SMC to buy plastic waste for cement facility

Congolomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) on Thursday said it is buying tons of used plastic wastes to fuel its cement manufacturing facilities.

Northern Cement Corp., an affiliate of the conglomerate, is capable of consuming up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. It is targeting to reduce use of traditional fuel by up to 50 percent and substitute with plastic wastes.

“Technology to safely convert plastic waste to energy has existed for a long time, in fact, Northern Cement has been using this on a smaller scale. Other major manufacturers, both locally and globally, have also been using this. It’s a more environment-friendly and sustainable alternative to using traditional fuels,” SMC President and COO Ramon S. Ang said.

The company’s plan to expand and ramp up its use of plastic wastes for energy for Northern Cement can now be implemented with the completion of its materials handling facility in Pangasinan.

With this, the company can collect and store plastic waste at scale and safely convert waste into energy to reduce landfill waste, reduce dependence on fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

“With our materials handling facility ready, we can now expand this program. We are calling on assemblers, local governments, and companies, to collect and sell your plastic wastes to us. Together, we can help our environment in a substantial way, and at the same time, create more livelihood opportunities for so many Filipinos during this time of pandemic,” Ang said.

Apart from providing jobs, the cement produced will also go to the construction industry, which generates a significant amount of jobs, and also drive infrastructure development and economic growth.

“Instead of just hoping for a better tomorrow, we continue to look for actual solutions where we can get the best outcome for the greatest number of people,” Ang said.

While Northern Cement’s technology can allow for all types of plastics to be processed and converted into energy, Ang said they are targeting plastic bottles, which make up a significant amount of total plastic waste in the world. In 2017, San Miguel discontinued its Purewater plastic bottled water business.

Apart from discontinuing its plastic bottled water business, the company built the country’s first asphalt road made with recycled plastic wastes, at a company-owned logistics facility used by vehicles with heavy loads, as part of a pilot test to determine its long-term durability.

In November last year, it announced a partnership with a small, local firm, Philippine Bioresins Corp., that has been developing and testing technology to create biodegradable plastics that meet government requirements for biodegradable materials.

The firm was given an Environmental Verification Certificate by the Department of Science and Technology’s Industrial Technology Development Institute, which confirmed that the biodegradable polypropylene it developed would be 64.6 percent degraded within two years—compared to only 4.5 percent within the same period for nonbiodegradable plastics.