The message at Chinaplas: It's now or never. Take on plastic waste or risk slower growth

Guangzhou, China — The environmental message at Chinaplas 2019 was pretty simple: The industry needs to find a way to address public worries around plastic waste or it risks future growth if consumers view plastics as a problem.

"If we're not able to address it, I think there is a risk," said Bambang Candra, the Singapore-based commercial vice president for Asia-Pacific in Dow Inc.'s packaging and specialty plastics unit, during a news conference that delved heavily into environmental issues.

It was a recurring theme at media events and interviews at Chinaplas, which normally focuses on opportunities for plastics growth from the expanding middle class in China and the rest of Asia.

Those growth opportunities were still being touted, of course, but they were tempered by concerns that if the waste worries are not addressed, long-term growth may suffer.

Chinaplas, held May 21-24 in Guangzhou, is one of the world's two-largest plastics fairs.

Befitting the audience of industry professionals, machinery companies talked about their stepped-up efforts to develop new technology to process lower grades of recycled plastics and suggested how Industry 4.0 data technologies could help.

Materials makers, for their part, outlined research efforts to use more recycled plastics and talked about industry-funded projects to build waste collection infrastructure in developing economies in Asia.

Matthias Sieverding, president of extrusion technology for Germany's KraussMaffei Berstorff GmbH, told a news conference that environmental concerns will be the top challenge for industry in the next decade.

He noted with China's National Sword banning imports of waste plastic — and public pressure worldwide — brand owners are telling the plastics industry to "come up with wholesale solutions … to show that we are able to tackle the problem and move forward."

"We believe there's a lot of potential that the best 50 years of the plastics industry are still ahead of us, there are many more uses for our product, but we have to make sure the public is not losing faith that we can handle the challenges," Sieverding said. "A lot of development we do in our tech center is revolving around the issue of recycling."

German blow molding machine maker Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH also noted more public pressure.

A top Kautex executive agreed that a key for machinery makers will be R&D to develop equipment to better process lower-quality recycled materials and expand the range of plastics that can be effectively recycled.

Managing Partner Andreas Lichtenauer believes the machinery sector stepped up its focus in the last year. He noted that German consumer product companies have increased their advertisements in the past year around both ocean plastics and using more recycled plastics.

Kautex kicked off its project in summer 2018, and Lichtenauer said his company plans to unveil detailed technology developments at K 2019, later this year in Germany.

One particular area of interest, he said, will be using Industry 4.0 data analysis to better handle the variances in properties with recycled material, particularly with lower-grade recycled plastics.

"I see with digitalization, and with the possibilities you have today with big data analysis, [for] using a material that is not as stable," Lichtenauer said. "Maybe we can combine technology, post-consumer resin with some other technologies, that is what we want to show on the K show."

Austrian injection molding machine maker Engel Holding GmbH struck a similar theme.

Christoph Steger, chief sales officer, said Engel sees opportunities using its Industry 4.0 technology to "support the usage of such recycled material with intelligent systems that compensate for the higher variation in recycled materials compared to virgin."

"We are really involved with our customers in the early stages when it comes to product development, to bring our know-how regarding recycling and the usage of recycled materials," he said. "It's very important in the design stage to consider how to recycle this product at the end of its lifetime."

He noted at a news conference that Engel in March became the first plastics injection machinery maker to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, which includes more than 350 companies, governments and organizations that have pledged to substantially cut plastic waste.

Steger said Engel's participation within the foundation, which represents about 20 percent of the global plastic packaging market, has been very fruitful.

"The discussions within the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, they are great," he said. "It's not about the criticism toward or against plastic. It's much more positive, optimistic and proactive.

"We are discussing what can everyone contribute in order to enable a circular economy, in order to enable a sustainable and thoughtful usage of plastic," he said. "Within the Ellen MacArthur Foundation no one doubts the need for plastics, but what we are discussing is are there areas where we use it in the right way, in the proper way."

Wim Roels, CEO of Singapore-based polyolefin maker Borouge Pte. Ltd., said finding ways to use more recycled content within virgin materials will be important for the industry's continued growth.

"Our contribution is basically you need to align the virgin materials, so the virgin material needs to be stronger to accept recycled material," he said. "You need different types of virgin materials so that you keep the same performance of your product, but you put in 30 or 40 percent recycled material which will not have the same properties."

Borouge is putting more work into design for recycling, as well as developing packaging with fewer layers and less printing, Roels said.

He also said the company, one of the world's major makers of polyolefins, is starting to look at reusable packaging designs.

"We need to think of concepts where you are reusing your packaging, you're not throwing it away," Roels said. "It's a topic where we are investing in our marketing and R&D to build up capabilities, because we believe that will be an important element of the future in packaging."

Roels believes there is some risk of deselection of plastics, and he argued that the industry needs to keep working with governments and civil society to address waste concerns.

He noted his company's work in projects in Indonesia to finance better collection of plastic and other waste and the industry's broader work, like the $1.5 billion Alliance to End Plastic Waste project to finance waste collection, particularly in Asian countries identified as major sources of plastic in the ocean.

"If we are able together with the value chain operators, the governments, to find a solution for the waste, I believe there will be new opportunities and new applications coming," he said.

"I think the worst thing would be to put our head in the sand and say there's not a problem or to say we have a billion dollars and nothing is done," Roels said. "Then there will be an effect, there will be consequences."

He said the industry should support collection efforts like container deposits and be willing to accept a move away from some single-use packaging, like retail bags or straws.

But plastics also have a strong case to make around other single-use markets for packaging and preserving food by keeping it fresh and preventing spoilage, he said. Megacities like Shanghai or Guangzhou could not exist without effective food packaging, he said.

"I believe it's important to focus on the areas where plastics has a valuable contribution," he said.

Speaking in a presentation at a recycling and environmental conference held alongside Chinaplas, Rigliano said Bandera is working on improving its machinery to handle more recycled content.

He told the Asian crowd that studies have shown most of the world's plastic litter in the ocean comes from Asian countries without adequate waste management collection. He suggested European systems that tax packaging to fund waste collection can be effective.

"In Europe, there are different series of scales and factors to pay taxes on packaging in plastics," Rigliano said. "It's a good system because … it's increased a lot the capabilities of collection of plastics."

Some Asian countries have set aggressive targets to reduce plastic waste.

Dow's Candra noted that in 2017, the government of Indonesia set a goal to reduce plastic waste getting into the environment by 70 percent by 2025. He said Dow is funding collection projects in that country.

"What I've been experiencing working with the Indonesian government, they are really aware of and understand the purpose and the need and functionality of the plastic," Candra said. "They are also well aware and understand the issue is the waste, and that's what they are trying to tackle."

Echoing Borouge's Roels, Candra told journalists that over time, the industry will find ways to use more recycled feedstocks.

He said that if the industry can address environmental concerns, it can be confident that demand growth for plastics will remain strong, although he predicted more of it will be met with recycled materials. He pointed to emerging technologies like chemical recycling as one way to do that.

"The overall balance is going to be shifting and changing as we put our technology and drive into this," Candra said. "Overall, if we are able to change the perception of plastics, if we are able to improve the infrastructure, if we are putting our technology to addressing this, then we will be able to address the concern."