In the words of the UNEP, “Plastic pollution can alter habitats and natural processes, reducing ecosystems’ ability to adapt to climate change, directly affecting millions of people’s livelihoods, food production capabilities and social well-being.”

However, plastic, the material which is threatening our ecosystems, can also become a crucial element for the global economy’s net-zero goals.

Decoding the change

As per an Economist Impact webinar, “In order to cut waste and greenhouse-gas emissions, the plastics sector is reorganising its production and technology base, developing alternative raw materials and energy sources, and innovating in new technologies and investments.”

Take India’s case for example. The Asian economic powerhouse is also one of the world’s top users of plastics, and this industry is anticipated to grow further.

Given the fact that plastic is a part and parcel of the country’s socio-economic fold, it is difficult to get rid of it completely. While the nation is now seeing an increase in the usage of biodegradable plastics and alternative materials like paper, cloth, and glass, experts believe that the plastic industry needs to be regulated with the principles of ‘Circular Economy’, where increasing recycling and reuse, and creating biodegradable substitutes of the material can be aggressively promoted by the government.

India also has a large but unorganised recycling industry that can be backed further with efficient waste collection and segregation systems, along with a sound mechanism to prevent contamination from the material.

In June 2023, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, one of India’s premier research institutes, set up the NRL-Centre of Excellence (CoE) for ‘Sustainable Materials Translational Facility on Bioplastics’ at its campus. The new facility will work towards the development of environment-friendly sustainable plastics.

In the recently concluded CHINAPLAS 2023, Asia’s premier plastics and rubber trade fair, over 3,900 exhibitors presented their latest innovations in adherence to the circular economy concept. Four eco-friendly thematic zones, including the ‘Recycling Technology Zone’, ‘Recycled Plastics Zone’ and ‘Bioplastics Zone’ and ‘Eco-friendly Additives Zone’, were set up during the event.

Over 200 machine makers and materials providers showcased an array of sustainable solutions in these four theme zones.

As per the World Bank, around 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste is being generated every year and this will reach 3.5 billion tons by 2050. Regions like East Asia and Pacific to witness their plastic waste generation increase by 70% by 2050. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation too claimed that the world’s oceans would contain around 937 million tons of plastic compared to 895 million tons of fish by 2050. COVID-19 pushed single-use plastics usage by as much as 300%.

So clearly the plastics industry is facing a steep task to come up with quick solutions to offset these scary predictions. Breakthroughs showcased by IIT Guwahati and CHINAPLAS 2023 have shown that the industry is up for the challenge.

Discussing the circular approach

The circular economy concept aims to reduce the amount of plastic waste generated by applying a “closed loop” system where plastics are produced, used and reused in a continuous cycle to prevent its leakage into the environment. This model addresses the challenges of minimizing the wastage created by single-use plastics.

For example, the packaging industry accounts for the largest segment of plastic applications. Application of the ‘Circular Economy’ principles in this sector would require innovations in production technologies and materials to ensure reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic products. Also, the stakeholders will have to ensure that disposed items are properly collected, recycled or composted, before reusing them.

A study from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University in Singapore suggests that reusable plastic bags are more environmentally-friendly than those from paper and cotton, in cities and countries with efficient waste management systems.

As per BIGCOMMERCE, Sustainable Packaging should meet conditions like being beneficial, safe and healthy for individuals and communities throughout its lifecycle, meeting performance and cost requirements while being sourced, manufactured, transported, and recycled using renewable energy. Also, the solutions need to optimize the use of renewable or recycled source materials, while being manufactured with clean production technologies and best practices and last but not least, being effectively recovered and utilized in biological and/or industrial closed-loop cycles.

A CGS survey of 1,000 American consumers found that almost 70% of respondents considered sustainability as at least “somewhat important” and almost half (47%) said they “would pay 25% more for sustainable products.”

Another Nielsen research found that 48% of US consumers were willing to change their consumption habits to lower their impact on the environment. The survey company’s analysis further found that sustainable product sales in the United States have grown nearly 20% since 2014, and the company estimates that sales would reach $150 billion by 2024.

