Labubu Is Blowing Up Hopes of a Plastics Halt

An addiction to consumerism is driving a surge in polymer production, and China is now the new ground zero.

- David Fickling

The world's governments are meeting this week to hammer out a treaty to reverse the rising tide of plastics. Oil companies have other ideas.

Far from cutting back their spending, refiners are planning to drown the noble ambitions of United Nations negotiators meeting in Geneva beneath a tsunami of polymers.

That freaky-cute Labubu doll you just bought (made largely of polyester and polyvinyl chloride) and the bento meal you got delivered in four separate containers (polypropylene and polyethylene) are evidence that we need to work a lot harder to break our plastics habit.

PLASTICS EXPANSION

China is ground zero for this shift. Just last week, Shandong Yulong Petrochemical announced plans to spend US$16.4 billion (S$21.1 billion) on an expanded facility to produce feedstocks—the basic chemicals, such as ethylene and propylene, from which plastic polymers are made. PetroChina has also signed off on a US$9.6 billion plastics plant, Reuters reported in July, without saying where it got the information.

That's part of a massive expansion as the country rushes for self-sufficiency in chemicals it previously imported.

Production of ethylene nearly doubled since 2018, to 35 million tonnes in 2024. Another 33 million tonnes, including vast projects under construction by Saudi Basic Industries, Shell, BASF, and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, will be added by 2030.