Reflection on polymers and their role in turning current destruction into scalable solutions for the future

Kalle Reflects on the arguably leading global example of (FSSD-informed) multistakeholder innovations to turn the threat of polymers into solutions

This reflection begins with an ABCD assessment of polymer challenges that was conducted in the early 2000’s together with Hydro Polymers, a chemical company in Northern Europe, mainly Sweden, Norway and the UK. This implied, first, to assess the potential of polymers to be part of material flows in an attractive sustainable future (A) and then, in that context, looking at current challenges (B), possible solutions (C) and priorities amongst solutions (D) into stepwise planning. The challenge that Hydro Polymers took on to solve, developed to the perhaps leading global example of systematic cooperation amongst many stakeholders, that is, an innovative sharing of the FSSDs operative system not only across global supply chains of the polymer sector, but also involving scientists, Greenpeace, and authorities. The result is herein presented as a narrative beginning with how one single company, Hydro Polymers, took on the challenge of creating ABCD assessments of the challenges and solutions at hand. And then how this was followed by a wider and wider stakeholder group, trained in ABCD, delivered change on their own ABCD’s. Look at A below, an outline of the attractive future for polymers, followed by challenges under B, possible solutions under C, and then priorities amongst those under D. The rest of this reflection shows what happened next.

ABCD Assessment Table:

Challenges by boundary conditions:

Metals in stabilizers, mercury in the chlorine business, carbon from fossil fuels (petroleum and natural gas).
Additives such as anti-flammables, certain phthalates, and many more.
Polymers on garbage dumps and in our seas.
Compounds from this industry accumulating also in our own bodies. With serious effects on structural trust in society.

In management/governance terms the main challenges, from the above list, are that:

Process energy and feed stock are fossil.
Even increasing volumes of polymers built on carbon from renewable feedstock e.g. charcoal and alcohols are still likely to violate second sustainability principle, e.g. residues accumulating in seas.
Polymers outside of technically tight loops in consumer goods such as toys or packaging.
Incineration of PVC outside of advanced incinerators cause emissions of dioxins.
Technically and economically the above challenges are not difficult, but not from a geopolitical governance perspective.

Tight loop recycling.

Polymers only used when their high technical performance call for it.

Additives and stabilizers together with governance of societal flows are developed to comply with the boundary conditions of FSSD.

Multi-stakeholder dialogue to solve the challenges into a white-paper.

Scientific articles from the polymer industry itself.

Based on white-paper, education of PVC value chains followed by business agreements.

Co-creation, in open business dialogues, of solutions across actors of value chains, policy makers and other stakeholder groups.

Through repeated workshops throughout value chains of suppliers, producers and clients, most ideas from C have already ended up stepwise under D. Hydro Polymers has proven this to be possible through multi-stakeholder dialogues between scientists, authorities, universities, and business executives! See following pages.

Polymers represent a sub-system of materials in general and – if challenges are solved – can have a great future. However, sometimes functionality and sustainability performance can be achieved by easier and cheaper to manage materials of other kinds. Visions should take that into account.

Polymers are light, cheap, and flexible. Some of them, like PVC, are very enduring and can help us avoid many expensive and difficult-to-manage metals for instance in pipes. All the sustainability related challenges of today (See B) are obviously solved in the future. We can envision such a future where polymers are used, for instance, in sewer pipes, window frames and other parts of infrastructure where tight-loop recycling is relatively easy to guarantee. From a business point of view those are the main challenges:

* No more fossil feed stock, nor fossil process energy (SP 1) .

* No more pollution from metals and persistent additives foreign to Nature (SP 1 and 2).

*How can packaging of food meet functionality at the same time as it does not pollute land nature or seas? Will this ever be solved for polymers?

*No more pollution of “bioplastic” polymers produced from other than fossil feedstock either – they are naturally as prone to pollution as fossil polymers.

*No PVC into poor incinerators because of dioxin pollution from fumes.

*PVC only in tight technical loops, achievable for e.g. pipes, but not toys.

*So, tailor-making of material flows to fit balance between functionality and sustainability, some use of polymers will then disappear.

Greatest challenges of above are not technical, nor economical (only marginal increases in investments) but geopolitically about governance and leadership – can the above be arrived at in togetherness at global scales?

It follows from (A) that some challenges (see in particular, yellow-marked text) may be difficult to solve in any other way than phasing out polymers for certain kinds of uses, while tailor-making polymers within the boundary conditions for other uses, in combination with geopolitical governance models that can ensure such solutions and demands.

