Weekly Clips

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The Oil and Gas Industry Has a Water Problem. EPA Wants to Help.

The agency plans to update rules for what can be done with water that emerges from the ground during oil and gas extraction. The goal is to allow the chemical-laden, super-salty brine to be substantially cleaned and reused for power generation, water-guzzling data centers and irrigating rangeland.

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Two-Step System Makes Plastic from Carbon Dioxide, Water and Electricity

What if a machine could suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, run it through a series of chemical reactions, and essentially spit out industrially useful plastic? "I think that is something that we, as a society, would be interested in. After all, in addition to being a greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide is an abundant and inexpensive feedstock," says Theo Agapie, Ph.D., the John Stauffer Professor of Chemistry and the executive officer for chemistry at Caltech. "With our new work, we have taken a significant step in that direction."

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Dow Bringing New PE Production in Texas Online

Dow Inc. is starting up a new polyethylene resin production unit in Freeport, Texas. In an email to Plastics News, a spokesperson with Dow in Midland, Mich., said the firm's Poly-7 PE project "is coming online."

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BASF Interview Part 1: Producing More with Less a Key Sustainability Concern

BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division’s senior vice-president of global marketing, Marko Grozdanovic, spoke to Crop Science Market Reporting’s (CSMR) Amritesh Singh Malhan and Robert Birkett about agriculture’s sustainability challenges and the company’s contribution to tackling them.

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Researchers Convert PET Waste Into Acetaminophen

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland have discovered a method to turn post-consumer PET waste into acetaminophen.

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Maine Cites Costs as it Loosens Packaging EPR Law

Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed industry-backed legislation that loosens requirements in the state's extended producer responsibility program for packaging, a move supporters said makes it more sensitive to costs and brings it in line with EPR elsewhere in the country.

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Trump Admin Opts for Tighter Air Rules on Plastics Recycling

A controversial chemical recycling process will remain under more protective air regulations — a reversal from the first Trump administration's attempts to weaken standards in line with industry pleas.

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A Welcome Expansion at the EPA

Kudos to President Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. The EPA announced last month that it will reassign more than 130 agency scientists to clear the backlog of new chemicals and pesticides that need review before they can be sold. It’s a giant step to protect the environment and human health—and there’s more to do.

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The Surprising Ways Food Packaging Is Exposing Us to Microplastics

New research shows that microplastics are shedding from reusable plastic containers and food packaging, but the particles can also come from glass bottles with painted caps, as well as highly processed foods packaged in any material.

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Glass Bottles May Contain More Microplastics than Plastic Ones, Scientists Warn

Drinks sold in glass bottles, like soda, wine, or beer, may contain more microplastic particles than those in plastic ones, a surprising new study published by France's food safety agency suggests.

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Texas Approves First State-Backed Gas Plant

Texas officials gave the green light to the first new natural gas plant to be built through a state-backed low-interest loan program, a milestone in the state government’s attempt to build more fossil fuel infrastructure.

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US Chem Employment to Grow Despite Retirement Wave – Deloitte

Employment in the US chemical industry will continue growing even while it contends with a wave of retirements, the consultancy Deloitte said.

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PFAS Firefighting Foam Needed for Another Year, Pentagon Says

Military bases will seek Congress’ approval to use PFAS-enabled firefighting foam until Oct. 1, 2026, according to recently released briefing materials from the Department of Defense.

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Advanced Recycling Summit to Bring 100+ Industry Professionals to Cleveland

After the success of the 2024 event in Akron, Smithers is excited to bring Advanced Recycling Summit back to Ohio. The 2025 event will take place in Cleveland, OH from August 26 to August 27. Held at the Westin Cleveland Downtown, the 2025 conference will bring together industry leaders to learn more about how advanced recycling influences the recycling conversation, furthers the circular economy, and enhances sustainability goals.

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Chemical Process More Efficiently Converts Carbon Dioxide to Methanol, a Chemical Used in Manufacturing and a Potential Fuel

A new chemical process funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation has produced methanol — a type of alcohol essential for manufacturing many common products and a potential fuel source — more efficiently than ever before. The method generates methanol from carbon dioxide nearly 66% more efficiently than the next best approach.

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Texas leaders broke promises to hold CenterPoint accountable after Hurricane Beryl. Here are 5 takeaways.

As Houstonians sweated through days of power outages in the wake of Hurricane Beryl last year, one culprit emerged: CenterPoint Energy, the region’s primary electric utility. Texas’ most powerful leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, promised that sweeping reforms were coming. But a year later, not much has changed, the Chronicle found.

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Abbott Sets Special Session on THC Regulation Amid Trump Redistricting Push

Gov. Greg Abbott is calling lawmakers back to Austin next month to regulate the state’s booming THC industry and make tweaks to a handful of other bills the Texas Republican vetoed. The special session also comes as the White House is pushing Texas lawmakers to redraw congressional lines ahead of the 2026 midterms.

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Major Bills Greg Abbott Vetoed, From Texas' THC Ban to Summer Food Programs

Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed more than two dozen bills this week, ranging from a teacher retention advisory committee to a slew of criminal justice-related changes. He sent state lawmakers back to the drawing board on six of the rejected proposals and completely scrapped the rest.

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Smarter Transportation Policies Will Put America in the Driver’s Seat

President Trump has laid out an ambitious vision for America’s future one that prioritizes onshoring manufacturing, strengthening trade, and revitalizing our economy. But to realize this vision, we must address a critical, often overlooked piece of the puzzle: transportation.

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New Study Says to Think Fees, Not Bans, to Reduce Plastic Bag Litter

A new study suggests plastic bag fees could be more impactful than bans in limiting plastic bag litter on shorelines. And the work published in the journal Science also finds full bag bans are more effective than partial bans.

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Chem Plant Upgrade: Business Receives $5M Grant for Expansion in Killeen

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $5.3 million grant for a project to expand a chemical plan in Killeen Tuesday. MGC Pure Chemicals America received the grant from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, which is an incentive program designed to promote semiconductors.

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