Creating a circular economy through plastics recycling
Interchange Recharged
Wood Mackenzie
4.8 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Recycling plastic into feedstock is a crucial piece of the energy transition puzzle. We use a lot of plastic – 380 million tons of it is produced every year. Reducing the amount of fossil fuels used in its production, and minimizing waste going into landfill is crucial as we accelerate towards net zero.
Plastic Energy is a plastic producer who are leading this charge. In this week’s Interchange: Recharged, we sit down with Adela Putinelu, Head of Policy and Sustainability at Plastic Energy.
They talk about the technology used to turn end-of-life plastic into feedstock for the production of new plastic products.
How can we create a circular economy with recycling? What part will it play in the energy transition, and where is the demand for 100% recycled plastics?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | COP28 is approaching. This year's annual conference of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change marks the halfway point between the Paris Agreement, adopted at COP21 in 2015, and the key targets for 2030 that were set by many countries to put them on course to meet the goals of that agreement. The first global stocktake of climate action has concluded that there is a rapidly narrowing |
| 0:22.2 | window to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. From the 30th of |
| 0:28.2 | November, COP28 gets underway in Dubai to debate plans for getting on to that Paris-aligned pathway. |
| 0:33.9 | The energy gang will be there as an accredited media organisation to bring you all the key developments from the conference. |
| 0:39.8 | We'll be evaluating the pledges, the discussions and debates, the agreements and the arguments with analysis from Energy Gang regulars and special guests. |
| 0:47.2 | We'll be interviewing leaders and experts on climate and energy to get their views on the future that will be mapped out at COP28. |
| 0:53.7 | Subscribe to the Energy Gang wherever you get your podcasts, |
| 0:56.4 | so you don't miss these very special episodes coming in the first week of December. |
| 1:00.7 | This is the Interchange Recharged, a Wood McKenzie production. |
| 1:05.4 | I'm David Banmiller. |
| 1:19.2 | We use a lot of plastic. We use a lot of plastic. By 2060, without a change to current policies, global plastic waste is projected to triple to a billion metric tons. The boom in plastics demand, especially |
| 1:24.8 | low-cost, single-use material, has led to increased environmental |
| 1:28.6 | issues around their disposal. The problem of plastic waste is being tackled from all sides, |
| 1:33.9 | from chemicals producers to brand owners, all with commitments to ramp up recycling efforts. |
| 1:39.8 | Chemical recycling is one route to a more circular plastics economy. |
| 1:45.8 | Plastic energy is taking this path. |
| 1:51.9 | By converting end-of-life plastics to feedstock, which replaces fossil oils in the production of new plastics, they can create a truly circular economy. |
| 1:56.2 | Adela Putanelu is head of policy and sustainability at plastic energy. |
| 2:00.4 | There needs to be more investment into recycling infrastructure, |
| 2:05.6 | and that tends to not be a sexy thing, right? |
| 2:09.6 | So governments need to think about the incentives related to how do we incentivize the business case in recycling. |
| 2:14.6 | How do we make this attractive? As long as cheap virgin |
... |
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