So, Hydro Polymers, a chemical company in Northern Europe, mainly Sweden, Norway and the UK) first were active part in developing the above ABCD assessment, and then took on the challenges for concrete systemic, systematic and strategic change in line with the FSSDs Operative system.

Outcome

After their own ABCD workshops, the challenges and solutions for PVC were addressed by Hydro Polymers in a much wider multistakeholder workshop in the UK, applying the FSSD as a shared mental model for problem solving and innovations, amongst people from the hosting EA of UK, plus scientists, Greenpeace, and the polymer industry. It led to a white paper for how to create sustainable PVC.

Follow-up

Amongst scientists at Blekinge Institute of Technology, and Doctor Jason Leadbitter from the Polymer industry, a 7.5 university credit course on ABCD planning for the polymer sector was created.

The course was run as a webinar amongst many leaders from the polymer sector, this picture is just a draft from the program.

This figure shows the leaders as they collected their 7.5 credit diplomas outside of BTH.

This figure shows how the multistakeholder process, after the organized one at the EA of UK, continued amongst very many organizations. It led to several creative agreements within this sector, which would have been impossible unless dialogues and business agreements had occurred with the FSSD as a shared mental model. Or in other words, basing dialogues on backcasting from alternative and attractive future goals within the robust sustainability constraints of the FSSD: “What are scalable roles of plastics then, on what conditions could such goals be arrived at through stepwise and strategic approaches, and how could we cooperate across stakeholder groups to get there?”

Conclusion

Using the Operative system’s ‘ABCD in Funnel’ methodology brought multiple actors within the polymers industry in the UK together to address the end-to-end sustainability of PVC. Using the Operative System, a white paper on how the production of polymers, in particular PVC, would need to change to become truly sustainable. The most dominating impressions are partly the co-creation itself, where participants from much wider stakeholder groups than merely supply chains of the polymer industry, for instance Greenpeace, scientists and authorities, kept asking relevant questions about the challenges for the future and then co-creating solutions by sharing one and the same Operative system for this. Partly it was also impressive to see how it was possible to agree also on issues where no solutions were in realistic sight from the industry itself. There is an impressive power in witnessing how industry may be capable of not only talking about “progress” of current practices but, in fact, how much that remains to be done to reach full and attractive sustainability. Some examples of which requires political governance and legislation. For instance, how to get a grip on the challenge of dioxins when even backyard incineration happens in industrialized countries like the US.

Current Position (2025)

Since the early phase of development of this initiative, a mature sustainable development process has been developed by the whole European Value chain from PVC resin producers, additive manufacturers including stabilisers and plasticisers as well as the converter industries such as for pipes, profiles, flooring and many other manufacturers of PVC products. This has culminated in two 10-year voluntary commitments known as VinylPlus ® and VinylPlus 2030 ®. This may be the most prominent example of value chain and stakeholder engagement including more than 200 companies, scientists and authorities. The volume, depth and precision of this engagement is arguably unique of its kind. From a sustainability perspective, there has been a significant number of major transformations within the European PVC industry, and some key highlights are as follows:

Mercury used in the chlorine process has been completely phased out and most European plants now utilize state-of-the art diaphragm technology.

Significant progress has been made in addressing heavy metal stabilizer systems including a complete phase out of heavy metals such as Pb using alternatives such as Ca-organic systems.

The most problematic phthalate plasticiser’s (such as DEHP) have been replaced with alternatives closer to compliance with the boundary conditions of the FSSD and a range of bioplasticisers are now commercially available.

A new tool has been developed by VinylPlus based on FSSDs Operative system to assess all new additives (ASF Additive Sustainability Footprint)

(www.vinylplus.eu/sustainability/our-contribution-to-sustainability/additive-sustainability-footprint/)

Several European PVC producers now offer PVC resins that are based on bio-attributed feedstocks as alteratives to fossil based, the first pioneer was INEOS Inovyn who acquired Hydro Polymers in 2007.

(www.ineos.com/news/shared-news/biovyn-provides-a-sustainable-solution-for-fossil-free-construction/)

Perhaps one of the most significant achievements has been the development of a European-wide recycling infrastructure under the VinylPlus initiative that has seen typically 700,000 Tonnes of PVC recycled annually on a regular basis and culminating to around 9.5MT of PVC being recycled since 2000.

(https://www.vinylplus.eu/our-achievements/progress-report-2025/pathway-1/)

Again, the above achievements are not considered, not even by the industry itself, to be complete. Many issues remain, in line with the ABCD assessment above, to be resolved. But agreeing on challenges means little unless accompanied by concrete change, and this reflection clearly shows how that attitude has accompanied large amounts of people across large amounts of sectors.