How do we transform every aspect of our take-make-waste system? How do we find
ways to take resources traditionally seen as “waste” and create brand-new,
sustainable products and materials? How do we reimagine waste — how we use it,
even what we call it — by leveraging systems thinking?
We explored these questions and more in a panel discussion at this year’s Fast
Company Innovation
Festival. I sat down with
Thomas Corle — co-founder,
Chairman and CEO of New Energy Blue — and Ashish
Gadnis, CEO of
BanQu, to explore a world where we reclaim the value of
waste.
At Dow, we are innovating within the materials
ecosystem
— the web of interrelated technologies, processes and people that transform
plastic waste and renewable waste into useful materials — to develop scalable,
viable, circular solutions. Last year, we announced our goal to Transform the
Waste
— collaborating to invest in key technologies, infrastructure and industrial
ecosystems to transform plastic waste and other forms of alternative feedstock
to commercialize 3 million metric tons of circular and renewable solutions
annually by 2030.
We’re working toward this goal by investing in advanced
recycling
— a technology that enables us to take hard-to-recycle materials back to their
original building blocks so they can be converted into new products. To reach
our goal, we must unlock even more waste. That’s where New Energy Blue comes in.
The biomass refiner has developed a process for turning agricultural residue in
the form of corn stover into bio-based
ethylene
— the hydrocarbon gas widely used to produce plastic.
“Wherever there is waste — and there is waste all over this planet — we need to
be able to utilize that waste to provide our energy and to provide our
products,” Thomas said during the Innovation Festival panel. The company
launched an agreement in May in which Dow will purchase New Energy Blue’s
bio-based ethylene to use in plastic applications.
Expanding the types of waste that can be processed and turned into new products
also expands the waste entrepreneurs’ circle to include
farmers
and waste
pickers.
Ashish explained that waste pickers working around the world face a particular
challenge today: They are a crucial cog in the wheel, ensuring wasted materials
come back into the system; “however, they are largely
invisible
because they cannot prove their existence in the global circular supply chain."
BanQu is working to change
that
by ensuring not only that supply chains are traceable and transparent, but also
that waste pickers are compensated and treated
fairly.
It uses blockchain
technology
to track and record how much recycled plastic each waste picker has sold, when
and at what price. The workers get a copy of each transaction in the form of an
SMS message that cannot be deleted because it’s connected to the blockchain.
The type of bold collaborations exemplified by New Energy Blue and BanQu is an
important piece of the materials ecosystem; but gaps do remain. We talked about
some of these gaps at the Fast Company event — from a lack of science-based
policy
support
for advanced recycling to a lack of investment in waste-management
infrastructure,
such as curbside recycling for flexible
plastics
such as
films
and plastic grocery
bags.
Even with these challenges, Dow and its collaborators remain hopeful and driven.
Right now, the UN is still attempting to
negotiate
a global plastic pollution
treaty
— which would be a key driver to help finance and build out a circular
waste-management ecosystem.
There’s also movement toward supply chain transparency: In North America,
for example, technologies such as The Recycling Partnership’s Recycle
Check
enable people to scan their product packaging to see if it is recyclable in
their communities. With more than 9,000 recycling systems in the US, consumers
are understandably
confused;
and this type of innovation will help to build some much-needed trust in the
system and ensure even more materials can be reused.
Plastic is a necessary material in our society — it helps keep food fresh and
cars lightweight, among many other important applications; the issues arise when
discarded plastic doesn’t make its way back into the circular ecosystem. It’s
also vital that we redefine how we source raw materials for our products and
include renewable feedstocks.
And that’s what we’re trying to solve at Dow alongside innovative collaborators
such as BanQu and New Energy Blue — redefining what we think of as waste;
designing for the use of sustainable materials and recyclability; and valuing
people such as waste pickers and farmers, right from the start.
Explore the materials ecosystem
here
to learn more about how interrelated technologies, processes and people are
transforming plastic waste and other waste into useful materials.
Director, Global Sustainability & End Use Marketing
Dow
Published Dec 11, 2023 8am EST / 5am PST / 1pm GMT / 2pm CET