effective from April 2022 – for public consultation.Veolia believes plastics taxes are essential to incentivizing the use of recycled material, eco-design and investment in infrastructure.

The draft legislation is proposing a £200 (US$282) per ton tax rate for plastic packaging produced or imported into the UK with less than 30 percent recycled plastic. The measure is expected to impact around 20,000 plastics packaging producers and importers.

Similarly, The EU’s Plastics Strategy requires all packaging to be recyclable or reusable in an economically viable way by 2030, while its recently introduced plastics tax imposes a €0.80/kg (US$0.98/kg) levy on non-recycled plastic packaging waste.

“Overdue focus” on petrochemical players
The Plastic Waste-Makers Index is reportedly the first time the financial and material flows of single-use plastic production have been mapped globally and traced back to their source.

The index was developed with partners including Wood Mackenzie and experts from the London School of Economics and Stockholm Environment Institute.

“Our report does not try to enumerate the level of responsibility of the single-use plastics problem. We highlight clearly in the report that this responsibility is shared,” Laurent Kimnan, report co-author at Minderoo, tells PackagingInsights.

“However, the limelight until now has been on the FMCG brands. Our research is the overdue focus on upstream petrochemical companies that produce the plastic polymers.”

“That said, it’s a ‘chicken and egg’ problem – today, virtually all plastics are derived from fossil fuels, so brands are only able to meet their demand by the supply of plastics derived from fossil fuels.”

By Joshua Poole