CHALLENGE
- Plastic waste, is often incinerated, or can last centuries in landfill, or else ends up as litter in the natural environment, which in turn can pollute soils, rivers and oceans
- The chemicals and plastics sector are responsible for nearly 10% of global GHG emissions, with the use of fossil carbon from underground, being the main cause of anthropogenic climate change
- Reductions in the inflow of further fossil carbon from the ground into our system must be reduced as quickly as possible and by high volumes
- While the UK rightly emphasises decarbonisation as a key mechanism to reduce our carbon emissions, the chemical and material industries are essentially only possible with carbon-based feedstocks – and unlike the energy sector, the chemicals sector cannot be “decarbonised” -instead, this industry must be defossilised.
OPPORTUNITY
- Biogenic carbon feedstocks for chemicals and plastics, derived from biomass, offer the opportunity to halt the extraction of more virgin fossil carbon, and prevent any more fossil carbon based GHGs from entering the atmosphere
- Significant opportunities lie in the carbon intensive industries of packaging, textiles, farming, and automotive.