Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It is my pleasure to be here today to speak on the issue of plastic and plastic waste.
The Dow Chemical Company was founded by Herbert H. Dow, a Canadian-born industry pioneer, a native of Mr. Malette's riding, born in Belleville, Ontario.
Today, Dow is one of the world's leading material science companies, serving customers in high-growth markets such as packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer applications. We operate manufacturing sites in 29 countries and employ over 30,000 people around the world. Dow Canada is headquartered in Calgary and has manufacturing facilities in Alberta and Ontario.
As you may have heard, in 2021 Dow announced the expansion of our Fort Saskatchewan facility. That expansion will triple the production of our polyethylene and derivatives. In so doing, we will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and we will be net zero from a scope 1 and scope 2 emissions perspective. That expansion is generously supported by the federal, provincial and municipal governments and is already creating thousands of construction jobs.
Dow has been at the forefront of Canada's approach to plastic and plastic waste since the very beginning. As we have articulated before many other parliamentary committees, the approach the federal government has used to date has been to use the wrong act to solve the wrong problem, doing it the wrong way. Plastic is not toxic, and we verily believe that the use of the toxic substances provisions of CEPA is inappropriate. We have never wavered from that position.
The best way to ensure plastic remains in the economy is to incentivize greater recycling rates for materials after use. We believe that government policy can create demand for products with recycled content and we remain committed to a recycled content standard for all plastic packaging. We strongly believe that creating a market for post-consumer plastic is the best way to ensure it is returned to the economy and not permanently orphaned in a landfill or escaped into the environment.
No one is going to argue that fugitive plastic waste entering the environment isn't a problem, but to think of post-consumer use plastic as waste is a missed opportunity. Through chemical conversion, industry can depolymerize post-consumer plastics and return those molecules to the economy. Transitioning to a circular economy is not only vital to the preservation and protection of our planet's natural resources: It's also critical to the business successes of Dow.
As we transform to a circular economy, we are taking into account a product's life cycle from creation to use to disposal in everything we do and create. We are taking a leading role in driving a more circular economy by designing for circularity and building new business models for circular materials.
Dow believes that public policy will be a critical enabler of successfully establishing a circular economy. Smart policies as well as partnerships can help drive innovation and accelerate the adoption and expansion of advanced recycling to complement traditional recycling. Policy should be promoting advanced and chemical recycling alongside other recycling technologies. This is essential to resolving the issue of hard-to-recycle substances in products.
No policy should deselect approaches that can best prevent plastic from being recovered and placed back into the economy. We believe that we need to invest in the waste management infrastructure to improve the supply chain and enable advanced recycling technology approaches. We believe this should begin with a more favourable tax status for industry investments in all stages of the materials ecosystem.
We have recommended that private actions that support the expansion of the waste infrastructure be supported by favourable tax treatment like an accelerated capital cost allowance so that the work of the private sector can be encouraged to be incorporated into the work that provinces and municipalities do every day. Every dollar that industry spends throughout the materials ecosystem is a dollar that the government does not have to spend dealing with post-consumer plastic.
In conclusion, the government should be looking at waste infrastructure the same way they are looking at our trade infrastructure and our transportation infrastructure. It's critical for the economy to succeed and grow.
I would welcome the committee's questions.