“People often ask, how long before we go back? But the only answer is, longer than I thought,” spokesman for the air-system manufacturer Bruce Wendel says. “But the U.S. was a big growth area; it was so good to reach that goal, then [the pandemic] happened and we got locked out.”

Allied Blower has been providing services in the areas of dust control, industrial ventilation, and pneumatic conveyance since 1974. The company also supplies filter bags and parts, gas cleaning and volatile organic compound (VOC) control. The company deals in combustible dust removal, wood pellets and biomass and spark detection and arrest.

It’s an impressive list of services and features. As well, Wendel says, Allied’s management have done everything that could be done to minimize economic effects of the coronavirus. The result is that Allied was in the fortunate position to do more for employees than some other companies.

“When the pandemic was becoming an issue in March, we were proactive about it,” Wendel says. “We had people tracking themselves, we quickly downsized, had people working at home – some on reduced salary – rather than put them on layoff. Our goal was to balance Allied’s financial viability with people’s needs as individuals – we didn’t want to lay everyone off, but it was tough.”

And, several months later?

“We’re hanging on. Business isn’t really coming back fully yet and the business that is coming back is being run in a way that you can tell – people aren’t really certain about how COVID will impact it.”

Help by strategic partnership
“You have to assume there’s going to be some type of pent-up demand, or a surge, but it is difficult to tell,” Wendel says. “We’re in a position that no one has been in, so it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen. When there’s a vaccine, it’ll come back to normal, and I think that’s what has to happen, but normal won’t be normal for a long time!”

When industry does open up some more, Allied Blower intends to follow the success formula it created through strategic partnerships, which have been an important part of operations. The company is partnered with other companies, such as Air Cure Incorporated, to complement its own products and services.

Air Cure is a baghouse filter technology company that supplies proprietary parts for baghouses. Then there are others, such as Albarrie, which manufactures non-woven filter fabrics and bags used in baghouse filters, and Fargus GreCon, which supplies spark detection and extinguishing systems used to prevent silo dust explosions and fires.

Strategic partnerships are very important to Allied, according to Wendel. “We wanted to make it better for us and for our clients, and some things you can’t do in-house,” he says. “We found quality, reliable partners, and we developed relationships with those partners.”

Steadying the revenue stream
These partnerships go a long way toward providing a steady and more substantial revenue stream, as well as ensuring the success of the other companies.

In deciding which ones to partner with, Allied looks at which companies it already works with in some capacity, whether in providing services or purchasing products. Wendel says that if Allied only deals with a company once a year, there’s no point.

“But if we use them more frequently, or a vendor’s goods are mission critical we recognize the opportunity and we’ll approach them,” he says. “There are actually one or two we’re looking at now, but we haven’t really made a decision. I don’t think we’ll get there soon – because right now everyone is hunkered down – but we have hope for the future.”

Allied also operates a number of service centres, which Wendel says are an important aspect of business.

“The idea is to be close to our customers and to support those service centres with a larger manufacturing centre,” he says. “The centres provide a high level of customer service and they can support larger projects with manpower and manufacturing resources.”

Building on training
A big part of looking to the future is the training and facilitation of the workforce. Allied outsources a lot of its training – whether for apprenticeships or management positions – to local educational facilities. To encourage personal growth, the company shoulders the cost of training when employees want to further their careers.

Wendel and the rest of the Allied Blower team are noticeably proud that a would-be tradesperson can join the staff as a 20-year-old apprentice and work up to a management position in his or her 30s or 40s, with company-provided help along the way.

“It’s important to us to make sure there are career paths for our people,” he says. “We want people to find a way to stay within the organization and fulfill their career goals. Some end up being a foreman, some might move into the office, but with different training programs.”

Wendel explains the different training paths and programs for different positions. This is a direct result of the company developing specific training programs for each specific skill, tool, software, or estimating technique. And employees who are ear-marked for management positions are sent to a university for leadership courses and project management training.

