Tax credits, biorefinery support sought to fulfill Biden bioplastics goal

Washington — As President Joe Biden's administration tries to implement its grand vision of replacing 90 percent of fossil plastics with bio-based alternatives, advocates for that dramatic change are pointing to policy levers Washington could pull.

Those include tax incentives for renewable chemicals — such as those for biofuels — and federal support for composting infrastructure and biorefineries, as well as a continued push for electric cars that will shift biofuel markets in ways that could help "defossilize" plastics.

Those were some of the ideas were bandied about at a recent conference of the Plant Based Products Council, as attendees looked at how to implement the ambitious bioplastics goal set out in a March 22 report from the White House science office. It is a goal some question as being unrealistic.

Resin supplier Braskem, which makes sugarcane-based bio-polyethylene in addition to its much larger business making petrochemical-based plastics, wants Washington to look at policies to level the playing field for chemicals from renewable feedstocks.

"I think to hit those goals you're going to have to see a little bit of a level playing field emerge," said Geoffrey Inch, circular economy and sustainability director for Braskem North America, in comments on a panel at the conference, held March 27-29 in Washington.

"Today we do have a higher cost of production in renewable polymers," he said. "We also have strong incentives in the fuel industry to take in that biomass. Calibrating that all to the future we want to build is going to be a really important step."

In an interview on the sidelines of the event, he pointed to measures like a clean fuel production credit in section 45z of the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act as something that could be studied for renewable chemicals.

"There is so much federal policy supporting biomass-to-fuels markets today, but to have a level playing field where there could be some type of national incentive for renewable chemicals and materials, is what we're looking to develop," Inch said.

Brazil-based Braskem is one of North America's largest makers of polypropylene as well as a major supplier of bioplastics.

There were other policy ideas debated, some more closely related to Biden's announcement and others less directly tied in.

The Washington-based PBPC, for example, said it's eyeing this year's farm bill, a once-every-five-years reauthorization for Department of Agriculture programs, as a vehicle for changes including federal support for infrastructure, research and purchasing requirements for bio-based products, including bioplastics.

As well, seaweed bioplastics startup Sway Innovation Co. pointed to federal support for building biorefineries to extract natural polymers and for composting infrastructure.

"The most enabling kinds of policies that might emerge or the types of infrastructure that could be supported would be … biorefineries in general but especially for that raw seaweed we work with," said CEO Julia Marsh. "The second would be more investment in compost infrastructure. We need more access for more people to compost their materials."

Marsh said the White House's 90 percent goal should be a sign to investors.

"The indication that 90 percent of plastics should be replaced with biobased feedstocks is an incredible signal to the investment community and to brands that they should be adopting materials like ours," she said. "There needs to be an ecosystem of solutions as we're moving away from fossil-based plastics."

The Biden administration plans to release a report in June with research and development implementation details on its plan, which also sets out broad goals for 30 percent of chemicals to be made from biomaterials.

A White House official who helped write the report backed the idea of regulatory and policy changes to accelerate biomanufacturing.

"We recognize that our current biotechnology regulatory framework serves as a potential bottleneck in the development of new biobased products for the country," said Dominique Carter, assistant director for agricultural sciences, innovation and workforce in the White House Office of Science and Technology policy.

One bioeconomy analyst said the Biden policy needs to be fleshed out, but added that the shift to electric cars could be a positive for bioplastics, since it should cause feedstocks like corn that now go into biofuels to shift to biochemicals.

"I would say electrification could actually lead to the de-fossilization of plastics," said Gerard Ostheimer, co-manager of the BioFuture Campaign, a clean energy umbrella group of 25 governments, and a former U.S. Department of Agriculture adviser.

He said the renewable chemicals sector could benefit from government support, and he noted the U.S. government 15 years ago pursued controversial policies like tariffs on ethanol imports to help that U.S. industry develop.

"We were breaking trade laws to block Brazilian ethanol, we were doing all kinds of crazy stuff in order to get that sector off the ground," Ostheimer said. "Frankly, the renewable chemicals sector, it needs that window, it needs that explosive growth window and it needs that clarity of demand."

He said it's now up to the Biden administration to take its plans to Congress and "put some meat on the bones" for federal policy to push toward the 90 percent goal.

"You're going to need Treasury, you're going to need the Department of Agriculture, you're going to need DOE, you're going to need EPA in order to realize that lofty goal," he said. "The challenge of scale requires partnering with the ADMs and the Bunges and the Shells and the ExxonMobils to aid in that transition."

Braskem's Inch agreed that the task now is to develop policies around the report and a September executive order from Biden. Braskem joined PBPC earlier this year.

"The PBPC is an organization that is working on this already and we're here as a participant to help move that along," Inch said. "I think the simplest way to think about it is converting Biden's bold goals into policy. He essentially laid out the vision. How do we start to work that into policy?"

PBPC, which formed in 2019 with support from the Corn Refiners Association, includes bioplastic makers Danimer Scientific, Novamont, Green Dot Bioplastics and NatureWorks as well plastics packaging maker Novolex Inc. and its Eco-Products Inc. subsidiary. Members also include traditional agricultural companies like ADM and Cargill.

PBPC Executive Director Jessica Bowman hopes the White House report and executive order are signs that more bioeconomy support is coming. PBPC sees biomaterials as supporting U.S. manufacturing as well as having environmental benefits.

"We view those bold goals as an inspirational vision for where we all hope the industry can go but we need the framework to get us there," she said. "There's a lot of work that needs to be done to move in that direction. Whether we can substitute 90 percent of plastics with bioplastics, that might not be achievable, but let's move in that direction."