EVP - Technology Projects, Eastman Chemical Co
Eastman is Creating a More Circular Economy | EARTH with John Holden
Learn how Eastman, located in Kingsport, Tennessee, is making an impact on the pressing plastic waste problem in this segment of “EARTH with John Holden.”
Eastman has spent a century creating new and innovative materials to improve the lives of customers in over 100 countries. With the rise of climate change, consumers are now demanding sustainable products.
At Eastman, we are working to give life to old products and divert them from waste streams. With innovative recycling solutions like PET recycling and molecular recycling, we are able to rebuild new materials without compromising the...
About Stephen Crawford
In a 2019 appearance on the program "EARTH with John Holden," Stephen Crawford discussed Eastman Chemical's efforts to address plastic waste through recycling technologies. Crawford stated that the company aims to "take back any waste plastics and pull them out of the environment and rebuild them back up into useful materials" by breaking them down into molecules. He described a methanolysis process that can use polyester-based feedstocks to create products without the limitations of degradation associated with mechanical recycling. Crawford also commented on the growing demand for sustainable products, saying that sustainability has shifted from "a nice to have" to "a requirement" driven by consumers, brands, and customers. He expressed excitement about repurposing innovation to "give new life to old things" and suggested that solving the global plastic waste problem may require "going back to the basics and starting again at the molecular level."
Transcript (8 segments)
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John Holden0:32
Hi, I'm John Holden and welcome to Earth. We're starting off our show here in Kingsport, Tennessee, a city known for research and development that impacts many of the products that we use every day. You know, we live in a circular economy with a growing population that has problems that can and must be solved. But today, the problems are so complex they have to be solved at the molecular level. Let's take a look.
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Narrator1:11
It's way to ten billion in the decades ahead. We all want products that are good for this planet and enhance the quality of our lives. Unfortunately, many of those plastic products are now polluting our waterways and landfills. The challenges facing mankind are rising and they must be solved in a sustainable way.
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Stephen Crawford1:29
The fact is, basically there's 80 million more people each year being brought onto the earth, and we've got problems both with hydration and with feeding the population. One, the solutions have to first be at scale, which we are as a 10 billion dollar company, and then secondly, the problems are so complex they have to really be solved at a molecular level. Eastman is a global specialty materials company in Kingsport, Tennessee.
This will be our 100th anniversary as Eastman. We had a long history of being part of Kodak and then eventually being spun off as a separate company in '94. So our primary goal has existed for a very long time, and our moral stated purpose is to enhance the quality of life in a material way. So as we think about it, we're in the materials business. Our job is to improve the quality of materials. If you look at it decades ago, it was providing higher quality products for people to improve their quality of life. Today, the fundamental opportunity is how do we make these products more environmentally sensitive.
Eastman today has grown to a company of sustainability while addressing the changing needs of the world and its growing population. I think we are at a tipping point with sustainability. I think in years past it's been a nice to have, but at this point it has become a requirement. So consumers are requiring it, brands are requiring it, and our customers are demanding it. So as you look at the commitments that big brands have made, the stakes they put in the ground about their future commitments, sustainability is at the heart of those, and we have to deliver the right solutions. One thing I'm really excited about is how we've sort of repurposed innovation. Instead of figuring out how to make new things, we're actually going to figure out how to give new life to old things, or things that don't have any and no longer have a current value. So we're going to talk about waste plastics.
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Narrator3:53
It's sustainable research that takes place on Earth and makes this world a better place for all of us to live in. So the work we're doing is helping the environment, helping humans, helping animals by trying to get plastic out of the waste stream, trying to get it out of landfills, and making durable products that people use really for as long as they want to. This research is not only to innovate new products and applications, but also to pursue innovative recycling solutions to address the circular economy and the growing challenge of waste plastic in our environment. Eastman recently announced two new technologies that will significantly impact the global issue of plastic waste. We're in the process of commercializing...
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Stephen Crawford5:11
...rebuild them back up into useful materials. By harnessing the power of chemistry, we can break them back down into molecules that we can then rebuild into new materials we sell on the market. This is really exciting technology. So instead of going from just bottle to bottle type recycling that you do with mechanical recycling, we now have the opportunity to take a whole mix of materials. So for our methanolysis process in particular, we could use different types of feedstocks that are polyester based. But with these materials, it gives us a chance to create products that don't have any of the limitations that might go along with degradation over time from mechanical recycling. The legacy we want to have is building on a history of innovation. So Eastman has been around for a hundred years. We've been an innovator, enhancing the quality of life.
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Narrator6:10
We will have a responsible beginning of life and a responsible end of life. So the secret to solving our global plastic waste problem and so many other issues facing the world today may very well mean going back to the basics and starting again at the molecular level.