WIth the European climate law, European Union has committed to carbon neutrality by 2050. Over 200 of the world's largest corporations have committed to carbon neutrality by 2050. This has inspired Asian countries to align their carbon neutrality target as well. One of the biggest conglomerates in Thailand, SCG, has committed to be carbon neutral by 2050. In the chemical business unit, it targets to reduce carbon emission by half, the equivalent of reduction up to 2M tons of GHG. SCG has shifted its business for Sustainability. It sees the circular economy as a subset of sustainability.
It practices 3 Rs in the circular economy, Reuse-Reduce-Recycle. SCG conducts education programs within SCG and communities to change consumer behavior to Reuse products and reduce waste generation. SCG has developed SMX™ Technology, a breakthrough technology that enabled the development and manufacturing of stronger HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene). With improved strength, plastic resins can better meet product specifications, and less material is required to achieve the same mechanical properties.
SCG Chemicals Business of SCG has partnered with SUEZ to offer Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Plastic to drive a circular economy in Southeast Asia. SUEZ Circular Polymer is building its 1st production plant in South East Asia with 30,000 tons capacity located in Bang Phli, a district of Samut Prakan Province in Thailand (near Bangkok). It is expected to be operational in 2021.
To accelerate the circular economy transition, the circular economy business director of SCG Chemicals, Mr. Chalermpol Hoonpongsimanont, shared with us that government leadership (putting CE as an urgent state/global agenda), updating/creating appropriate legislation framework & regulations, establishing infrastructure, and education of the general public as well as emerging technology adoption are critical drivers.
SCG practices entrepreneurship within its company, it has a culture of 3Fs: Fail first, fail fast and fail forward. It creates new platforms which will spin off into new start-ups or new business units. SCG developed a digital Application called Koomkah which is a tool to educate communities to dispose and segregate waste and to trade recyclable waste in a waste bank. It also developed another paper recycling digital platform called Paper X coupled with a physical collector to incentivize waste paper recycling behavior with award coins. SCG also provides an e-commerce platform for building materials trading called NocNoc.
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