| back to Case Studies |
|
THE
CASE FOR INCREASED SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CASE OF NYLON CARPETS by
Walter R. Stahel Table
of Contents 2
Objectives in, and Priorities Towards,
Achieving Sustainability 3
Sustainability, the Petrochemical
Industry and Carpets 5
Economics of
take-back, resale and recycling: resource policies are industrial
policies
|
|
The
societal pressure in North America, the home market for DuPont de
Nemours, is concentrated in two areas: Firstly, pressure is mounting to
decrease the amount of MSW (municipal solid waste), which in North
America goes mainly to landfill. Secondly, the pressure is mounting to
encourage 'post-consumer recycle content' in products, thereby creating
greater markets for materials diverted from disposal via landfill or
energy recovery. DuPont
de Nemours is a major producer of polyamide raw materials, polymer,
fibres and engineering resins, but also a chemical company committed
to innovation within the limits of economic feasibility. A joint
research study with the U.S. EPA in 1993, recognised that the best
environmental solutions come when government establishes priorities and
realistic goals, and when industry accepts the responsibility of meeting
them in the most efficient way, according to Paul Tebo, Du Pont's
vice-president for safety, health and environment. The overall lesson
from the study was that waste-minimisation assessments must often be
expanded beyond their original scope. In many cases, only close scrutiny
of the entire process can lead to effective action. Polyamide
is in North America the primary material in the manufacturing of carpets
(including wall to wall carpeting in industrial, commercial and
residential buildings). It is becoming clear that the large amount of
used carpets is a ripe target for recovery, and the major source for
post-consumer polyamide. Out of the 1,5 m tons of used carpet which is
disposed of every year to landfills, about 1,2 m tons has nylon face
fibre, polyamide 66 fibre and polyamide 6 fibre. Since the face fibre is
only about half the weight of the carpet, this means a potential of
600'000 tons of polyamide fibre available for recovery per annum. The
remainder of the 'nylon carpet' is 120'000 tons of backing, mostly
polypropylene, 420'000 tons of filled latex adhesive, 30'000 tons of
dyes, pigment, antistat and finishes. And most importantly a significant
but variable amount of dirt. "The
Partnership for Carpet Reclamation" is the name for the DuPont
project to recover high purity nylon monomers from this mountain of
dirty used carpet. This strategy is based on an extended producer
responsibility for production and take-back/recovery of the material; in
addition, it accepts a voluntary partial responsibility 'from cradle
back to cradle' for the consumer product, as half the recovered material
may be from other sources (latex adhesive, backing, dirt), and may not
be economically re-useable. During
the initial phase of this project in the early '90s, DuPont analysed the
techno-economic feasibility of the different options of nylon carpet
recovery: mechanical recycling, depolymerization and chemical recycling.
These three basic options have different costs (processing, logistics
and avoided disposal costs) and different resale values for the
resulting material, which will strongly influence the future development
of the nylon carpet recovery. 2.
OBJECTIVES IN, AND PRIORITIES
TOWARDS, ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY A
sustainable economy focuses on the optimisation of the utilization (or
functioning) of goods and services, and thus on the management of
existing wealth (goods, knowledge, natural riches). The economic objective
of such a sustainable economy is "to create the highest possible
utilization-value for the longest possible period of time while
consuming as little material resources and energy as possible". On
one hand, a sustainable society, of which a sustainable economy is an
integral part, is based on several pillars, which are summarized are
here: 1.
eco-support system or nature conservation, 2.
toxicology (qualitative), 3.
resource productivity (flows of matter, quantitative), 4.
social and cultural ecology. On
the other hand, a sustainable society is based on the concept of closed
loops: A.
closed material loops (recycling) and B.
closed liability loops (cradle-to-cradle product optimisation,
extended producer liability, product take-back). The
first (A) is a strategy that leaves the technical and organizational
problem to the free market, which may work in cases where money can be
made from recycling. The second (B) is a strategy of 'internalising' in
the hands of the producer all external costs involved in the production
and elimination of a material or product, including the costs of
distribution and retro-distribution (take-back). A cradle-to-cradle
product responsibility will inevitably question the
feasibility of producing and selling short-life goods. Alternatives
such as producing and selling the utilization of long-life goods, or
selling the results of the utilization of goods rather than the goods
themselves, might give the producer a strategic advantage, and an economic
incentive to those economic actors who get the knack of it first - an
increased sustainability and competitiveness will directly result
from this strategy. 3.
