Environment committee  It's a good question. It's equivalent to what we're discussing when it comes to carbon as well. The reality is that there are some sectors that can reduce substantially easier than others, whereas some have a substantially more difficult time. Setting a federal target will basica

Environment committee  Well, the major concern is the price that the producer would have. My company doesn't make the plastic water bottles; we make resin. We make little plastic pellets that we then sell to converters who turn it into the everyday products that people see around the world. The rea

Environment committee  No. I agree with what he said.

Environment committee  Of course.

Environment committee  That's a good question. There are some products that are probably over-utilized. You need to look at a real life-cycle analysis. If you want to remove the plastic bags or straws and you're going to replace them with something else, what you're replacing them with can be, and usu

Environment committee  That's a good question. From Dow's perspective, we take ethane and turn it into polyethylene, so we're fairly agnostic as to where the ethane comes from. However, it is a by-product of natural gas production. In Europe, they crack naphtha, which is a by-product of oil productio

Environment committee  As a corporation, we don't think that bans are effective. There's been very limited data on the banning of single-use plastics. The definition of single-use plastics isn't universally known. People usually think about it as plastic bottles and cutlery, but there's a car bumper th

Environment committee  The big issue when it comes to the new recycling technologies that I've been alluding to—and just as an introduction to chemical recycling—there are basically two predominant technologies. One is gasification and another is pyrolysis. The advantage of these technologies is that t

Environment committee  They always need start-up capital—capex—to get these facilities up and running. That's always the big hurdle and that's what you kind of need to do with government incentives. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste that I referred to—which is a very large fund—is looking at some of th

Environment committee  On mechanical recycling is it difficult. Most of you may not be aware, but on mechanical recycling, basically most plastic has to be food grade. It all comes into contact with a beverage that you're drinking or it wraps your food. There are others that are not, but it needs to ha

Environment committee  Chemical recycling will eliminate those contaminants.

Environment committee  Well, it's always easier if you have a national standard that you can work towards. Right now, recycling is basically at the municipal level. Provinces do get involved. P.E.I. and Newfoundland have brought bans into place. The reality is that it always comes down to economics. I

Environment committee  I don't think I can either. I don't know if I can speak on behalf of the NDP government in Alberta. Extended producer responsibility is something that Dow has looked at quite a bit. We think there's an opportunity to monetize some of the waste plastic around using such a concept

Environment committee  Thank you for the opportunity to express the views of the new Dow as the committee considers its study on plastic waste. My name is Michael Burt. I'm the vice-president and global director for climate and energy policy. I'm joined by my colleague Scott Thurlow, who is an expert