“We’ve been working on design for recyclability for years now. But the next step is to make packaging fully recyclable and then collect the packaging to recycle it into new products. We’re very close to creating a low-carbon, circular economy.” — Han Zhang
COVID-19, the rising cost of living, ongoing health concerns and societal
inequities have created an era of heightened public anxiety, which is changing
the role of business in society like never before. As the latest Edelman Trust
Barometer
shows, brand trust ranks above all else: “The deeper dependence on brands forged
in the pandemic has made trust an essential purchase consideration, nearly equal
to quality and value,” says Edelman CEO Richard Edelman.
Before coronavirus disrupted the world, customers were asking companies to serve
up products and services that have a lower environmental impact. Now, people
expect that as a “bare minimum,” according to FutureBrand. Being a
sustainable company is, therefore, “unlikely to create long-term distinction and
differential value,” it says. Instead, so-called
“Super-Sustainable”
firms must establish new approaches that go “beyond climate, to create and
support the behaviours and practices on which human wellbeing can be maintained
and extended.”
Against this backdrop, companies such as Dow must continue
to
innovate
to meet new expectations — particularly in bringing packaging and specialty
plastics to the market that can help customers step up to the plate. To ensure
it delivers on this, the company has set a series of
targets
to advance a circular economy and protect the natural environment, with two
clear and closely-linked intended outcomes: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and eliminate plastic waste. By 2030, Dow will ensure that one million metric
tons of plastic is either collected, reused or recycled — either directly
through its work or through
partnerships.
By 2035, it promises to have closed the loop on waste by making sure 100 percent
of its products sold into packaging applications are reusable or recyclable. By
2050, the company says it will be carbon neutral — including its supply chain.
To meet such bold goals, Dow knows it has to make its products more sustainable
than any alternative, so that customers find it easier to make the right choice.
It also means it must work with customers to help them redesign their packaging,
for instance, and demonstrate the value of switching to recycled plastics. And
Dow must find solutions in all corners of the globe.
“There’s no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all solution. Each country and each
location requires a tailor-made solution,” Han Zhang tells Sustainable
Brands™. As Global Sustainability Director for Dow Packaging & Specialty
Plastics in Asia Pacific, he understands the need to consider the cultural,
economic and political nuances of local markets when making decisions designed
to meet globally set sustainability goals. “In Asia, a lot of countries rely on
the informal waste sector, for example. That’s why five Asian countries account
for up to 60 percent of global marine debris — there is a lack of waste
management
infrastructure.
In some countries, people just dump waste or openly burn it,” he adds.
However, Zhang sees this as an opportunity for countries such as India to
leapfrog more developed nations. Rather than build the necessary waste
management network, he believes digitization can bring together a fragmented
waste value chain. In India, Dow has teamed up with
Reckyal,
a company founded by Abhay
Deshpande — a serial
entrepreneur who has spent the last 20 years developing internet, eCommerce and
Solution-as-a-Service businesses. Together, the two firms launched
Rethink+
in Pune, near Mumbai. There, consumers and businesses are connected to
people working in waste management through a digital platform.
“They can inform a waste collector of what kind of waste they need picking up,
as well as the quantity and the location,” Zhang explains. “This way, the waste
collectors
receive high-quality waste which they can sell at a higher price — and recyclers
have a better-quality feedstock and can make better products.”
The Rethink+ platform also enables digital payment, invoicing and online
documentation, ensuring the whole chain is fully transparent and traceable.
“This is very important for developing countries with an informal waste sector —
and critical to brand owners that must now comply with India’s new Extended
Producer Responsibility
scheme
,” Zhang says. Thanks to Dow’s pilot with Reckyal, the startup has found new
investment and is ready to scale up.
Such partnerships create excitement and engagement across companies such as Dow.
But how does the firm maintain momentum in meeting its sustainability goals,
especially when they include long-term targets? For Zhang, communicating the
strategy, explaining the targets and building a bigger team to embrace the
targets are key.
“Similar to many other companies, we’ve launched very aggressive goals. But what
differentiates a great company from other companies is the type of strategy
adopted and how it will be implemented and achieved,” he says. “We need everyone
to embrace the targets, to ensure it’s everybody’s day-to-day job to help us
achieve the goals — including sales, R&D and the commercial organization.”
Zhang’s team in Asia has become bigger over time, as it has globally. And it has
been crucial to get management-level buy-in so that the strategy isn’t just seen
as a sustainability strategy, rather a business one. And the business is making
strong progress, particularly in Asia. Many countries have made progress in
commercializing mechanical
recycling,
with Dow’s REVOLOOP process
delivering consistently high-quality PCR — a post-consumer recycled plastic that
can be reprocessed into a resin that can be used to create new packaging.
The company is also working with shoe company Crocs to create a “shoe of
the future.” It is using
Dow’s ECOLIBRIUM™ technology to use waste and by-products as part of the
plastic that goes into each shoe.
Finding opportunities to close the loop on products and waste keeps Zhang
excited about the future: “We’ve been working on design for recyclability for
years now. But the next step is to make packaging fully recyclable and then
collect the packaging to then recycle it into new products. We’re very close to
creating a low-carbon, circular economy.”
Still, challenges remain. More consistent and science-based policy and
regulation will help to accelerate action and “avoid pushing the burden upstream
or downstream,” as Zhang puts it. And increasingly enlightened and demanding
consumers will continue to apply the pressure, he adds. “A lot of people want to
solve this problem overnight, but the challenge is significant.
“I want more collaboration with different stakeholders, including NGOs and
private companies. We all have the same goal: We want to make sure there’s no
plastic waste that ends up in the
environment.
We want to create a circular economy. We may choose a different pathway to reach
this goal, but I think we can find common ground to work together.”
Dow is continuing to expand its capabilities and maintain momentum in the US and Europe through partnerships with Mura Technology (the largest commitment of its kind to scale advanced recycling of plastics), Nexus Circular (development of a new advanced recycling facility in Texas), and Valoregen (collaboration to build the largest hybrid recycling site in France). Read more about other announcements and highlights here.
Published Jul 28, 2022 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST
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