Industry is looking for alternatives to substitute feed-stocks traditionally derived from petroleum products with those from farms, plantations and the wild. Materials produced from crops are not necessarily environmentally superior because certain agricultural practices can harm the environment. Significant diversion of food crops to industrial use may have a negative impact on world food supply. Harvesting plants from the wild can reduce biodiversity unless well managed.
Many parts of the ICI Group already use renewable feedstocks and there is much research into increasing their contribution. National Starch has been using natural and synthetic polymer chemistry for over 100 years. The business started as a compounder of adhesives based on corn, potato, tapioca and other vegetable starches. Modified starches are increasingly being used for skin creams, and as thickeners for hair dyes, shampoos and hair gels.
Many of the synthetic esters that Uniqema developed were based on fatty acids derived by the hydrolysis of palm kernel, rapeseed and coconut oil. ICI was a trading manufacturer of biodiesel using transesterification to produce the methyl ester of rapeseed oil until the sale of Uniqema at the end of 2006.
Demand for renewable raw materials has increased in the personal care sector due to consumer perception of environmental issues and a preference for "mild" and "natural" products. Development is also being driven by increased regulatory pressure for products with a more favourable environmental profile including higher biodegradability and low toxicity. ICI has developed increasingly sophisticated multifunctional molecules that give more effect at lower concentrations. These are used mainly in emollients, emulsifiers and thickeners.
ICI researchers are exploring a number of renewable resources for decorative coatings binders, both solution and latex polymers. Work is focused on developing and testing carbohydrates, oils, proteins and natural rubbers in the search for materials that are comparable in cost to the current product building blocks, such as vinyl acetate.
Recycling – raw materials and products
In addition to crop based raw materials our businesses also use waste products from other industries as material feeds to our processes.
- ICI Argentina’s raw materials include wastes from the local wine and soft fruit industries.
- In 2005/6 about 25-27% of the Group’s raw materials were from renewable or recycled sources
A lower percentage of our product is recycled at the end of its life – we estimate 5-10%.
- Many of our products are dispersive (eg personal care and food products) or coatings so only unused product is available for recycling. Our ICI Pakistan business manufactures soda ash used in glass and PTA used in polyester fibre production; starch based materials from National Starch are used in paper and cardboard manufacture – all of which are extensively recycled.
- ICI Paints in UK and Canada had been active in developing cost effective reuse/ recycling programmes for unused paint. They are also working with a customer, Carillion, and Forum for the Future, a UK sustainable development charity, in a research programme supported by UK Department of Trade and Industry funding, to identify ways to recycle more building material after it has been painted.