SUSTAINABILITY, THE PETROCHEMICAL
INDUSTRY AND CARPETS With
regard to the first pillar of sustainability, the issue of oil as a
non-renewable resource is an example of science under the influence of
cultural values - an issue strongly discussed in countries like India,
not yet accepted in the West. Yet the cultural differences in the
definition of sustainability in the case of 'non-renewable resources'
between the USA and Europe might well be worth a more profound
discussion (i.e. the issue of sustainable resources defined in absolute
terms v. sustainable resources defined as the absence of a decrease in
the known reserves). The
petrochemical industry is well aware of the toxicology issues, i.e. the
second pillar of sustainability, in the production process. The
concept of cleaner production may well have been developed within the
chemical industry, before it became one of the first concepts of
industrial ecology to be studied in industry as a whole. The
issue of resource productivity, the third pillar of sustainability, has
its system-inherent limitations in the case of the carpet industry. The
most efficient solution, the zero option (not to have carpets), is in
modern construction often a false solution - in contrast to older
buildings with their wooden floor boards. The strategies of a longer
utilization can primarily be applied by installing high-quality carpets
which can easily been cleaned, in some instances also by using carpet
squares that can easily be exchanged in case of local damages (wear and
tear and other causes). The re-use of carpets is mainly limited to
carpet squares used in e.g. exhibition halls. Re-using the material of
nylon carpets for other purposes, as it may make sense for natural
materials such as the re-use of wool in agriculture (closing the natural
cycle), is less an option. Strategies of a more intensive utilization
are again normally not feasible in the case of carpets. 4.
CLOSING THE LOOPS A
strategy of closing both loops, by re-take and re-cycling the product,
is therefore probably the best available environmental strategy for
nylon carpets, i.e. limiting the environmental impairment. If oil is
considered a non-renewable resource, it also has a beneficial impact on
the first pillar of sustainability. The strategy of 'Re-take and
Recycling' thus turns a thinking in terms of a linear economy, where
materials as well as product responsibility passes from the producer
to the consumer at the point-of-sale, into a more sustainable
thinking in economic loops. The following definitions are included for
clarification: RE-CYCLING
means closing the material loops, in order to diminish the environmental
impairment at both extremes of the linear economy, i.e. in order to
reduce resource depletion and waste volumes. In many cases, recycling
will, however, not be economically viable and needs to be accompanied
by an obligation to retake. RE-TAKE
means closing the product responsibility loops with a re-use of
the waste product at its highest economic value. Re-take imposes a
product responsibility on manufacturers, importers, vendors and
users "from cradle back to cradle", and thus includes the
internalisation of re-use/recycling and disposal costs. In order to
ensure this re-use, resale often needs to be accompanied by an
obligation to re-use/recycle. RE-USE
means the search for the highest possible economic value in re-using
goods, components and materials - durability is a result of the
capability to re-use goods and components. The requirements of
re-use need to be taken into account in product design (modular system
design, commonality principle); the (voluntary or mandatory) incentive
for this is re-take. In
order to successfully implement a strategy of re-sale and recycling for
a material, a company has to tackle an impressive number of problems.