It’s all about attracting and keeping good people who will guide Allied Blower into the future.

Super safety
And of course, safety is paramount. Allied Blower trains all employees in the relevant safety protocols and environments, like working underground, at height, or working with chemicals. It keeps track of safety statistics and near misses. Wendel said it’s more than just dropping a book of safe practices in front of a worker and expecting him or her to read it.

“We all need to have the same mindset. No one is in too big a hurry, or no job is too skinny on margin, to be safe. It effects how we view owning this business, no one in management wants to send someone home with injuries.”

Situated in British Columbia, Allied is well able to attract workers in the field. Gone are the days when education meant university-only to young people just starting out. Thanks to a fair proportion of the economy in Western Canada relying on resource extraction, Western Canadian governments have developed the education systems for those who wish to become skilled tradespersons – it hasn’t been uncool to seek work in the trades for a number of years, and companies like Allied are able to reap the benefits.

Wendel said operations relating to pneumatic conveyance are probably busiest because so many industries make use pneumatic conveyance. As a result of that, dust control gets busy as well.

“Those two go together like toast and butter. What happens is a company’s process will generate dust or residual material, it is collected and pneumatically conveyed to a dust collector – and then have to convey it somewhere else,” Wendel says. “Filter bags support dust collection; each thing we do makes the next thing we do busier. It works well.”

To the future
But that’s when times are normal. And just as when times are normal, Allied has some long-term goals.

“I think we’ll double our size by replicating our Canadian footprint in the U.S.,” he says.

But moving forward with everyone healthy, physically and financially, is the ultimate goal given what’s happening right now, Wendel says in conclusion.

For more information, visit Allied Blower at its web page, Alliedblower.com.

The post Looking Boldly Beyond<p class="company">Allied Blower</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

For the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA) — organizers of the popular annual event The Energy Summit — the pandemic compelled them to react decisively and turn a potential crisis into an opportunity, with the popular event going virtual for the first time in history.

Kicking off with an in-person golf tournament on August 17, this year’s online conference runs from August 18 to 19 and will replicate the Summit experience in an online forum. Featuring informative panel discussions with industry experts and stakeholders, live discussions, networking opportunities, a unique sponsor area and much more, COGA representatives are excited about the upcoming event.

“It’s a real opportunity for us to showcase that we are responding to the times and still meeting the needs of our members by providing this great experience and doing so in a very unconventional way,” says Sara Reynolds of the positive attention surrounding this year’s Summit. As COGA’s Vice President of Operations and Conference Director, Reynolds is responsible for the daily operations of COGA and other areas including programs and events, membership development, and financial management.

Reaching a wide audience
Formed in 1984, COGA started off small as the Denver Julesburg Petroleum Association. With an initial focus on oil and gas issues in Greeley and Weld counties, the organization soon grew its staff numbers and membership. A statewide trade association, COGA’s membership – which has reached about 300 member companies – represents many players in Colorado’s oil and natural gas sector, including upstream producers, big multinational corporations, smaller Colorado-based companies, midstream, downstream, related service providers through the production process, and professional services including the lending, investment and private equity community, legal services, regulatory specialists, and professional services groups.

“COGA is not only a full-service trade association, but we also represent the entire value chain of oil and gas in Colorado,” says President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Haley, who leads the industry on matters ranging from regulatory issues to public relations and Colorado legislature, supporting members though advocacy, education, stakeholder engagement and other initiatives.

The organization was founded on the vision of individuals including Fred Julander, one of the first to recognize the abundant supply of dry, clean-burning natural gas in Colorado and the need for greater exploration. Four years after COGA was created, the Association launched the Gas Conference. Changing its name over time to the Rocky Mountain Energy Summit and known today as The Energy Summit, the event is highly diversified, attended not only by industry professional, but also policy- and decision-makers, elected leaders, agriculture representatives, homebuilders, and a host of other individuals.

