Moderated by Koos Van Haasteren, the executive vice president, performance chemicals at SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.), the session on plastics and carbon footprint began with a call to the regional converters to unite under a platform. With a fragmented regional industry, uniting under a banner becomes all the more imperative, insisted Haasteren, the industry veteran.

And then it was the turn of Wilfried Haensel, the execuitve director, at PlasticEurope to tear apart the perception that plastics are hazardous for the environment. His entire presentation kept pushing the theme that plastics have helped the world conserve energy and the environment. "People appreciate the value of plastics, yet are concerned about the plastic bags — and that makes headlines," Haensel conceded. When we compare the effect of plastics, its total mass, energy consumption and green house gas (GHG) emission, throughout its life cycle, one comes to the conclusion that plastics are far better than the available alternatives, he said.

Giving examples from day to day life, Haensel underlined that the plastic insulation in buildings in Europe in 2004 only, helped in saving some 290GJ of energy. Reduction in car weight through plastics has helped save in Europe only some 12 million MT/year of oil. Boeing 787 with 53 percent plastic component is 20 percent more energy efficient than its predecessor. Similarly Airbus A380, with 22 percent plastic components, is 15 percent more energy efficient.

He also negated the common perception that plastics are consuming considerable quantities of crude, underlining that only four percent of the global crude production goes into the plastic industry.

Jim Mahoney, CEO of Novomer Corporation, said that his company had developed polymers from carbon — and that this was not only more cost effective but had better properties too. Mahoney indicated that the product was expected to be on the market by 2012.

Ulrich Reiners, the Managing Director, Executive Packaging while presenting the convertors’ viewpoint, emphasized that environment and plastics are not at all contradictory and opposite to each other. In fact, he underlined, that environment, carbon footprint and sustainability are all opportunities — the issue is managing businesses, rather responsibly.

And this was followed by a very healthy debate on the subject among the audience and the panelists. Had there been no plastics, there would have been other commodities, things like paper, glass and metal and those are energy intensive when compared to plastics, analysts underlined. And those alternatives have more environmental issues than plastics. The focus should be on fostering the culture of recycling and that the industry needs to extend its hands to the society in developing, nurturing and fostering this culture.

After this live interactive session, a recording of Hugo Verlomme, the Paris-based author of "The Plastic Bag war," was shown to the audience. Verlomme, a plastic convert in the true sense, underlined that things that were earlier being manufactured from natural products such as cellulose are now being made from plastics. This has saved them. Plastic bags became a cause of concern, he said, because that is a visible pollution. Otherwise he insisted that paper bags are more polluting than plastic bags. They have more adverse impact on the global eco-balance. Airplanes, cars, trains, virtually every thing is lighter and faster today, saving much energy in the process.

In line with the subject under discussion, Adulwahab Al-Sadoun, the secretary general of the GPCA earlier also announced instituting a GPCA innovation contest — so as to promote innovation within the regional industry.

With environment assuming a major debate issue, the growing regional plastic industry needs to come up with ideas to promote recycling – so as to improve the image of plastics. It is an issue of communication — rather than anything else!