Nova Chemicals, Borealis AG and Borouge Pte. Ltd. have added two more city recycling partnerships as part of their Project STOP program.
One of the new recycling programs will be in Jembrana, Bali, Indonesia. The site of the second new program has yet to be announced. The new programs will be funded and led by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, an industry network that Nova, Borealis and Borouge belong to.
"This is our strategic commitment to transforming the plastics industry into one that is more sustainable, more circular and more socially responsible," Borealis CEO Alfred Stern said in a recent news release. "Ocean plastics are a complex challenge, which needs political, social, financial and technological interventions across the value chain."
Project STOP also recently received the Social Contribution and Local Content Project of the Year Award at the ADIPEC Awards 2019. The awards recognize outstanding contributions to the future of the oil and gas industry. The award was received at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 11.
Project STOP launched in 2017 and opened its first recycling program in Muncar, Indonesia, in 2018. To date, more than 30,000 people have been provided with waste collection for the first time. The program has collected almost 40 million pounds of waste and has created 60 full-time jobs.
"Before Project STOP, especially the river was really dirty. You could not see the water, it was full of waste," Rahmat Hidyak, the head of Tembok village in Muncar, said. "I have high expectations of Project STOP's impact."
Borealis and sustainable land use and energy firm SYSTEMIQ co-founded Project STOP, which partners with cities to stop plastic waste leaking into the ocean. They have since been joined by strategic partners, which in addition to Nova and Borouge include the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nestlé and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, as well as supporting partners Veolia, Schwarz Group and Sustainable Waste Indonesia.
Officials added in the release that although plastics have changed human life for the better — from keeping food fresh to making cars more efficient — waste management hasn't kept pace with this growth, forcing people to dump or burn their waste and resulting in plastic ending up in rivers and oceans.
Around 80 percent of marine debris comes from land-based sources, with half coming from just five countries in Asia, they added, also saying that plastic waste in the environment negatively affects tourism, fishing, marine life and human health.
Project STOP takes "a collaborative and holistic approach" to stop plastic leakage at the source, officials said. Through its "system enabler" approach, local and international experts help cities to design and install a low-cost and more circular waste management system. This then leads to plastic waste being recycled into new products, they added, helping to fund waste collection and sorting.
"As a strategic partner of Project STOP and a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, we know businesses like ours can be a positive catalyst for change," Nova President and CEO Todd Karran said. "Working together, we can shape a world that is even better tomorrow than it is today."
Calgary, Alberta-based Nova, which is one of North America's largest polyethylene resin makers, is wholly owned by Mubadala Investment Co. of Abu Dhabi. Mubadala owns a 64 percent stake in Borealis, a petrochemicals firm based in Vienna. Abu Dhabi-based Borouge is a petrochemicals joint venture between Borealis and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.