“We want all these people in the room, because this is where we are discussing the important issues of our time, namely what our members are doing in Colorado and how we are trying to move forward,” comments Haley. “We want to make sure all those people are hearing these messages and are part of the discussion. Our goal is to be an advocate for our members and to be a voice for them, through public relations and media relations or working with our state’s regulatory body on rulemakings… being an important arm of outreach and education in our community. This is what the conference really does so well – that outreach and education component.”

32^nd Summit
Although this year’s Summit will be different because of the pandemic, event organizers are optimistic, hoping to capture 30 to 40 percent of attendees from past in-person events. However, they are hearing from other organizations that virtual attendance is actually rivaling in-person conferences. “People want to receive professional development this year and for the foreseeable future, and virtual events are really the only option,” says Reynolds.

Keeping a pulse on the pandemic, Reynolds, Haley and the team at COGA realized by mid-March that with schools closing in Colorado and nationwide, COVID-19 would not be over by the time of the Summit in August. Soon, COGA was renegotiating contracts with its conference venues and vendors, and reimagining the 2020 Summit as an online event.

“Before we even made the decision, we felt we needed to be in touch with all of our stakeholders and sponsors,” says Haley, “and some were already committed to sponsor the conference. This is a large event; we get upwards of a thousand people attending, and there are a lot of stakeholders who come for different reasons, and before we made any decision, we really needed to evaluate what our stakeholders had to say.” Using its time to make advance preparations to pivot to the virtual platform, COGA announced in early June that the Summit would be online.

Unique forum
Featuring topics such as “Oil & Gas Employment Trends – Riding Through Market Disruptions,” “Turning Conflict Into Opportunity – Resolving Oil and Gas Conflicts Between Local, State and Federal Governments,” and “Impacts of the Crude Price War and COVID-19 –Who Survives in an Oversupplied, Low Commodity Price Environment?”, this year’s Summit will see speakers record panel discussions close to the August 18 start date. The format will simulate an in-person event familiar for speakers and attendees alike, replicating the experience of being in the audience and watching panelists on stage.

Providing the opportunity for facilitated conversations, moderators will be on hand during sessions to keep discussion flowing and focused. Following discussions, there will be a 15-minute window with real-time live Q&A. “It was our solution to really replicate that conference experience for the attendees, that what they were viewing was similar to what they would see on stage, but they would also have that dynamic and live interaction piece as well,” explains Reynolds. “For sponsors this is also a really unique opportunity because they can have a live interaction with attendees but don’t have to make the time commitment, incur expenses, travel, and all those aspects that make traditional tradeshows more of a burden for exhibitors.”

With sponsorship a key component of all such large events, The Energy Summit will feature a sponsor hall, an interactive version of the platform where sponsors have their own customizable and brandable exhibition booths where they can feature PowerPoint presentations, air informational videos, or perform live interactions with attendees via chat or video conferencing. Sponsors can also sponsor specific general sessions, showcase their logos, and do a brief 30-second introduction if they choose. “It’s different, but we’ve done our best to replicate those opportunities that you would typically have at an in-person conference, but in a virtual platform,” says Reynolds.

Facing the future
A tremendous platform for information and education about oil and gas in the state, The Energy Summit provides attendees the opportunity to learn about key issues affecting the industry not only in Colorado, but across America, such as regulatory processes. As technology continues advancing, there have been shifts in the regulatory process referring to specific technologies, and the Summit will provide opportunities to have meaningful conversations about technology, innovation, and ways operators can innovate to achieve positive outcomes. And with 2020 being an election year, Colorado is one of the few states with a citizen initiative process, where voters can propose initiatives and petition their way onto the statewide ballot. These political factors and others will influence the oil and gas sector, and the Colorado Oil & Gas Association will be there on behalf of its members.

“We will have political strategists from both sides of the aisle talking about what they see happening this November,” says Haley, “the trends that are out there among the electorate on the left and the right, bring it back into Colorado and see how they will impact important industries like oil and gas.”

