HP March 2022 eBook—Energy Transition - 88

Executive
Viewpoint
JIM BECKER, VICE PRESIDENT, POLYMERS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Chevron Phillips Chemical, Houston, Texas
Sustainability: Initiatives, innovation and
solutions to crucial challenges
in several medical applications, among
others. However, unmanaged plastic waste
does not belong in the environment.
Our company is trying to eliminate
JIM BECKER is Vice President, Polymers &
Sustainability, overseeing the polyethylene and
resin businesses for Chevron Phillips Chemical,
as well as the company's sustainability strategy.
Previously, he served as Vice President,
Specialties, managing the specialties businesses,
including normal alpha olefins, polyalpha olefins,
drilling specialties and a wide range of specialty
chemicals. Mr. Becker is also on the board of
directors for Americas Styrenics, a JV equally
owned by Trinseo and Chevron Phillips Chemical.
Hydrocarbon Processing's Editor-inChief/Associate
Publisher, Lee Nichols,
was pleased to speak with Jim Becker
(JB), Vice President, Polymers and Sustainability
for Chevron Phillips Chemical
(CP Chem). The following Q&A provides
insights on CP Chem's sustainability
initiatives, plastic waste bans around
the world, advances in chemical recycling
technologies and solutions to help mitigate
plastic waste around the world.
HP: Can you detail CP Chem's
sustainability initiatives?
JB: The first thing we want to acknowledge
is that plastics and polymers do a lot of
good things in the world. They save energy,
reduce weight, preserve food and are used
unmanaged plastic waste with several initiatives.
We are a founding member of the
Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW).
This organization-comprised of more
than 40 companies across the entire supply
chain-has a simple mission: To end
plastic waste in the environment. The
organization is actively being built now,
so the world will start to see a lot of new
initiatives coming out of this alliance to
address and mitigate plastic waste-approximately
$1.5 B has been committed to
this issue by the AEPW.
One interesting initiative CP Chem is
a member of is Operation Clean Sweep
Blue. The enhanced version is a set of processes
and programs-everything from
engineering design to processes and systems-to
ensure that plastic pellets do not
leave our manufacturing sites.
Another initiative is helping our customers
develop sustainability solutions.
For example, if we have a customer who
wants to figure out how to increase the
percentage of post-consumer resin in
their products, CP Chem's talented polymer
chemists can help with that. We are
also developing products that will enable
manufacturers to thin-gauge products
and use less polyethylene.
Finally, we are actively engaged in sustainability
advocacy through industry
organizations, such as the AEPW, Plastics
Europe and the American Chemistry
Council, among others.
HP: Why do you think that plastics
are a sustainable solution?
JB: A key to this whole puzzle is
chemical recycling. If you want to keep
plastics out of the environment and
landfills, which is the ultimate goal, you
can mechanically or chemically recycle
it. Mechanical recycling-although it
has been very successful-has limits. If
you mechanically recycle resin enough
times, it deteriorates to a point where
you cannot harness the properties to recycle
it any more.
We think chemical recycling is an important
key to this. Our company is investing
resources in developing chemical
recycling technologies. This means recycling
the material back down to feedstock
components, which can then be processed
into a virgin resin. This process
takes that piece of plastic out of a landfill
or the environment, creating a circular
approach. Unmanaged plastic waste then
becomes a resource. We think that if you
do all of these processes right, plastics are
a sustainable solution.
HP: Many governments are
imposing bans of plastic products.
Is this the right strategy?
JB: First, the major trend in plastics
demand is growing middle classes around
the world, particularly in China and India.
A huge economic momentum shift
within these countries is leading to this
new middle class wanting access to more
products comprised of plastics. With the
growth in demand, our industry must do
a good job with sustainability. We must
address the concerns that people rightfully
have about unmanaged plastic waste.
However, you must be careful and
understand the science behind a strategy
on banning plastic products because the
substitutes also have an environmental
impact. In many cases, as was detailed in
a 2016 industry report, some substitutes
have a higher environmental impact than
plastic.1
We encourage people to make
those kinds of decisions based on science
and with all the information regarding
both plastics and substitutes.
Hydrocarbon Processing | MARCH 2020 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
http://www.HydrocarbonProcessing.com
HP March 2022 eBook—Energy Transition

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