system
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human
AskScience AMA Series: We are Dr. David Parrillo and Jeff Wooster from the Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics business, here to sort out the facts from fiction on plastics packaging as it relates to sustainability, AMA!

Hi Reddit!
 
Innovation in plastic packaging has been driven by new materials development and enhancements in machine processing technology.  The growth in flexible packaging is apparent in local super markets. In the US alone, the flexible packaging industry is worth roughly $31.1 billion. 
 
Significant innovations in material science (for example, advances in Polyethylene catalysis) have enabled new packages to be developed with multiple  individual plastic layers that have the toughness, abuse properties, hermetic seal properties, barrier properties, and the shelf appeal to drive the conversion  from high cost and high CO2 footprint materials to Plastic Packaging which enables a improved system sustainability.   
When compared to other packaging options, plastic packaging is often more sustainable. If you’re wondering why and how plastic can be so good when common perception would dictate just the opposite, join this conversation!  We’ve spent decades collaborating and developing product, process and policy solutions to deliver a more sustainable future. 

Ask Us Anything!    We’ll start responding to questions at 1:00 PM Eastern Time (10 am PT, 6 pm UTC.)


**David Parrillo**: I am a PhD chemical engineer from the University of Pennsylvania and a Global R&D director at Dow.  I am a member of the Materials Research Society Board of Directors, the External Advisory Board of Chemical Engineering at UC Santa Barbara, and a member of AIChE. I have more than 21 years of experience in the Chemical Process and Materials Industries driving product innovation in numerous market segments.  I hold 13 US Patents and am the primary author on 20 peer review publications in the scientific literature.


**Jeff Wooster**: I am a chemical engineer from Iowa State University and a global Sustainability director at  Dow. In this role, I work with the entire value chain to drive the use of science and data-based decision making to improve the sustainability of plastic packaging value chains. As part of my effort to collaborate across the industry, I serve on the Board of Directors and as the president of AMERIPEN, a trade association founded on the principle that decisions should be based on scientific data and on the Board of Directors for GreenBlue, an environmental non-profit dedicated to improving sustainability.  After spending the first 19 years of my career in R&D, I have spent the past 8 years focusing on sustainability.  I hold 45 U.S. and foreign patents and have published more than 50 technical papers and presentations.
gpt
If your monomers are derived from fossil fuel processes, by definition your materials are unsustainable.  Polyethylene requires ethylene, derived from fossil fuels.   It can also be produced from the dehydration of ethanol, but that sounds like taking something valuable and turning it into something much less valuable.  Which polymers produced by Dow are made with a truly sustainable feedstock, that is, not derived from fossil fuels?