The fifth largest natural gas producer in the country and the sixth largest producer of crude oil, Colorado is key to the future of oil and gas. “This conference really represents what so many of us are having to do, which is adapt,” says Reynolds. “We are all part of a larger community and impacted by things in a rapidly changing world that come at us that we can’t always anticipate, but we need to respond to. Rather than spending our time wishing for things to be different or hoping for the good old days, we need to embrace it. Change is inevitable, and we need to be able to pivot and accept things in a different way. We are able to offer things in a way we haven’t been able to offer in the past, and it’s a really great lesson for all of us – to be adaptable, embrace change and seek opportunities when that change comes.”

The post Going Virtual<p class="company">The 32nd Energy Summit</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Throughout the ages, oil has played an important role in everything from heating homes to embalming – an agent used by Ancient Egyptians. Vital to our everyday lives, crude oil is refined and transformed into gasoline, jet fuel, paints, medicines, asphalt and other roofing materials, fibres for clothing, insecticides, detergents and more. One of its unique purposes is synthetic fertilizer.

Used by farmers for thousands of years to fortify soil, fertilizers were commonly a combination of manure mixed with minerals. Remaining largely unchanged for centuries, fertilizer research grew thanks to Baron Justus von Liebig. Known as the ‘father of the fertilizer industry’ and agricultural chemistry, the German scientist made great strides in the field of organic chemistry, particularly in the 1840s. Among Liebeg’s many discoveries was that adding sulphuric acid to soil boosted the amount of soil phosphorous to plants, which led to an increase in the production and quality of sulphuric acid manufacturing.

In the decades since Liebeg’s pioneering work, the composition of fertilizers continues to evolve. Do-it-yourself gardeners regularly add everyday items like crushed egg shells and used coffee grounds to their soil, providing additional calcium and nitrogen, regulating soil acidity (pH), attracting earthworms, and improving drainage to help plants grow and thrive. On a large scale, oil industry by-products are used as a component to make commercial fertilizer, which helps improve crop yields.

According to the Washington D.C.-based Fertilizer Institute – which serves as a source of information and advocates on behalf of the industry – 17 elements are essential for plants to grow, and the “Big 3” primary nutrients found in commercial products are nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous. Both primary petroleum products and by-products are critical to the manufacture of fertilizer, one of them being natural gas. When natural gas is mixed with atmospheric nitrogen, it results in ammonia, and is also needed to generate heat for conversion. And since fertilizer is transported by ships to trucks, petroleum is needed as fuel.

Another petroleum-based product used in the manufacture of fertilizer is coke. Operating in Kansas, Coffeyville Resources Nitrogen Fertilizers became the first and only fertilizer company in North America to use petroleum coke – considerably cheaper than natural gas – in the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers back in 2007. Creating a technologically advanced compression station in 2013, Coffeyville began capturing excess carbon dioxide. Rather than releasing the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, the company began selling over 600,000 tons (annually) to a local oil producer, “which uses the gas to enhance its crude oil production,” according to The Fertilizer Institute.

Interestingly enough, the relationship between the fertilizer plant and the oil refinery doesn’t stop there. One of the by-products of oil refining is petroleum coke, also known as ‘coke’ or ‘petcoke.’ With over 80 percent carbon, petroleum coke is essential to manufacturing fertilizer, where it undergoes a gasification process to create ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate. This is then used to create nitrogen fertilizers.

Another important addition to fertilizers is coal fly ash. Essentially the tiny particles left over from burning pulverized coal in coal-fired boilers, coal fly ash is an ingredient in concrete, road materials, and fertilizer, where it helps stabilize soils. While some are cautious about toxic metals in the product, coal fly ash is used across the American Midwest and in China as a slow-release fertilizer.

