The plastics industry in North America blossomed at a time when natural gas supplies were abundant. But now that domestic supplies are tighter, the industry may need to adjust on several fronts, according to William Carteaux, president of The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. (SPI), Washington.
Carteaux, addressing attendees of the 2006 Global Plastics Environmental Conference (GPEC) in Atlanta in early March, said the SPI’s position is to lobby for increased access to offshore natural gas reserves and to urge member companies to research energy alternatives for the future.
Many of the high-volume plastic production facilities in North America were built when “we had the cheapest natural gas in the world,” said Carteaux. But displaying a map of natural gas prices as they stood in early 2006, those days appear to be over.
While industrial natural gas users were paying $11.60 per million British thermal units for natural gas in the United States, manufacturers in the U.K. were paying $7.05 on average, while those in China were paying $4.85 and those in India $3.25.
Carteaux said the U.S. Department of Energy has proclaimed that economic development in Asia means that “the longer-term real price of petroleum and natural gas will be higher than it was in the past.”
In terms of how to operate in such an environment, Carteaux says the SPI favors: “open[ing] new domestic sources” of petroleum, such as widening the geographic zone for off-shore drilling in the Gulf Coast region; government incentives promoting conservation and energy-efficiency; promoting nuclear power; increasing the number of liquid natural gas port facilities; promoting bio-based plastics; and increasing waste-to-energy opportunities.
Regarding boosting the recycling rate of discarded plastics, Carteaux remarked, “It hasn’t been one of our core issues, but we are getting [more] involved.”
The GPEC 2006 event, organized by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), took place in Atlanta in late February and early March.