A Southern Albany County factory opened its doors to reporters Wednesday for conversations with the site’s leadership and a preview of its innovative eco-friendly products.
On a 700-acre tract 11 miles south of Albany in Selkirk, Saudi Arabia's Basic Industries Corporation plant employs more than 530 people, and is home to SABIC’s ColorXpress Services for the Americas. The facility has operated here since 1966, manufacturing plastic-related products for automotive, industrial, office and consumer use.
SABIC's Manager of Sustainability Strategy for the Americas Region Brad Sparks says the company works dilligently to reduce its global carbon footprint and build a new climate change strategy that feeds into and aligns with net-zero goals.
“We've made a commitment, the company has, to carbon neutrality by 2050. And that would be for our scope one and scope two emissions," said Sparks. "So the emissions that we have inside our fence line as well as those emissions from power or utilities that we purchase from outside. And so we have a strategy that we've put together as a company to do that, and it has several pillars to it. Some of the more impactful ones, at least in the short term, include renewable energy, where we'll be bringing in power from renewable sources, could be wind or solar, maybe even hydroelectric. And we will power our site using those.”
Sparks says recyling takes center stage in SABIC's plastic manufacturing efforts. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior,8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year, and make up 80 percent of all marine debris.
Sparks highlighted SABIC's collaboration with Microsoft to create the software giant's first consumer electronic product – the Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse – with an exterior shell containing 20% recycled ocean plastic.
“Waste plastic material could come from the ocean, it could come from lakes that are feeding the ocean," Sparks said. "So you can either have ocean bound plastic, on the banks or maybe even in a river headed to the ocean, or captured from the ocean, or on the beach. And so, very visible the pollution issue, when you see plastic, either near or in the ocean. And so collecting that material you can take that, just as you would something you recycled from your own home, you can take that through a process, clean it up, and it can become new product. And so there's a lot of focus for us on ways that we can do that, opportunities for us to collect the material and make new product from it.”
Additionally, the site is a primary producer of polyphenylene ether resins and comprehensive color services, serving key industries including automotive, consumer electronics, office equipment, and industrial components.
Selkirk Plant Manager Liz Miakisz says big things happen in the plant's small ColorXpress room.
“Customers come in and they may have a portfolio that they're looking to put together, but they really don't know what colors that are aesthetically pleasing or that might be of interest for their customers," said Miakisz. "So they come in here and get some ideas, working with our color tech specialists. And what we do is we'll take their inspiration, create a formula, and come back in here with some plastic chips and show it to them and then we can tweak the formulas based on their needs.”
Miakisz says Selkirk can then electronically send the chosen formula to any of its global facilities for inclusion in the manufacturing process.
Beyond plastics, Sparks says SABIC has been actively involved in recycling various oils.
“Which would be potentially a used cooking oil which could come from any restaurant that you go to," Sparks said. "The oils that they use to cook their food, they collect those and you can reuse that material. Tall oil is another source of renewable materials, which comes from the wood and paper industries. So those are processes, through those processes they extract or exude oils that you can collect. Those oils have some of the same compounds and chemicals that we use from our fossil based fuelstocks. And so you can actually put those through our same processes and make products from them just like we do our fossil based.”
The plant is also looking switching hydrogen for natural gas as a fuel source.
“Burning of hydrogen is very clean, does not emit Co2. And so that's something that we can do," Sparks said. "There is technology available today to do that, although it's being improved and advanced over time. And then, of course, there's also carbon capture and sequestration, where you take Co2 emissions, and you actually embed them into the ground. And so where geology will allow that, that is something we're also looking at.”
Sparks adds several other renewable energy sources could be tapped into.
“That could be solar, it could be wind. Maybe it's partly a solar farm here locally, maybe it's one that's located in a different state could be through avirtual PPA," said Sparks. "So we're working on those, those options. Again, it would be potentially electrifying some of our equipment. So we have, we have a lot of our energy profile built around that burning of natural gas today, but we could look to electrify some of that equipment, which reduces the carbon footprint of the site.”
SABIC employs more than 30,000 people globally and has more than 60 manufacturing and compounding plants in more than 40 countries.