With the disposal of fly ash considered an environmental issue, its use as an ingredient to boost soil fertility makes it a practical, eco-friendly and useful addition to fertilizer. “Ammonia is manufactured using atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen derived from natural gas or petroleum refinery by-products,” states the EPA on its website, epa.gov/eg/fertilizer-manufacturing-effluent-guidelines. “Ammonia is sold as a straight ferilizer [sic], and is used to manufacture urea, ammonium nitrate and nitric acid products.”

Depending on who you ask, there are both benefits and downfalls to natural or “organic” fertilizers as well as mass-manufactured synthetic products made with petroleum by-products including Potassium Sulfate, Ammonium Phosphate, Ammonium Nitrate, and Superphosphate. Although controversy remains over the potential impacts of synthetics on soil and human health – some environmentalists object to any form of petroleum-derived by-products in fertilizer – plants cannot tell the difference between what is natural and what is synthetic, since the chemicals are identical. This has led to myths that fertilizers made with petroleum by-products are inherently “bad” or harmful.

In its purest forms, fertilizer marketed and sold as organic comes from all-natural sources, such as plant matter, manure, peat moss, seaweed, and bone meal made of cleaned, dried animal bones ground into powder, a source of phosphorus. By comparison, inorganic fertilizer contains mined minerals like magnesium sulfate and potassium chloride, synthetic chemicals, and inorganic nitrogen derived from petroleum.

To grow, plants require specific mineral nutrients including nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, and micro-nutrients including manganese and zinc. While these minerals are less abundant in organic fertilizers, some people prefer to use them over chemical fertilizers because of concerns about non-renewable sources (petroleum) and potential chemical toxicity leaching into the soil and groundwater, impacting ecosystems. Synthetic fertilizers also do not add organic content or support microbiological soil life. Improper or excessive use of synthetic fertilizers can also add too much nitrate content to soil, change the soil pH over time, and potentially contribute to greenhouse gases. If improperly used, chemical-based fertilizers create a crust on the soil, and can even burn plant roots.

For backyard gardeners, the choice of fertilizer comes down to preference and how much time homeowners want to devote to their green thumb. Natural, organic fertilizers are effective yet require more time to break down. Releasing nutrients into the soil at different rates depending on the season and soil temperature, they need to be regularly replenished. By the sheer fact they are created from natural materials like sheep manure, organic fertilizers have an odour, and are messy to handle. They are also more expensive compared to chemical fertilizers, making them less suited for large farms.

Inorganic fertilizers containing synthetics are more suited to large-scale farming. With a guaranteed minimum analysis of total nitrogen, phosphate, iron, zinc, boron and more, their chemical and filler composition is more exact than that found in organic fertilizers.

It is estimated the world’s population will reach 10.9 billion by 2100, making the issue of food scarcity even worse than it is today. A combination of farmland fast disappearing and being replaced by housing along with crop failure, pests and drought will likely see the planet rely more on synthetic fertilizers in the future.

The post The Future of Fertilizer<p class="company">Putting Oil Industry By-products to Work</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The fourth generation family company is celebrating its 110^th anniversary this year. “It started in 1910 with my great grandfather, one horse and a wagon, and we’re still here,” said Domenic Monopoli, President and CEO at Filco Carting. He attributes the company’s longstanding history of success to its capacity to adapt as the industry evolved for over a century. “Really, it’s being able to reinvent yourself every 10 to 12 years and being able to change with the environment: the business environment, the climate, the demands of the customers, and all the different types of technology,” he explained.

“That is why we formed a strategic partnership with Recycle Track Systems, Inc. (RTS),” said Monopoli. “We use their geo-tracking technology in all of our trucks. RTS’s system informs customers when our truck is near their location via SMS and email notifications. This allows the customer’s operations team to prepare their loading area and ensure security is alerted. The real-time notifications limit waiting times and eliminate the possibility of missed pick-ups, making collection much more efficient.”

