Richard Rohr introduced me to Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, who said:
At this very moment, the Earth is above you, below you, all around you, and even inside you.  The Earth is everywhere.  You may be used to thinking of the Earth as only the ground beneath your feet. But the water, the sea, the sky, and everything around us comes from the Earth. Everything outside us and everything inside us comes from the Earth. We often forget that the planet we are living on has given us all the elements that make up our bodies. The water in our flesh, our bones, and all the microscopic cells inside our bodies all come from the Earth and are part of the Earth. The Earth is not just the environment we live in. We are the Earth, and we are always carrying her within us.

If you “buy” into this somewhat existential introduction, you’ll have to admit that change in focus on the environment in 2021 represented a watershed year. Score one for the good guys! Yup, once in a while we need to celebrate. In reflection, I suppose the previous four years were so abysmal in terms of environmental progress, we had nowhere to go but up. Improvement, change, was pretty simple and predictable. 

As Adam Reddling, editor of Waste Today, notes, “For years corporate interests, lagging legislation and tepid consumer engagement have served as a breakwall, holding back the tide of environmental progressivism in the US…Cheap landfills and a lack of political will have traditionally led to lackluster participation in recycling programs and a laissez-faire approach to waste among both commercial businesses and residents here in America.” Does this sound familiar? Is he writing about our industry?

But 2021 did see change and certainly brought more focus on ESG (Environmental Social Governance). Actions are occurring that are bringing change. And, it isn’t just conversation. It’s real.

I thought as we begin 2022, it would be interesting to look back at 2021 and develop a roundup – a scorecard – of environmental changes that bring us a bit closer to the concept of us as Earth as described by Thich Nhat Hanh.

In our own industry, we are seeing more focus and commitment to diversion of by-product from the landfill. CELAB (Circular Economy for Labels) has a strong membership of both suppliers and converters.  Their objective is to improve our industry’s carbon footprint by developing alternatives for landfilling liner and matrix. Bravo! In addition, there are initiatives by several major laminators that provide non-landfill solutions for both liner and matrix. Bravo again!

In 2021, Convergen Energy introduced its concept of circularity, closing the loop by using non-recyclable by-product to create renewable energy, which can be purchased by the original generator of the non-recyclables. Bravo!

Our industry is being introduced to materials that are thinner, utilize more natural ingredients, and are more suitable to recycling schemes.

There is no question that in 2021 our industry saw an amazing response to ESG and EPR. We have become more conscious about who we are and what we do. Young people in our industry are truly committed to change and a healthier environment. Bravo!

On a macro basis, the changes in 2021 were even more notable. There are two states, Maine and Oregon, that passed EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) legislation. While there are 19 other states considering some form of EPR legislation, two, California and New York, have proposed that EPR legislation be put on the 2022 agenda for consideration. Governor Kathy Hochul of New York notes, “Increasing amounts of recyclable products are ending up in New York State landfills.” She said that “solid waste accounts for 12% of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions.”

Under her proposed legislation, “manufacturers will be responsible for managing their products and packaging at the end of its useful life, meaning taxpayers would no longer pay for recycling.” The original producer would be responsible for the cost of an approved end of life.

In the Canadian Province of Ontario, which includes Toronto and Ottawa, there is continuing dialogue on legislating a form of EPR. Hence, the OEMs in that province are scrambling and looking at a variety of non-landfill solutions.

“In our own industry, we are seeing more focus and commitment to diversion of by-product from the landfill.”

Bravo to EPR!
2021 saw the passage of President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. While the bill focuses on rebuilding roads and bridges, there is also a substantial focus on sustainability that includes:

• Reduction of the causes that create climate change
• Advancement of clean drinking water availability
• Provisions of the Recycle Act

The Recycle Act supports educating residents on recycling best practices and contains grants for battery recycling, reducing waste, and “promises” investments to clean up superfund and brown field sites throughout the country. On the same day Biden signed his infrastructure bill, the EPA released its 2021 National Recycling Strategy, which creates schemes that achieve a 50% recycling rate by 2030. Bravo!

The year 2021 saw policy progress across many sustainability sectors, including the “right to repair” legislation; EPR state legislation approvals, as mentioned, put more scrutiny on PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl) chemistry. In fact, the state of Vermont has banned “forever chemicals” from select products. Bravo! (There is no question that 2021 saw an enormous amount of information on the 10,400 chemicals in plastic substances.)

In my view, it isn’t just the chemistry, but what to do about the 7.7 gigatons of plastic waste being landfilled every year.  This must be a national/federal focus during the next several years. (We must get a handle on this!)

The Sierra Club sends out an annual scorecard, and 2021 was no different. Sierra Club reported victories as follows:

• Keystone XL Pipeline canceled
• Tongrass National Forest protections restored
• Millenium Coal Terminal defeated (Longview, WA)
• A climate President elected
• New Arctic leasing suspended
• Rejoined Paris Climate Agreement
• Methane rules reinstated

In 2021, Eastman Chemical announced an enormous depolymerization plant in Kingsport, TN. Eastman will invest $250 million to build a methanolyais that will consume 100,000 tons of scrap PET.  Methanolyais is a process through which scrap PET is heated and treated with methanol. The process breaks down the scrap into its component monomers, dimethyl terephthalate (Dmt and ethylene glycol (EG), which are purified and used to make new plastic. Bravo!  A great commitment to help us get a handle on that 7.7 gigatons of plastic waste.

And finally, one of the most exciting changes, just announced in late January of 2022, is the restructuring of Exxon Mobil, not just to achieve greater shareholder value but to make Exxon a more sustainable business. I love this because it says to me our industry can do the same. (Look at UPM and cellulosic film.) The real point here is that the change starts at the top and is initiated by the CEO. He gets it, whether driven by his Board or shareholder dissent, change is occurring at a business that has been fossil-driven forever. The Exxon press release reads in part:

“Effective April 1, the company will be organized along three business lines – ExxonMobil Upstream Company, ExxonMobil Product Solutions and ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions.  They will be supported by a single technology organization, ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering, and other centralized service-delivery groups providing like capabilities, building on the successful consolidation of major projects across the corporation in 2019. 

The ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions group will:
. . . play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and plastic waste by developing more sustainable products such as:

• Lower-emission fuels to help decarbonize commercial transportation, including aviation and marine.
• Chemical performance products that enable customer emissions reductions in applications in the agriculture, health and renewable energy sectors.
• Next generation lubricants and plastics that improve efficiency for traditional and electric vehicles.
• Certified circular polymers that bring new life to plastic waste through advanced recycling.”

This is just plain terrific. This is how change occurs. This is such a dynamic way to close out 2021, a year of change for sure. One of the largest fossil fuel manufacturers in the world is committing to change, improvement and helping society, all at the same time.

Thich Nhat Hanh has it right.  Whether we are focused on packaging, whether we produce oil for gasoline or petroelements for plastics, everything comes from the Earth and goes back to the Earth. May we learn from his message that we need to be more focused on “end of life.” It is our responsibility as citizens of the world.


Calvin Frost is chairman of Channeled Resources Group, headquartered in Chicago, the parent company of Maratech International and GMC Coating. His email address is [email protected].