U.S. petrochemical manufacturers are at the forefront of research and development into cutting-edge solutions to give new life to used plastic products. Leveraging their in-depth understanding of plastics’ molecular composition and the manufacturing process itself, AFPM members are investing in recycling technology, infrastructure and partnerships that will reduce mismanaged plastic waste by applying unlocking its value as a feedstock.
AFPM Senior Petrochemical Advisor Jim Cooper answered a few questions to help illuminate some of the ways that petrochemicals—and the industries that produce them—are working to protect people from the coronavirus.
AFPM Senior Petrochemical Advisor Jim Cooper talks about the central role of petrochemicals in health care, and why the petrochemical industry is considered critical infrastructure.
Navigating our current health crisis offers frequent reminders of the critical role petrochemicals, particularly plastics, play in daily life — whether in the masks and gloves that protect our frontline health care providers, the containers that hold our takeout food, or the wrapping that keeps our groceries fresh and clean.
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.
By mid-January, news sources have thoroughly exhausted reports on American’s Yuletide spending and attention inevitably turns to the day of reckoning: Tax Day.
Right now, members of Congress are debating a series of taxes as part of the multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation package that could make the crude oil that runs through U.S. refineries more expensive.
COVID-19 upended energy markets. Demand disappeared and producers scaled back. Now that economies are reopening, and the demand for goods and services is rebounding, the demand for energy all along the supply chain is increasing, driving up not only the cost of the feedstocks and fuels refineries and petrochemical manufacturers use, but also the cost of the energy used at every step of the supply chain.
