The aluminum and plastic sectors have proven resilient during the coronavirus crisis, but the focus remains on the shift towards so-called circular economies

The Plastics Industry has proven to be highly resilient to the disruptions brought about by COVID-19, but the global health crisis has driven the focus on sustainability in plastics and aluminum, two industry executives concluded on a pre-recorded panel for the Reuters Next conference.

Yash Loria, Indorama Ventures director of sustainability, mentioned during the event that stricter regulations since China closed its doors to Western waste in 2018 have driven better collection and higher rates of recycled material per product.

For his part, Steve Fisher, CEO of Novelis Inc, a unit of Hindalco Industries and the world’s largest producer of recycled aluminum and flat rolled products, said that markets such as the United States have seen average aluminum recycling rates drop slightly.

The two companies have proven resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic, with demand rebounding to pre-pandemic levels for Novelis, while Indorama’s share price has risen to an 18-month high, both helped by demand for packaging. of drinks.

“In beverage cans, which represent approximately 55% of our business, we have seen steady growth… if not a real increase in consumption, due to trends in people consuming more beverages at home,” he noted Fisher.

He also pointed out that the trend was the same for the PET plastic producer Indorama.

“There was a huge increase in PET sales when COVID-19 first arrived in Europe and the reason was that everyone was stocking up at home with large bottles of water,” he said.

“In the summer months that continues and we’ve seen PET sales continue to be strong.”

The demand for plastics and aluminum recovers

More broadly, the panelists considered that demand from all customer segments, including automobiles, has recovered from pre-pandemic levels, Fisher said, with the sole exception of the aerospace industry.

As demand recovers, the focus will remain on sustainability in plastics and aluminum, a subject that can still be worked on.

Collecting 45 billion cans per year that are not recycled would save 5 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, or the equivalent of 1 million off-road vehicles, Fisher noted.

The global pandemic has also presented opportunities to rethink business priorities, including flexible workplaces that Loria says have improved productivity in Indorama while providing an opportunity to reduce air travel.