By Jodie Morgan, Chief Executive Officer, GREENMANTRA Technologies
Plastics are the workhorse of the modern economy. Today you will find plastics in almost every type of industrial and consumer application, including automobiles, electronics, medical devices, and even highway infrastructure.
Plastic production has been rising steadily over the past 30 years and is expected to continue growing in the future. Solutions to address the end-of-life for plastics must be scaled to appropriately match the growing demand. Advanced recycling companies offer innovative technologies to recycle discarded plastic streams into value-creating products.
GREENMANTRA is a leader in advanced recycling, taking challenging streams of discarded plastics and transforming them into specialty waxes and polymers for construction and infrastructure applications like roofing shingles, asphalt pavement, and drainage pipes.
Environmental Benefits of Advanced Recycling
GREENMANTRA’s facility in Ontario diverts millions of pounds of plastic waste from landfills each year, and the products we help create last longer and produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
This is only the beginning. The American Chemistry Council says the advanced recycling industry is still in its infancy but is set to grow rapidly with over $US 4.8 billion in announced capacity additions.
GREENMANTRA is part of that trajectory. In the coming years, we will expand our facilities to assist the US and other countries deal with plastic waste.
There’s an inspiring road ahead.
The Regulatory Environment
Of course, technology will not entirely solve the plastic waste problem. Going forward, governments of all levels must provide a regulatory environment that supports innovative production and recycling practices. Right now, US governments at both state and federal levels are reviewing a range of proposals on managing plastic waste, including innovative recycling processes. Over 14 states have pass legislation that recognizes advanced recycling as a valuable manufacturing process to combat the plastic waste challenge.
There is currently a bill before the US Congress — The Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act (BFFPPA) — that introduces a range of strategies to mitigate plastic pollution. It is an important step in our battle against plastic waste.
However, BFFPPA proposes a “permit pause” — a three to five year hold on any expansion or new construction of plastic-producing facilities. The pause was included in the bill to give the US EPA time to study the impact of plastic waste on the environment and draft regulations accordingly.
A 2021 economic study by the American Chemistry Council found the permit pause could have an immediate negative impact on the US manufacturing sector, affecting more than 900,000 jobs and curtailing as much as $179 billion in economic activity.
The pause would also disrupt the supply chain. The US would go from being a net exporter of plastic resins to a large net importer. American manufacturers would rely more on foreign producers, mostly from China, for plastics used in medical applications such as syringes and N95 masks, as well as the lightweight polymers and composites for fuel efficient vehicles, electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines.
GREENMANTRA’s Advanced Recycling
BFFPPA presents another dilemma. The bill is currently drafted in a manner where advanced recyclers such as GREENMANTRA would also be subject to the pause.
That section is inconsistent with the bill’s goals. If BFFPPA’s aim is to reduce plastic waste, then companies like GREENMANTRA represent the type of innovation the government should be incentivizing.
GREENMANTRA helps reduce plastic pollution. Each day, we pioneer new ways to handle challegning plastic streams that would otherwise end up in landfills. Because our process uses a unique catalyst, we avoid excessive heat or pressure, leading to a lower carbon footprint than that of virgin plastics. Our specialty recycled polymers are then used to enhance building and construction materials like shingles, pavements and drainage pipes – all that have greater durability and longer lifespans than the single-use plastics that we use as our feedstock.
If passed, BFFPPA will have dire environmental and economic consequences for the future. Advanced recycling facilities are part of the solution, not the problem.
Scaling to Meet Future Needs
BFFPPA supporters say a three to five year pause is a small hurdle considering advanced recycling companies can take decades to commercialize and scale. That may be true for some advanced recyclers, but GREENMANTRA already has significant momentum, having grown from lab-scale to a commercial, de-risked global business in less than 10 years. For GREENMANTRA, a pause would stall our important progress helping the US minimize its plastic waste.
A World Without Plastic Waste
Plastics are an essential part of the world’s present and future. Whether it’s groundbreaking science like the SpaceX mission or electric vehicles, the PPE we use to protect our healthcare workers, or the clothes, furniture, and electronic devices you use every day….plastics are a critical part of making our world work.
Our shared goal should not be to impede the manufacture of plastic products that are critical to our daily lives, but to intelligently reduce plastic waste. Making that happen takes innovative technology, good public policy, and a shared commitment towards a healthier planet.
It’s an exciting challenge, and GREENMANTRA is proud to be part of the solution.
Get to know GREENMANTRA by visiting www.greenmantra.com. Let your Congressional representative know you support innovative recycling and reducing plastic waste by opposing the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act as it’s currently drafted.