BIGCOMMERCE has also suggested measures like reducing packaging materials, minimizing waste, shipping small packages (cost friendly too), recycling packaging materials, using plant-based and edible packaging methods, bringing compostable and biodegradable plastic alternatives into the play, and last but not least, using manufacturing partners with sustainable practices, as immediate solutions for the industry.

New trends are emerging

A report from ManufacturingToday found that plastic-oriented industries are taking an interest in chemical recycling technologies, which break down plastics into building blocks to convert them into secondary raw materials for producing new raw materials.

Chemical recycling has also been found ideal for treating multi-layered or heavily contaminated plastic, as the process can manufacture high-quality recycled material.

“Mechanical recycling has become better and more efficient in turning out good quality secondary materials. Digitalization, artificial intelligence and automation have contributed to more efficient recycling operations that many companies offering recycling technologies have added these to the capabilities of their machines,” ManufacturingToday remarked.

“Bottle-to-bottle recycling has been taken to a higher level in processing post-consumer PET bottles to high-grade recycled PET (rPET) material, making it possible to produce bottles from as high as 100% recycled PET (rPET). Also, bottle-to-bottle recycling has been able to meet the high safety standards required for food packaging with no risk of contamination. Another innovation is the development of techniques in the recycling of multilayer flexible packaging that now, 100% of multilayer film production waste can be recycled,” it commented further.

Innovations like recycling methods like injection moulding systems, extrusion technologies and blow moulding systems are seeing huge R&D-related investments. Also, materials solutions geared toward improving the properties of recycled resins like additives and stabilizing agents are supporting the plastics industry’s sustainability bid as well.

“The urge to make plastics more sustainable will encourage manufacturing firms to use sustainable plastics. The global recycled plastics market size garnered 50,465.24 kilotons in 2021 and will depict a CAGR of 3.3% from 2022 through 2030. A marked rise in plastics recycling rates and better plastic waste treatment could facilitate the circular economy. Forward-looking companies will likely focus on diverting waste plastics towards recycling facilities, a trend poised to favour market growth,” remarked Grand View Research.

Innovations galore

A report from the IDTechEx ‘Sustainable Packaging Market 2023-2033’ explores the sustainable materials, leading players, and technology trends driving the industry, while presenting a forecast for the sustainable packaging market segmented into 21 different materials.

As per it, plastics recycled through mechanical and chemical means, along with the ‘Bioplastics’ and ‘Biobased Materials’, will guide the innovations in the industry in the coming days. IDTechEx’s analysis of 95 start-ups operating in sustainable packaging found over twenty different biobased materials with over $4 billion in the investment pipeline.

Under the RUBIO project, 18 partners are currently turning the vision of a sustainable plastics industry into reality. These stakeholders are trying to use regionally available plant residues to create versatile, sustainable products that are recyclable and biodegradable.

As part of the project’s roadmap, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP is developing new types of bioplastic polybutylene succinate (PBS) so that it can be used for significantly more applications. Together with the company POLIFILM EXTRUSION GmbH, the Fraunhofer IAP has developed an initial commercial product, as per reports.

“Bioplastics are increasingly providing an alternative to petroleum-based plastics. These sustainable materials offer a number of advantages: They are made from renewable resources and help to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and CO2 emissions into the environment. They can be biodegradable and have processing properties comparable to those of classic petroleum-based plastics. Like classic plastics, bioplastics can be sorted, fractionated and recycled,” as per a report from Phys.org.

Plastics and electric vehicles

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division and Sumika Polymer Compounds Europe (SPC Europe), a leading manufacturer of thermoplastic compounds, announced its partnership in January 2023 to digitise the performance of new sustainable automotive-grade polypropylene (PP) compounds, thus enabling engineers from the stakeholders to recyclable design components, which will offer a lower carbon footprint for future vehicles.

Sumika Polymer Compounds’ short glass-fibre polypropylene (GF-PP) THERMOFIL HP and recycled polypropylene (GF-rPP) THERMOFIL CIRCLE materials use sustainable manufacturing and recycling processes and offer carmakers performance equivalent to incumbent engineering plastics, but with an up to 60% lower carbon footprint.

