Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
      Machine builders meet pressing needs for plastic in 2020
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
      Plastic Globes ask: Was there a lighter side in 2020?
      Compounders write a business survival story in 2020
    • Kickstart: Unilever calls for 'living wage' pay in supply base
      Kickstart: Electric cars, recycling and warm mittens
      Kickstart: Welcome to the VUCA economy
      Let's get social
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Chase expands giving campaign in 2020
      McDivitt will showcase Ascend's COVID-19 work on CNBC's Mad Money
      Move over, Plastic Man: Here comes Plastic Woman
      Star in spotlight with West Virginia philanthropy award
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
      ACC, NAM eye economic priorities in Biden presidency
    • Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
      A timeline of the industry's COVID response
    • There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Compounders write a business survival story in 2020
    • Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
    • Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
      Mailbag: Oil-plastics connection is overstated
      Mailbag: Plastics recycling not cost-effective
      Mailbag: Price increases hurting North American PE buyers
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
      Video: Structural foam molding
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - October 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • White Papers
    • Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
      Sponsored By CDS MACHINES
      Facing medical equipment shortages during COVID-19 outbreak?
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Transform your molding capabilities with the Canon Shuttle Mold System
    • Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
October 13, 1997 02:00 AM

GLOBAL-WARMING RULES CHILL PLASTICS' ALLIES

Steve Toloken
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    WASHINGTON — Steps to curb global warming could shift 30 percent of the basic chemical industry — including plastics — from the United States to the developing world in the next 30 years, at least according to one U.S. government study.

    The plastics industry is speaking out on the issue.

    Environmentalists and the White House, on the other hand, argue that if nothing is done, the world will face more-intense heat waves and droughts, flooding from rising ocean waters and the spreading of infectious diseases.

    Japan will host a global-warming summit in December, and negotiators appear to favor more stringent restrictions on the developed world, making it more likely that production of resin, and ultimately plastic products, will shift overseas.

    Industry attention is picking up. The head of Eastman Chemical Co., in Kingsport, Tenn., spoke Oct. 6 at a White House forum on global warming, and the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. took a formal position late last month.

    ``Legally binding commitments requiring only developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will export economic growth and jobs from the U.S. to developing countries such as China, India and Mexico,'' said Earnest Deavenport, Eastman Chemical Co. chief executive officer.

    Leaders of SPI, based in Washington, approved a resolution Sept. 25 that said reducing greenhouse gases to 1990 levels or below, as the treaty aims to do, would be destructive to the U.S. plastics industry. SPI disputed the science linking greenhouse gases to global warming, and said that any treaty must apply to both developing and developed countries.

    Without limits on developing countries, all the treaty would do is move resin manufacturing plants overseas, shifting wealth without lowering emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, said Lewis Freeman, SPI vice president of government affairs.

    A Department of Energy study released in July said that a global- warming treaty would shift 20-30 percent of the basic chemical industry to developing countries in 30 years, as companies replace older plants. That study analyzes 1996 proposals from other countries, and said it does not take into account emissions trading and other flexible policies advocated by President Clinton.

    A study released Oct. 9 by the Washington-based Economic Strategy Institute found that energy taxes would cause U.S. chemical companies to move more production overseas. And it said U.S. chemical manufacturers would feel the pinch more than European competitors because energy costs in the United States are so much lower than in Europe now, and the U.S. chemical industry is more dependent on energy-intensive sectors like plastics than Europe.

    Paul Cicio, government relations manager for Dow Chemical Co. in Washington, said the treaty would put caps on emissions of hydrocarbons. A European Union proposal to require greenhouse gases to be 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2010, for example, would require current emission levels to be reduced 28 percent.

    ``You cannot produce plastics with anything other than hydrocarbons,'' he said. ``If you put a cap on hydrocarbons, where will the plastics come from?''

    But supporters of a global-climate treaty say industries exaggerate the costs of pollution control.

    ``History tells us that every time we have faced an environmental challenge — from getting the lead out of gasoline, to protecting the ozone layer, to controlling acid rain — there have been those in industry that have said it won't work and will wreck the economy,'' said Daniel Lashof, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. ``They have never been right.''

    Reducing acid rain pollution, for example, was estimated to cost $1,500 per ton of sulfur emission reductions, but now emissions credits are trading for $100 a ton — 6 percent of estimates — Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., told a recent congressional hearing.

    Several observers predicted that developing countries will not have to meet binding commitments at the Japanese summit. European governments also do not favor binding targets for developing countries.

    U.S. government officials have said developing countries should face goals that are fair for their level of development. The Senate voted 95-0 this summer to require that any treaty have some commitments from the developing world.

    ``I fear that some who have argued that the United States should not take any action against global warming unless developing countries simultaneously commit to similar action are not motivated by a desire to improve the climate treaty, but by a desire to kill it,'' Lashof said.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • Processor of the Year submissions
      • White Papers