Many factors underlie this upward trend: electrification, coronavirus and new markets

It seems incredible to be able to imagine, in a world that is drowning in plastic waste, that there are industrial companies that are still pushing today to increase the production of virgin plastic.

Yet, according to data provided by Wood Mackenzie, in the next 5 years, 176 new petrochemical plants will be built worldwide, of which 80% will be in Asia.

Furthermore, if we see what happens in the United States , 200 billion dollars have been invested in plastics-related projects since 2010 virgin and chemical products derived according to ACC data.

In the meantime world waste is increasing, also driven by the return to the production of disposable plastic items for the hospital environment, such as masks, visors, gowns and all disposable accessories that are used in the medical field.

But, if on the one hand this waste is not recyclable for hygiene reasons, on the other hand we are facing a serious crisis in the field of recycling as in many areas of the world, recyclers have seen a substantial reduction in the demand for recycled polymers due to the inability to compete with the prices of virgin polymers.

This creates two destabilizing factors:

• The increase in recyclable waste that are reused

• The crisis in the plastics recycling sector

But what is the reason that pushes petrochemicals to increase the production of virgin plastic?

The global forecasts of fossil fuel consumption for automotive are seen by industry experts in sharp decline, with forecasts of heavy percentage decreases until 2050, what which has already alarmed the petrochemical sector.

Furthermore, these fear the environmental concerns of the world population which has prompted many governments to ban the use of certain disposable products, such as plastic bags, which is leading, according to some studies, a reduction in oil demand of 2 million barrels per day.

In this scenario of strong market reduction, the oil companies have adopted strategies that allow them to reduce losses in quantitative terms, look for new markets and support the population with a greener image of their companies.

We can summarize these strategies:

• Takeover of the recycled polymer market through the war on the price of raw materials

• Support for campaigns for the use of plastic as a raw material that can make our lives more hygienic

• Capillarization of the production and distribution of virgin raw materials in developing areas, accustoming the population to the use of plastic products for convenience and economy

• Creation of a greener image through constant market information about the financial donations made to the consortium of companies called "Alliance to End of Plasitc Waste" .

In reality the war, never declared, between petrochemicals and the world of recycling, with the latter now on its knees, has brought great names like Coca Cola , to declare, as reported by Reuters, that it will fail to meet the commitment to produce bottles with 50% recycled plastic by 2020 in the United Kingdom, for various reasons, one of these is the impossibility of finding on the market an increasing share of recycled plastic waste.

If petrochemicals are racing to increase world plastic production, I would like to remind you that since 1950 we have produced and used approximately 6.3 billion tons of plastic and that 91% of these quantities, now waste, have never been recycled and lie in the environment, polluting our lives, according to a study published in Science in 2017.

Doesn't that make us think?

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