The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) report titled, ‘Chemistry and Automobiles,’ found that on average from 2012 to 2021, the amount of plastic in automobiles increased by 16%, to 411 pounds. Calculations show those 411 pounds made up less than 10% of an average vehicle’s weight yet approximately 50% of its volume, thus significantly improving the car’s fuel efficiency, apart from reducing costs for drivers and carbon emissions from transportation.

With electric vehicles becoming more popular, plastics have emerged as an important element in the auto industry.

The article has discussed various developments in the plastics industry, all leading to one conclusion. By adopting a circular economic approach and investing in research and development, plastic, which is often considered harmful to the environment, can become a game-changer in promoting clean and sustainable industrial practices.

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This new onshore substation facility will transform the power produced by Hornsea Project Two wind farm before it connects to the National Grid. Balfour Beatty Kilpatrick will deliver the mechanical and electrical services for the new state-of-the-art facility.

Duncan Clark, Programme Director for both Hornsea Projects One and Two, stated: “We’re delighted that Balfour Beatty will continue to work with us on these huge offshore wind farm projects. Having already constructed onshore substations for three of our other projects, this contract continues the long-term partnership between Ørsted and Balfour Beatty.

“Their team is already on site having nearly finished Hornsea Project One’s substation, and having this continuity of the team will ensure optimum efficiencies. We’re committed to investing in the UK and we’re very pleased to be working with a UK firm that we have confidence will deliver a good quality build, on time and most importantly, with a continued high focus on safety.” He added.

Hornsea Project Two won a Contract for Difference in September 2017, and will be built at the lowest price for offshore wind that’s ever been seen in the UK. The 1.4 gigawatt (GW) project will be located 89 kilometres off the Yorkshire Coast. Last month Ørsted offered confirmation that a total of 165 Siemens Gamesa turbines are being used for the project. The majority of the blades will be manufactured at the Siemens Gamesa facility located in Hull, where pre-assembly work will also be carried out.

Thomas Edgcumbe, Managing Director for Balfour Beatty’s  North and Midlands regional business, stated:  “Having recently completed works to Hornsea Project One, this award is testament to the long-standing relationship we have built with Ørsted over the past few years.

”We’re proud to continue this momentum, and look forward to successfully and safely delivering the substation; providing clean power to millions of homes across the UK.” He added.

Balfour Beatty will begin construction on the main build, with completion aimed for 2020.

The post Balfour Beatty to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm appeared first on International Finance.

The industry hasn’t issued complaints against the measure because policymakers of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Theresa May have specified they will get rid of coal in the next 10 years, that will in turn will help to get rid of greenhouse gases as a whole. The policymakers have promoted measures that will possibly maintain the cost of pollution on an upward curve through 2030.

The companies that are responsible for generating massive amounts of pollution have started implementing the measure to curb pollution. While companies like Volkswagen and RWE are inclining towards renewables, some are stocking coal before the price surges.

“For a five-year-plus period, this market was in the desert,” said Per Lekander, a fund manager at Lansdowne Partners UK LLP in London, “What’s happened over the past five months is the investment community is getting behind it again and putting on positions.”

“We are very much in favour of the European Emissions Trading System,” said Klaus Schaefer, chief executive officer of the German power generator Uniper SE, “In order to deliver the CO2 reductions that we all agreed to in Europe, you will have to see higher prices.”

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Miriam Mannak

Situated 50km north of Cape Town, on the southern edge of the West Coast, lies Atlantis. Developed in the 1970s as a self-contained industrial backwater annex residential area for people of colour, the impoverished apartheid township resembles anything but the mythical utopian island subcontinent we know from our childhood books.

Life in Atlantis has been tough, pretty much since its inception. Ironically, when international sanctions against South Africa were lifted in the 1990s, things in a way took a turn for the worse. With democracy settling in 1994, many black-owned manufacturing companies pulled out in search of more competitive locations closer to Cape Town, simply because they were legally allowed to. As a result, unemployment surged, fuelling a toxic concoction of poverty, inequality, crime and other social ills.

Things are cautiously looking up, thanks to an emerging green economy and renewable energy sector. Since South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers’ Procurement Programme (REIPPP) was launched, 8.1 GW of green power has been procured from independent producers.