Each generation of ownership at Filco had the good business sense to make new investments in modern equipment and technology that would allow the company to stay relevant and grow at a steady pace. “Generation to generation, it’s just about changing with the times, and being able to recognize what’s on the horizon to stay in front of it,” explained Monopoli.

Under the current leadership, Filco is focused on new technology and sustainability. The goal is to run the collection trucks as efficiently as possible using GPS guidance software and live cameras with audio for clear communication between employees. Several years ago, the company made the investment to replace its fleet with the safest, most modern equipment that can be found in New York City’s waste collection industry.

Safety is paramount
In the United States, solid waste collection workers have the fifth highest fatality rate of any occupation, with a higher workplace fatality rate than firefighters or police officers. Understandably, safety is a central concern for waste collection companies in any city, but operating a waste collection vehicle in a metropolitan center as populated as New York City can be extremely dangerous – particularly now, as smartphones seem to find new ways to distract us every day. Screens are designed to monopolize our attention and the number of things people use them for while driving is always growing. We use them to make phone calls, to play music, to tell us where we’re going, to order food, and so much more. The number of accidents related to distracted driving in New York has increased a staggering 86 percent since 2009 according to an article published in PR NewsWire. In order to operate safely, a thorough and well understood safety policy is absolutely required.

To alleviate some of the safety concerns and reduce the number of incidents, Filco provides extensive training to its employees in house and holds regular safety meetings throughout each month. The company uses the Smith System, a well-known set of defensive driving rules in the industry for commercial drivers. “We have our own safety school and no one goes out on a truck solo without finishing a two-week course. Then once a week, every Thursday, we do pop-up meetings or what we call tailgate meetings, and at least twice a month we have full-blown safety meetings where we bring in outside guests and speakers,” explained Monopoli. Once a year, the company also rents convention space to host a large-scale safety seminar with all of its employees, repeat customers, and a number of qualified guest speakers. “We go quite in-depth because safety, as far as I’m concerned, is extraordinarily important in our industry.”

Evolving through uncertain times
Filco has been consistently growing at a steady pace, between 10 to 15 percent a year – significant for a large company. It prioritizes smart, organic growth over rapid expansion, although the events of this year have halted many of the company’s growth plans for 2020.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Filco employed approximately 145 employees and it hopes to be operating with that number again by early next year. Some of its office staff are working from home and the others work on odd or even days, allowing only half the staff in at one time to enable social distancing.

The pandemic has created new challenges for every business, and even essential operations such as waste collection companies have had to rearrange the way they move. Luckily for Filco, the company has already proved itself capable of quickly restructuring the business when times change.

To this end, Filco immediately provided its employees with personal protective equipment to keep them safe and to decrease the chance of viruses spreading through waste disposal. Employees wear masks, gloves and outer protective garments, and the trucks are sanitized professionally in between each shift. Filco has put forward a major effort to support its employees as they put themselves on the front lines to continue to collect waste in an unpredictable environment. It is easy to become accustomed to the routine of garbage pickup and forget that these services are a necessity and the waste collection workers are truly essential frontline workers.

Another area of the business that has required temporary reorganization is Filco’s commercial office customers. As people have been forced to work from home, the garbage collection for office towers has become very minimal. “We lost probably 40 percent of our business and we’re climbing back slowly,” said Monopoli. “The office towers that we service –well over 100 – are at maybe 20 percent capacity. Restaurants are not open yet, and some hotels are functioning normally but most are not. So once again, it was just about reinventing ourselves – going from a fleet of 40 trucks down to 10 or 12, and then starting to rebuild from there.”

The challenge for Filco today is the unknown. It is unclear when or if its customers will be able to return to full capacity. There are many questions in the air and Filco is prepared to find new solutions as the industry moves forward.

