400 Million Tons of Carbon for Plastic
09-11-2024
A key question regarding the use of plant-based raw materials for plastic is whether the Netherlands has enough land to grow the necessary crops such as elephant grass, sugar beets, or potatoes for green chemistry. Yes, asserts Sjoukje Heimovaara, chair of the executive board of Wageningen University & Research (WUR), emphatically.
"But then we need to adjust our consumption and production patterns," she says. Of the 400 million tons of carbon used worldwide for plastic production, more than 90 percent currently comes from fossil resources. Nearly 9 percent comes from recycled materials, and 0.5 percent from biomass. Therefore, the chemical industry must find alternatives for that 90 percent by 2050.
Three-quarters of arable land for animal feed
According to Heimovaara, recycled materials can cover a maximum of half of the required demand for resources. Most of the building blocks for plastic must therefore come from biomass—derived from forestry, landscape management, water purification, the food industry, but especially from agriculture. Many farmers have already begun this, for example, by growing crops for biobased construction. This does not need to compete with food production. Currently, three-quarters of European arable land is used for growing animal feed. "If we eat animal proteins one day less a week, we can use more land for food and have a significant amount of land left for the production of biomass as raw material for biobased materials," she says.
Read more here about the approach of the growth fund program Biobased Circular. 