“In 2015, the country had the world’s fastest growing green economy,” says the South African Wind Energy Association in a written statement, citing the most recent Moody’s Corporation report. “We’ve built a $500 million infrastructure sector in four years with private money, creating significant new manufacturing capability while increasing local content beyond 45%.”

Because renewable energy tenders in South Africa are by law required to foster local content creation, the establishment of a local renewables components manufacturing hub was a priority. Eyes were set on the Western Cape, because of the province’s wind energy and solar potential, its solid road network, two ports and close proximity to other renewable energy locations.

The province’s grid infrastructure too plays a role.

“The Western Cape grid can take 270GW extra capacity without constraints. This is not the case elsewhere, in the country” says Mike Mulcahy, CEO of green economy development agency Green Cape.

With all of this in mind, two locations stood out: Saldanha because of its deep-water port, and Atlantis.

“Both are suitable for the manufacturing of big, bulky, and abnormal components, utility-scale renewable energy projects such as wind turbine towers and blades. These require good road access and big greenfield sites,” Mulcahy says.

Ultimately, Atlantis emerged victorious.

“Most of the available industrial land here is owned by the City of Cape Town, whilst most suitable sites in Saldanha were privately owned,” Mulcahy explained.

The fact that most sites in Atlantis were already connected to the electricity grid, water infrastructure and road networks was another bonus.

Peter Venn, Managing Director of wind energy developer Windlab Africa, confirms Atlantis’ drawcards as a renewable energy manufacturing hub. “The area is well positioned, near to Saldanha’s steel manufacturing sector and deep-water port, and close to the West Coast,” he says. “Half of South Africa’s utility-scale wind farms that are in operation can be found here. More large projects in the pipeline.”

“In 2012, Atlantis was declared a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), focused on green technology,” says Tim Harris, CEO of Wesgro, which is the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for the Western Cape. “The Western Cape government and its municipalities have worked hard to create a local economic environment that’s welcoming and supportive of green technology development,” he says, explaining that a SEZ is a geographically designated area within a country that is dedicated to specific economic activities; in this case, green tech.

Such infrastructure is supported through specific labour, import, expert and tax incentives. Benefits in Atlantis include access to a controlled customs area, lower company tax rates (15% as opposed to 28%), and various attractive rebates.

Attracts $50 million investment

Over the past three years, Atlantis has attracted over $50 million worth of green tech investment, mainly from abroad. Investments worth $72 million are in the pipeline, and some 350 direct, full-time, and permanent jobs and many indirect employment opportunities have been created.

“Wesgro and GreenCape have a collaborative relationship to attract investment into the proposed Atlantis Greentech Special Economic Zone,” Harris notes. “We are also driving the Cape Invest Centre, which has the objective to provide support to potential investors who want to settle in Atlantis.”

The biggest investment in Atlantis thus far has come from Spanish-owned Gestamp Renewable Industries, which produces 1200 wind turbine towers per year in four factories around the world. Other players include Resolux Africa, a 51% black women-owned manufacturer of wind tower internal components.

Mulcahy says, “Soon, we hope to welcome a wind turbine blade producer, as well as companies specialised in smart meters and solar PV panels. Besides its location, its resource quality and grid infrastructure, the region’s underlying skills base was a factor why Atlantis was chosen over Saldanha. The area has a legacy of heavy engineering through the Atlantis Foundry. There is a legacy of boat building, textiles, electronics, and manufacturing, too. Each of these sub-sectors has produced skills that are crucial in the manufacturing of renewable energy components.

“The manufacturing of wind turbine towers involves heavy steel rolling, cutting, welding, bending, and painting, and producing wind turbine blades involves carbon fibre and glass fibre work. These are skills you’ll find in the local boatbuilding sector. In essence, wind turbine blades are made of the same material as boats. The only thing that is different is the manufacturing process.”

The uncertainty

Despite Atlantis’s potential, a number of recent developments are putting a slight damper on what has been achieved in the area and on the South African renewable energy sector in general.

