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.
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.
Preface: So, I was asked if we can somehow tie Moon Day with petrochemicals. I said that I’m pretty sure space suits are made from synthetic materials, so that’s a pretty good tie-in. Well, it turns...
Everyone’s focus is on the sun today, as millions of Americans gaze upwards to witness the spectacular solar eclipse. And petrochemicals will be shining brightly today, as they help people to safely...
Ethylene, a key building block in plastic and vital to our country’s manufacturing industry, has been thrust into the spotlight due to Hurricane Harvey’s impact on its production process.
Anytime Autumn meets baseball, it means it's playoff season. No matter which team you root for, or which division or league series you're watching, petrochemicals will be in the middle of the action...
Ah, Thanksgiving ….a day for spending time with family and friends, giving thanks and eating way too much food. At the original Thanksgiving, pilgrims walked into the woods to get their turkey and...
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.
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.