Results of plastics-to-fuels research shared at event in Portugal.
The fourth annual Plasticity Forum took place in Cascais, Portugal, June 7-9, 2015, with the global event bringing together more than 80 business and industry officials, sustainability experts, plastic producers and users, innovators, government representatives and other thought leaders to discuss innovative solutions to the growing plastic problem facing our land and marine environments.
Organizers say the Plasticity Forum is unique in its focus on upstream solutions, which aim to prevent plastic pollution before it affects our communities or entering our waters. This year’s forum focused on “Designing for Circularity and Opportunities in Action That now Need Scale.” The agenda included companies that are leading the way in plastic recycling and transforming plastic scrap into revenue streams, show organizers say.
This year’s event also featured a keynote presentation on a new report on plastics to fuel. The study is a joint effort between Ocean Recovery Alliance and the American Chemistry Council to help unlock the potential for plastic-to-fuel technologies to deliver economic and environmental benefits to communities around the world. The report allows stakeholders and government leaders to better understand the opportunities that exist with this new technology in terms of plastic waste reduction. It also includes a functional financial model that can be used to estimate the appropriate technologies for a given jurisdiction and feedstock stream of plastic material that is available within that community.
Some of the research, developments and initiatives for managing and recovering plastic scrqap as a resource that were shared at this year’s Plasticity Forum included:
- plastic bottles that have been designed to be upscaled into long-term assets for us on building as roof tiles for those in developing communities;
- building bricks made of hard-to-recycle plastic scrap material that yields a product that is stronger than cement and can be used in building construction;
- a new Net Benefit Analysis report to be conducted with a number of Plasticity participant companies from this event and previous ones with Trucost and Ocean Recovery Alliance as a follow-up to the report published last year, “Valuing Plastic,” with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Plastic Disclosure Project and Trucost (The report will show the broad economic, social and financial impacts of making decisions related to waste reduction, new design, material use, packaging changes and use of increased recycled content.); and
- plastic made from algae, which can also be deployed along with the fish farming industry, creating a new sector for sustainable job creation via mutually beneficial production processes, both of which are very relevant in the developed and developing world.
Dr. Denise Hardesty, senior research scientist Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, CSIRO, said, “Plasticity creates the critical conversation we need to be having around the world. This mix of experts are the people making changes, and we collectively need these programs, products, opportunities and solutions to scale across countries.”
“The mandate for Plasticity to envision and create a sustainable future for plastics, where there material is maintained as a resource after its initial use is a huge challenge, but one which people at this event are actively addressing, and that is exciting,” says Andrew Russell, director of the Plastic Disclosure Project.
Plasticity Forum was first launched in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 and has since been held in Hong Kong and New York, with this year’s conference marking its first European event. The conference brings together experts across the plastic spectrum, including innovators, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, brand managers, educators, think tanks, government agencies, designers and investors, to address the growing plastic waste issue by creating opportunities, inspiring collaboration and generating scalable results.
According to Doug Woodring, founder of Plasticity, “The global reach, along with the positive, solutions-based approach have made Plasticity Forum an event like no others, engaging those interested in managing and recovering plastic as a resource, scalable innovations in plastic that save money, use of new materials, designing for sustainability and solutions for a world where plastic is used, but without its current footprint.”