Plastic

Many waste items provide important value before being tossed into a bin. Discarded plastic products, for example, originally serve as packaging to keep school lunches fresh, lightweight bottles for efficiently transporting fresh water to hard-to-reach areas, containers for soaps and detergents that facilitate hygiene – and much more.

Plastic roads and buildings, the influence of energy and petrochemicals in geopolitics, and chemical and molecular recycling processes that could create a truly circular economy for plastic products were just a few of the topics discussed at AFPM’s 44th International Petrochemical Conference (IPC) in San Antonio last week.

An engineer scoops a handful of tiny pellets out of a stainless-steel canister at a manufacturing plant in the Netherlands and rolls them around in his hand.

As petrochemicals and recycling advancements give old plastic new life over and over again—from shoes and clothes made of recycled plastic recovered from the ocean, to plastic bottles being chemically recycled into fuel and a raw material to make new petrochemicals—what it means to “recycle” is changing right before our eyes.

In a health care revolution, the Cardiac 3D Print Lab at Phoenix Children’s Hospital is making model organs out of plastics to help save children’s lives.

Athletes gathering for the winter Paralympics in South Korea this month are remarkable examples of how people overcome challenges – and new technologies are increasingly helping these impressive athletes push their limits by doing more, going faster or going farther.

What helps prevent contamination as food is transported from farms to stores to our dinner tables?

From the insides of computers, to the plastic exterior of smart phones, to the insulating coating on nearly every single wire of our electronic devices, petrochemical products are critical to enabling the innovation and disruptive technological advancements that make our world and lives better.

After weeks of overindulgence, people catch sight of their bulging waistlines in bedroom mirrors and declare their New Year’s resolution is to get in shape. This is where petrochemicals can help.