The technical problems include the development of a raw material of a
sufficiently high quality (nylon as an 'engineering plastic' fulfils
this requirement) to enable recycling, as well as developing the
appropriate recycling processes. The commercial problems include the
establishing of a retro-distribution system, which may not be the same
as the distribution system, as well as a re-marketing strategy for the
recycled material. From
an techno-economic point of view, a choice has to made between the
technical feasibility of the different options of recycling
(mechanical recycling, depolymerization, chemical recycling), and the
trends in future logistics costs as well as the future value in
re-marketing of the recycled materials from this different technical
options. 5
ECONOMICS OF RESALE AND RECYCLING:
RESOURCE POLICIES ARE INDUSTRIAL POLICIES At
first sight, closed responsibility loops seem to violate the traditional
"task definition" in the economy: industry produces
efficiently, consumers use quickly, the state disposes efficiently.
Strategies to close the product responsibility loops, such as the
voluntary or mandatory take-back of consumer goods or their raw material
by the producers, impose structural changes and are thus more
difficult to implement than the 'delegated' recycling of materials
(e.g. Duales System Deutschland). However, as these strategies are based
on innovative corporate approaches, they are highly competitive as
well as sustainable, and will become even more competitive as the
economy develops. Furthermore, future technical innovations can be
expected in this field towards technologies enhancing the use of
re-manufactured materials, components and goods, as well as commercial
innovations to keep costs for re-take low. [Interface
Corp., a major carpet manufacturer based in Atlanta, GA, has since come
up with its own strategy to take back carpets and recover the Nylon
through a mechanical recycling process]. The
techno-economic optimisation mentioned above results in a 'cradle and
return to cradle' producer responsibility for the material, and a
gradual adaptation of production and distribution systems; in the
future, it could also lead to a strategy of leasing the material
('rent-a-molecule'). This philosophy is also expressed by the name of
the new game 'Partnership for Carpet Reclamation'. It was developed in
several phases starting with collection, to mechanical recycling,
depolymerization and chemical recycling, with trials beginning in 1991,
running at full scale in 1995. In
industrialized countries, re-take and recycling may create a problem of
oversupply, if the total market volume does not grow in line with the
recycling capacity. Production plants may then have to be replaced by
recycling plants - a uncommon thought for any investment manager. But
this situation would also enable DuPont to reduce its dependence from
the raw material suppliers (oil companies), as well as its dependence
from the price of crude oil and any future eco-taxes (CO2-taxes, carbon
taxes etc.) [DuPont has since sold its fully owned oil company CONOCO] The
situation in many third World countries is radically different. They
will continue to experience a strong demand for basic materials for the
building up of their infrastructure, and will continuously suffer from a
shortage of affordable resources and goods, including food, shelter, and
infrastructure and services for health and education. Transferring
the surplus production plants of good quality from industrialized to
third World countries may be a solution to both problems. Also,
the industrial structure for manufacturing and re-manufacturing
activities may have to be unified, and regionalized in order to be
closer to the new raw material markets, i.e. the installed base. This
could mean smaller manufacturing/recycling volumes and appropriate
technologies. It is also feasible that an incentive will be offered for
the use of standardized materials easier to recycle (choice of fibres
and colours). However,
all these issues are compatible with the basic DuPont corporate
philosophy of mastering the technology from crude oil to the fibre, and
of being a successful player in the free market economy, independent of
any state subsidies. Recycling
is a necessity in order to reduce resource depletion and post-consumer
waste volumes, which are affecting the natural eco-system and the
toxicology pillar of sustainability. Recycling has, however, no
influence on the flow of resources through the point-of-sale in the
economy. Products will increasingly by made of recycled materials
which can again be recycled - such as nylon. The
trend in the economy towards a more sustainable society and functional
economy has started some time ago, yet most experts are unaware of the
potentially fundamental change that the signs on the horizon
indicate. A pro-active policy such as DuPont's with the 'Partnership for
carpet reclamation' relieves the company from anxiously watching the
general development, and provides a chance for securing a leading role
in the transition towards a more sustainable economy. 'Prevention
is cheaper than cure', an article in the Financial Times by Frank
McGurty on the changing US approach to pollution control. Polyamide 66 and 6 chemical recycling, paper by Dr Roger A Smith and Dr Brian A Gracon, E.I.DuPont de Nemours & Co. Inc, Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
|