Plastics producers in the Gulf region are making efforts to contribute to climate protection, said senior officials of Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), on the sideline of the ongoing 21st edition of the Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris, France.

Discussions held during COP21 have led governments from the Gulf and the rest of the world to pledge billions of dollars towards greener living standards, for which plastics could play a major role by providing numerous energy saving solutions, they stated.

Dr Abdulwahab Al Sadoun, secretary general, GPCA, said: “Plastics are lightweight, versatile and durable which is significant to energy and resource savings in strategic business sectors including retail, construction, healthcare, automotive and renewable energy.”

“Although plastics in our region are made out of fossil fuels, plastics save more energy than it takes to produce and recover them and therefore is one of the most resource-efficient materials around. It provides significant environmental benefits for the transportation of products around the world and specific advantages to the automotive, infrastructure, energy and packaging markets,” he noted.

Dr Al Sadoun pointed out that plastics made for the global automotive industry, significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, because plastics are a lighter replacement for steel and other metal components. These plastics products produced in the region are focused on shifting from an oil based economy into a value added economy by addressing global challenges. GCC producers export plastics to car manufacturers around the world so that the region can make a global contribution.

Additionally, plastics produced in the Gulf for the construction industry provide effective insulation from cold and heat and prevent air leakages.

The low weight of plastics pipelines make them ideal to be used for distribution of drinking water. Across their entire life cycle, plastic insulation boards save up to 150 times the energy used for their manufacture, said the statement.
 
The top GPCA official said that plastics play a key role in the success of the renewable energy industry by providing important components which enable solar energy to be converted into electricity with wind turbines’ rotor blades also containing large amounts of plastics and where high voltage cables transfer the energy to the national grids, it added.

Another industry in which plastics are delivering sustainable solutions is food packaging: by delivering more efficient protection, reducing food waste and extending shelf life, thereby saving energy and greenhouse gas emissions, he observed.

“The GCC plastics producers are making special efforts to reduce their own manufacturing environmental impact, for example through region-wide benchmarking studies, emphasising the importance the region places on being a responsible industry and contributor to the sustainable development of the region,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service