It’s all about relationships
Filco Carting has always been highly customer service-oriented. Prior to the pandemic, it was servicing over 5,000 customers per day, the majority of whom were repeat customers. The company has also established close relationships with the utility companies in New York. The utilities represent the largest customers in the city, and Filco has maintained these coveted contracts with over 300 locations since 2002 because of its exceptional customer service. “It’s all about customer service; it’s responding when the customer calls and having a pleasant person answering the phone. We never have an automated recorder answer the phone during regular business hours; it’s a live person, and that was a decision that was made on purpose,” said Monopoli. Supervisors can be reached at the Filco Carting office 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and many of the larger accounts have Monopoli’s personal cell phone number.

As Filco has grown and developed, it has always strived to maintain its family-owned, friendly environment. “I have an open door policy, and every single employee has my cell phone number,” said Monopoli. “We try to grow and grow but also keep the same culture that we were brought up with.”

As proud members of the Laborers Local Union 108, Filco pays its people the highest wage in the industry and the average employee has a tenure of over 20 years. Monopoli has been a trustee of the union for the past six years and strongly believes the union is essential to represent the value of waste collection workers. “A lot of companies don’t unionize and they don’t take care of their people the right way. We are proud of the fact that we pay our people the highest wage in the industry and in the end, it pays back.”

The unpredictability of the future based on how COVID-19 will continue to affect the United States has put many businesses on hold this year. Filco has pushed back some of its plans for growth but will continue to focus on the strengths that have led to its 110 years of success.

“We’re here to stay,” concluded Monopoli. “We’re going to maintain the customer base that we have the best we can, we’re going to continue to give the best possible service at the best possible price, we’re going to run the safest fleet in the industry, we’re hiring the most capable people, and we’re very proud to be unionized.”

The post A Century-Long Tradition of Adaptation and Reinvention<p class="company">Filco Carting</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

While many believe the world’s love affair with plastic is relatively new, it actually goes back almost 200 years to Charles Goodyear. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, the young Goodyear lacked formal education, but made-up for it with his innate curiosity and ingenuity. A lifelong inventor, the self-taught chemist discovered – after accidentally dropping sulfur-treated rubber onto a hot stove top – the process of vulcanization.

Issued patent number 3,633 on June 15, 1844 for his “Improvement in India-Rubber Fabrics,” Goodyear detailed how, by combining 25 parts of India rubber with five parts of sulfur and seven parts of white lead with spirits of turpentine, he was able to create a thin, strong fabric “which may be used in lieu of paper for the covering of boxes, books, or other articles.”

He may have died in poverty at 59, but Goodyear’s legacy lives on. With the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company named after him, posthumously, Goodyear was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1976.

Soon, many others began to build on the back of his inventions, creating developments in plastics including injection molding, the patenting of nylon, and much more. In fact, many of those early plastic products, such as ‘Scotch’ tape, tufts in toothbrushes, and acrylics in paint, are still going strong, long after they were first introduced.

Addressing petroleum waste
From simple household items like spatulas to watch straps, window frames, computer keyboards, piping, and both the interiors and exteriors of cars, it is impossible to imagine a world without plastic in forms such as polyethylene, polycarbonate, polyvinyl chloride, polyurethane, and others.

From medicine to construction, plastics hold countless advantages over traditional materials such as wood and metal. Often easier to manufacturer than steel, plastics are made in huge quantities, resulting in lower costs and greater availability.

Resistant to heat, cold and corrosion, plastics are ideal for piping. Able to be molded into virtually any size or shape, plastics are perfect for everything from delicate syringes to the durable and practical siding and doors that protect homes and businesses. And from an aesthetic perspective, plastics can be made into any color, making them perfect for decorative items.

Made primarily from chemically fabricated synthetics derived from fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal, plastic production – like other manufacturing processes – generates waste.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency* (EPA), Americans also produce plastic waste and a lot of it. In fact, it adds up to an estimated 4.51 pounds (2.046 kilograms) per person, every day. Over the course of a year, this amounts to 1,646 pounds (almost 747 kg), of plastic waste for each of us.

