BASF says that it has co-founded the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. The alliance has committed over US$1.0 billion with the goal of investing US$1.5 billion over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment.
‘We strongly support the aim to reduce plastic waste in the environment,’ said Dr Martin Brudermüller, CTO of BASF SE. ‘Plastics are efficient materials that can save resources and enable health, safety as well as convenience benefits for society. These benefits could be contradicted, if plastics and their waste are neither used nor disposed nor recycled in a responsible manner.’
BASF says that, according to research by the Ocean Conservancy most of plastic waste in oceans is spread through rivers and can be traced back to ten major rivers around the world, mainly in Asia and Africa. Many of these rivers flow through densely populated areas which have a lack of adequate waste collection and recycling infrastructure, leading to significant waste leakage.
Other founding members are: BASF, Berry Global, Braskem, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, Clariant, Covestro, CP Group, Dow, DSM, ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics Corporation USA, Henkel, LyondellBasell, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Mitsui Chemicals, NOVA Chemicals, OxyChem, PolyOne, Procter & Gamble, Reliance Industries, SABIC, Sasol, Shell, Suez, SCG Chemicals, Sumitomo Chemical, Total, Veolia, and Versalis (Eni).
This story is reprinted from material from BASF, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