“There is a lot uncertainty in terms of the future, as we don’t have a REIPPP at the moment,” Venn says, referring to a recent announcement by state-owned utility Eskom that it won’t sign any new power purchase agreements with private producers in the foreseeable future. “This means that no new projects are being developed or coming off the ground. This is hurting the entire renewables sector, including manufacturing.”

Mulcahy agrees. “A statement by President Jacob Zuma, which insisted nothing has changed and remain government policy, expressed some confidence in the future in terms of renewables. However, that hasn’t taken away from the uncertainty,” he says. “Eskom’s announcements earlier this year really have created a lot of anxiety within the industry.”

Atlantis in a nutshell

Surface area: 28.84 km²
Distance from Cape Town: 45km (north)
Population: 67,491 in 15,564 households (2011)
Density: 2,300/km² (Average density for Cape Town is 1500/km²)
Unemployment rate: 30.22% (2011)
Roads: Atlantis is close to four major highways (N1, N7 and R27)
Commuting: Connected to public transport system since 2014

The SEZ

Area: 68 hectares (0.68 km²)
Direct jobs created so far: 350 (full-time, permanent)
Investment: $50 million
Investment in pipeline: $72 million
Major investors & players (green economy): Gestamp Renewable Industries (wind turbine towers), Kaytech (geotextiles), Resolux (wind turbine internals), South African Renewable Energy Business Incubator (SAREBI)
Other players: Skyward Windows, Hisense (electronics), Admiral Yachts

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Suparna Goswami Bhattacharya

January 11, 2016: China has begun a new journey. The journey towards a greener future. And it is not surprising given the fact that the country emits 23.42% of global CO² emissions as per a report by GermanWatch, a non-profit organisation based in Germany.

As part of a scheme to shift towards renewables, China — already one of the largest producers of wind power — plans further massive increases. It has set a target of 200GW by 2020, up from the current cumulative installation of 115GW. By contrast, the European Union countries together have just over 90GW of installed wind capacity.

A report by GlobalData, a research and consulting firm, stated that China’s installed wind capacity will increase from 115.6GW in 2014 to 347.2GW by 2025. Unlike other wind power giants like the UK, China’s capacity will be dominated by onshore wind, which is expected to account for over 96% of all installations or around 334.7GW in 2025.

Haibing Ma, China Program Manager at the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organisation based in Washington DC, says, “Being the largest energy user and GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emitter in the world, China is dedicated to transit its energy system towards sustainability. Among all the clean energy sources, wind seems to have the best potential.”

The government has set renewable energy as a strategic priority and supports the push for wind through a system of subsidies. The crisis of air pollution in many cities has added further impetus to the push for renewable energy beyond the aims of energy security and lower carbon emissions.

According to Ma, as of 2014, China ranks No. 2 in the world after the United States in terms of annual electricity generated from wind source.

Apart from green commitments, there are economic factors that justify China’s interest in wind energy vis-a-vis other forms of renewable energy. Though China is building a third of the world’s nuclear reactors, which are under construction, it is also fast expanding its wind power capacity mainly because the government is aware of the safety measures that need to be taken into account in the case of nuclear power. In fact, governments around the world have been extra cautious ever since the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster in 2011.

Cost-wise, though nuclear looks cheaper (0.43 RMB/KWh) compared to wind (0.47-0.6 RMB/KWh), the price difference is narrowing as economics of scale build up.

Liming Qiao, China director of Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), says, “Wind and other renewables are among the industries that were supported by the government. Wind is more mature, market ready and competitive than any other renewable energy.” According to Liming, China is already No 1 in the wind sector in terms of both cumulative and annual installation.

A top official from a wind energy company in China said that wind is benefitting big time thanks to the safety challenges posed by nuclear energy. “Though our government is concentrating on all forms of renewable energy, wind and solar hold a special place mainly because they are hassle free,” the official explained.

On its part, the government provides tax rebates to state-owned wind turbine manufacturers. Additionally, renewable energy law grants renewable energy providers 10-year contracts and guaranteed subsidies.

According to data by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), employment in the wind energy sector crossed the 1 million jobs milestone in 2014, up from 834,000 in 2013 – a 23% increase. The growth was led by China with more than 500,000 jobs, followed by the US and Brazil.

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