In a far-reaching program, plastics and chemicals giant Dow Inc. will work with industrial firm SCG of Thailand on a range of sustainable products.
Products made by the partnership will include recycled resin, recycled products made from plastic waste, petrochemical feedstocks from plastic waste and renewable plastic resins. The agreement was signed Sept. 6 in Bangkok.
According to officials, the Dow/SCG partnership is based on "the shared vision to close the loop of plastics waste management for the reduction of plastic leakage to the environment." It's designed to add value to plastic waste and to prevent them from ending up in the environment, as well as to create a circular economy for plastic in Thailand.
"Our industry and society as a whole must do a better job of capturing and reusing plastic by scaling investments in collection, waste management, recycling technologies and new end markets," Dow CEO Jim Fitterling said in a news release. "Working together with companies like SCG, we can create a world where no plastic ends up in the environment."
SCG President and CEO Roongrote Rangsiyopash added that working with Midland, Mich.-based Dow "not only represents our joint commitment in taking action to solve problems through technology and to making real changes, but also provides us with new business opportunity, enhancing sustainability and bringing about practical solutions for recycling and upcycling of plastic waste in Thailand."
The partnership is aligned with the Thai government's ambition to increase the recycling rate of plastic waste in the country by 2027. Plastic waste in the environment is considered a critical environmental issue where Dow and SCG have innovated in the past. The firms worked together to use materials derived from transformed plastic waste in polymer-modified asphalt roads.
The Dow/SCG effort will add value to low-value or no-value plastic waste, such as multilayer plastics packaging and contaminated plastic waste, officials added.
Dow and SCG are founding members of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a not-for-profit organization which has pledged $1.5 billion to address the plastic waste issue.
Dow is a major producer of polyethylene resin as well as other specialty plastics and chemicals. The firm employs 37,000 worldwide and had sales of $50 billion in 2018.
Bangkok-based SCG, formerly known as Siam Cement Group, employs 54,000 and has annual sales of around $14 billion. Plastic products made by SCG include PE, PVC and polypropylene resins. The firm's other main business units are cement and packaging.