Dunkin Donuts completes global transition from EPS to paper cups

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Restaurant chain Dunkin’ Donuts says that it has now transitioned all of its global outlets from polystyrene foam (EPS) cups to paper cups, meeting the timetable established by the brand two years ago, said Canplastics.

In Dunkin’ U.S. restaurants, the foam cups have been replaced by double-walled paper cups. The chain reports that it is also on track to fully transition to new, recyclable hot coffee cup lids in all of its U.S. restaurants by the end of this summer.

The new cups are made with paperboard certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Standard and are currently used to serve all Dunkin’ hot beverages.

In a May 11 statement, the company noted that while a limited number of restaurants may still have foam cups in their inventory, its distribution centres are no longer offering foam cups, making only the new, double-walled paper cups available to Dunkin’ U.S. franchisees for use in their restaurants.

Dunkin’ also says it is on track to be fully transitioned to recyclable cup lids in its U.S. restaurants by the end of this summer. “The new lids are made of polypropylene that can be recycled in cities and towns that offer #5 recycling,” the company said. “This transition, along with the move to the double-walled paper cups, will remove a collective 19 million pounds of polystyrene from the waste stream annually."

As per ICIS MRC Price Report, according to the expectations of some participants in the Russian EPS market, there is no reason to expect a quick recovery in demand in the EPS boards market. Despite a major fall in EPS prices, there have been no signs of market revival in June so far. The average dollar exchange rate will also decrease during this period, therefore, contract prices of SIBUR-Khimprom's EPS will go down for large- and medium-sized converters by another Rb6,000-7,000/tonne in June.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy, is in plans to restart its cracker following an unplanned outage, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that, the company is likely to resume operations at the cracker early this week. The cracker was shut owing to technical issues on May 4, 2020.

Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 460,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy brought on-stream its cracker in Kawasaki on April 28,2020, following a turnaround. The cracker was shut for maintenance on February 27, 2020. Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 460,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.
mrcplast.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Only 17% of assessed labels give consumers quality information to make informed recycling and purchasing decisions, said Canplastics.

A new report on recycling and sustainability labelling on plastic packaging has found only 17% of assessed labels give consumers quality information to make informed recycling and purchasing decisions. The report – from the UN Environment Programme, Consumers International, and the One Planet network – found that 20% of the 30 worldwide labels assessed were given a negative score by consulted experts, 17% were positive, and the rest received mixed or neutral results.

In response the report authors have created five global recommendations for action to engage business, policy makers and standard setters in creating better plastics labelling with the aim to make sustainability the easy choice for consumers.

Consumers are increasingly aware of the impact of plastic on the environment and want to reduce their use, the report said, but the information provided to them is often unclear, leading to reported confusion and mistrust. There is a lack of standardization and accountability with individual brands creating their own labels and claims without third party certification.

Globally, only about 9% of plastic waste has been recycled and about 12% has been incinerated. The vast majority ends up in landfill or leaks into the environment. This is far away from the global vision for plastics to be 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable. Rising public awareness and concern about plastics has encouraged businesses to increasingly communicate this information about their packaging. However, the information is not always clear or actionable for consumers.

A global, multi-faceted, multi-stakeholder approach is the only way to tackle a crisis on this scale. Better plastics labelling is a simple and powerful way to help consumers to buy more recyclable and recycled products and to dispose of them correctly.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of PET chips into Russia decreased by 9% in four months of this year compared to the same time a year ago and reached 48,800 tonnes compared to 53,400 tonnes (excluding supplies from Belarus over the past two months), according to MRC's ScanPlast.

Russia's PET imports decreased by 35% in April to 11,200 tonnes against 17,400 tonnes in March; last April material imports amounted to 22,900 tonnes. Imports of Chinese injection moulding PET chips in Russia increased by 16% in January-April, compared with the same period a year ago and reached 40,400 tonnes. The same indicator in January-April 2019 amounted to 48,200 tonnes.

The share of bottle PET imports from China since the beginning of the year has decreased compared to the same period of the previous year and amounted to 83% against 90%. The share of Chinese material was 98% (11,000 tonnes) in April versus 95% (16,500 tonnes) a month earlier. This figure was at 94% (21,500 tonnes) in April 2019.

Last month, the largest number of external deliveries of injection moulding PET chips to the Russian market was at Yisheng and Sinopec manufacturers - 5,100 tonnes and 2,100 tonnes, respectively.

The top 5 Chinese suppliers this year are as follows: Yisheng delivered 18,600 tonnes of injection moulding PET chips, Jiangsu - 7,500 tonnes, Sinopec - 8,000 tonnes, Indorama - 3,400 tonnes, Wankai - 1,760 tonnes.

The share of Lithuanian PET produced by Neo Group in January - April of this year significantly increased and amounted to 9% (4,500 tonnes) compared to 3% (1,580 tonnes) in the same period in 2019. It should be noted that in February - March, deliveries to Russia by the producer were not carried out.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant India said it has been making sanitiser solutions from its facilities in India, reported Kemicalinfo with reference to the company's statement.

Clariant’s sites across Roha (Maharashtra); Bonthapally (Telangana); Rania, Vadodara and Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu) are commited to supply the necessary products that are required for the healthcare facilities.

Clariant’s site in Cuddalore has produced a total of 154,250 litres of sodium hypochlorite solution for sterilisation.

This is being used by local hospitals and healthcare centers in 683 Panchayats in Cuddalore and around 250 panchayats in Virudunagar district.

In addition, Clariant’s Bonthapally site has produced 4000 litres of the solution with a limited workforce, which was sprayed across 14 local wards.

Furthermore, Clariant’s Roha site has been producing sanitizers for local and in-house use. The team has donated 300 litres of handwash liquid soap to the Tahsildar office and 2000 litres of the same to the Raigad Collector’s office.

As MRC wrote before, in March 2020, Sabic announced that it has purchased additional shares in Clariant, increasing its holding in the company from 24.99% to 31.5%. The move is part of Sabic’s growth strategy to achieve a leadership position among global peers in specialties and increase this segment’s contribution to Sabic. Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.

We remind that SABIC Europe, an affiliate of Sabic, conducted a maintenance work at its cracker No.3 at Geleen site in the Netherlands last autumn. The planned maintenance started in September and lasted around 2 months. The company operates two steam crackers in Geleen which are capable of producing 1,250,000 tons/year of ethylene and 675,000 tons/year of propylene in total.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC