Switch to safer basic chemicals, activists tell industry

Abstract

The chemical industry needs to switch from its major building-block petrochemicals so that it can transform into a sector that no longer harms people’s health or the environment, according to a July 13 report from activist groups . Lower-hazard substances that are not derived from fossil fuels should replace benzene, butadiene, ethylene, methanol, propylene, toluene, and xylene, the report says. It is by policy, science, and market experts and Coming Clean , a US-based network of community activists and environmental justice organizations. “The petrochemical sector’s reliance on fossil-fuel feedstocks and manufacturing processes that have evolved little in a hundred years is a massive barrier for change,” Beverley Thorpe, program manager at Clean Production Action and the author of the report, says in a statement . Clean Production Action promotes green chemicals, materials, and products. Switching to biobased feedstocks, such as wood pulp, to make these basic chemicals isn’t a solution,