While recycling efforts are resulting in less plastic being sent to landfill, plastics still account for 13.2 percent of the total municipal solid waste generated by material (as of the most recent figures in 2017).

Not your usual plastic
Although it seems sometime we are losing the battle against petroleum-based products, many businesses and organizations are viewing plastic waste not as an adversary but as a resource. We are familiar with recycling non-biodegradable plastic containers, but these products – specifically polyethylene and polypropylene – can only be broken-down and remade into new items a few times before they become unusable.

And while reusing plastic products and reducing our dependence on them are options, these options too are limited. Another alternative is to think far beyond the blue box, exploring bold and innovative new uses for plastic waste.

Instead of viewing plastics as a vehicle for single-use purposes, such as a takeout food container, designers are looking at long-lasting applications. Over 50 years ago, the first all-plastic chair made its debut, leading to the mass production of cheaper products, including stackable plastic lawn chairs. Today, many are going back to the inspiration of the mid-Sixties, exploring long-lasting lifestyle products made from materials like ecothylene®.

Created by Belgium-based company ecoBirdy – which recycles old plastic toys into furniture for children – ecothylene was introduced to the European market two years ago, and is a huge success.

Ecothylene’s sorting, processing and manufacturing process is far more advanced and controlled than with other products made from waste materials. Working with a professional recycling partner, the company inspects every object manually prior to sorting and quality checking to prevent contamination.

The result? Eco-friendly colourful furniture made from high-grade plastic waste and unique polymers, so no new plastic or pigment is required, making durable and highly recyclable ecothylene a welcome addition.

By comparison, according to the company, little of the 24 million tonnes of plastic waste produced annually in Europe is recycled, and a mere five percent of new items are derived from recycled plastic.

From waste to resource
Globally, a growing number of manufacturers and associations are acknowledging the many uses of petroleum waste, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and PlasticsEurope.

A leading trade association, PlasticsEurope works with over 100 member companies handling the production of over 90 percent of polymers in the EU’s 27 member states. Along with showcasing the many benefits of plastics and providing education, another of the association’s mandates is to promote plastic waste as a resource.

Along with encouraging increased recycling and a reduced use of plastic through improved product design, PlasticsEurope’s focus is on “improving waste management first since this has the largest potential for increased growth, energy savings, and more jobs in Europe,” according to the association.

With key recommendations that include the restriction of recoverable/recyclable plastic waste in landfills and eco-efficient treatment options, PlasticsEurope argues that unrecyclable plastic waste is a source of energy.

“A better way of managing plastic waste which cannot be sustainably recycled would be to send it to efficient energy-from-waste facilities to produce electricity, heat or fuel for the production of cement etc. – thereby saving fossil fuels,” says the association. Other organizations such as UNEP agree that more plastic needs to be diverted from landfills.

Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has seen a tremendous surge in plastic waste, especially across South-East Asia. While reducing the amount of plastic used and diverting this from landfills are options, another is converting waste into economically viable resources, such as fuel.

“This resource conservation goal is very important for most of the national and local governments, where rapid industrialization and economic development is putting a lot of pressure on natural resources,” says the UNEP in the document, Converting Waste Plastics into a Resource.

“Some of the developed countries have already established commercial level resource recovery from waste plastics. Therefore, having a ‘latecomer’s advantage’, developing countries can learn from these experiences and technologies available to them.”

As technology advances, more and more plastics will be bio-engineered to become degradable, or much more easily recyclable than at present. While some environmentalists believe all plastics should disappear, this will never happen – nor should it – since plastics hold countless advantages over products like metal, wood, and glass for their durability, lack of corrosion, and strength to weight ratio, especially in the construction industry.

With bold new uses for plastic waste emerging every year, including as a replacement for coke in zinc recycling in Sweden’s Rönnskär area, what we know as “plastic” today will keep evolving, with less single-use plastic being produced, and more plastic waste being repurposed.

*(https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials)

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