Resin makers say clear signal from treaty will support future green investments

Ottawa, Ontario — As the United Nations' plastics treaty talks enter a critical phase, resin industry executives are increasing their presence in hopes that the agreement, in their view, can provide the certainty companies need to make the investments necessary for a greener future.

"If we end up with an agreement that can move us forward — reducing plastics pollution and creating circularity — it allows us to accelerate our business model," said Mark Nikolich, executive vice president, North America, for Braskem. "All the things that we want to invest in ... will accelerate if we have this agreement because it gives us direction, it gives us some certainty of path in the future."

A larger contingent of executives from the materials industry came to this round of treaty talks, which opened April 23 in Canada and included many side events in the days before.

Plastics executives came to push for an agreement that includes supply-side provisions such as extended producer responsibility regulations for packaging as well as having the treaty be open to different recycling technologies, including chemical recycling.

Echoing Nikolich, Dow Chairman and CEO Jim Fitterling said at an April 22 side event ahead of talks in Ottawa that the treaty needs to send investment signals.

One way to do that, he said, is through extended producer responsibility. The industry's position on EPR has changed because recycling plants that the industry wants to invest in need infrastructure to supply recycled feedstock, he said.

"Two years ago, I don't think I could stand in front of you and say our industry agrees that extended producer responsibility is the key to making this go," Fitterling said. "Today I can tell you we have strong alignment on that and strong alignment with brand owner partners and people all through the value chain. That's a big change."

EPR regulations put value on plastic waste and send support for investment, Fitterling told the event organized by The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund.

"It's absolutely essential that that value signal is there to drive the financing mechanism," he said. "It helps with the infrastructure investments that businesses need to make to recycle. It helps countries in the Global South with better humane treatment for those individuals who are out there picking through the waste and sorting the waste."

For both Nikolich and Roger Kearns, CEO of Nova Chemicals, it was their first time at a meeting of the plastics treaty's intergovernmental negotiating committee, or INC.

Kearns said he was both listening to concerns from the groups they meet and communicating company perspectives for them and to diplomats in country delegations.

"What I would say is that we've probably, myself included, walked in with some messages," Kearns said. "But we are continuously learning throughout. And each day, I must admit, by the end of each day, I have shifted a little bit in my mind some of our own approach as well as some of the possible solutions as we go through this."

He said he saw the treaty process as recognizing value in plastics but searching for improvements.

"I think there has been a recognition that there are applications of plastics that are simply essential to daily life," Kearns said. "But I think even we would agree there probably are some applications that maybe we should do differently.

"There are applications of concern, and we need to be honest and open on addressing those and looking at, 'OK, if there are certain applications that find their way into the waste stream often, how do we do those better,'" he said.

Kearns said it's clear from the talks that material design will become more important: "I think it's clear we're going to have to have that as a design criteria from the very beginning."

The American Chemistry Council said it had more people from its member companies at the Canadian session.

That mirrors overall trends at this session. United Nations officials said the Canada talks — the only one of five rounds in North America — attracted 4,200 diplomats and registered observers from stakeholder groups like industry or environmental organizations. That was double any of the previous three INC meetings.

"We are the industry being regulated. This is the time for us, and there's a massive education gap that we've learned for governments, for other stakeholders," said Ross Eisenberg, president of ACC's America's Plastic Makers unit. "We definitely have more [people] this time around. We're excited about that."

There are plenty of contentious points to work out during the seven days of talks, including how to address chemicals of concerns used in plastics, and how to handle demands by some countries to set limits on plastics production.

Executives said they heard concerns about health effect of chemicals in plastics in previous rounds of negotiations, and that prompted the industry to begin developing a database of additives that they hope will address concerns.

That's an open question, though, with some countries wanting more. For example, an academic and public health group, the PlastChem project, released a detailed report earlier this year outlining a framework for chemical health in plastics.

"There's still some negotiations to be made," Kearns said.

Kearns and other executives said their time at the talks left them more optimistic than they expected.

"The first thing I would tell you is I see more optimism than I expected. I see more alignment than I expected," Nikolich said. "I've really enjoyed the opportunity to meet with a lot of different stakeholders and [had] meaningful dialogues and sharing different points of view. To me, that's ended up in learning."

Both Nikolich and Kearns were interviewed before the talks officially began April 23 and potentially difficult negotiations started in earnest.

Both said they tried to impart messages around chemical recycling — and recycling technologies in general.

"I think we've been pretty consistent in our messaging. I can be naive, maybe, but I'm not hearing as much resistance as I expected on chemical recycling," Kearns said. "I think, actually, the value of the education we've been trying to make on advanced recycling is getting through.

"Now, what they've also asked is we are clear on life cycle assessments, greenhouse gas emissions, and that we're also transparent in showing that this is a very good solution," Kearns said, adding that the first recycling priority should be traditional mechanical technologies.

Nikolich said Braskem's message has been that they are "agnostic" on technologies: "We believe in mechanical. We believe in chemical. We believe in reuse. We believe in renewable."

He said industry does not want the treaty to put limits on technological innovation and said chemical recycling needs to be part of the potential solutions.

"There's challenges with the current technology, we all know that, but we have to start somewhere," Nikolich said, noting that companies are working on next-generation chemical recycling technologies.

"We all know that plastics are one of the most efficient materials in the world, and so how do we maintain that efficiency and how do we maintain that benefit that it has for emissions and climate while eliminating it being in the environment," he said. "Advanced recycling allows us to do that at scale."

He said there's been give-and-take in his meetings at the talks.

"We're here to learn and we're here to explain our view of the world," Nikolich said. "I think through that, we're debunking some myths and we're creating some more fact-based knowledge around what we're doing and what the opportunities are to create circularity."