Recycling and Reuse Plastics

Recycling and Reuse to Solve the World’s Plastics Problem

Many experts believe that the solution to plastic waste mainly lies not in developing better bioplastics, but in overhauling the world’s economy to recycle far-greater quantities of plastic than currently are being reused. A two-year study called Breaking the Plastic Wave, found that despite the efforts of industry, governments, and NGOs, the plastic problem is getting much worse. Plastic is already accumulating in staggering quantities, especially in marine environments.

If the world continues on its current course of skyrocketing plastic consumption, the amount of plastic waste being produced will triple by 2040. The solution to this burgeoning problem is a massive overhaul of the world’s plastic system that reuses and recycles plastic in a circular economy, along with other, smaller-scale changes, including bioplastics. If this recommendation is adopted, plastic waste could be reduced by 80 percent over the next two decades. Among the remedies proposed are the reduction of plastic packaging wherever possible, substituted with paper or compostable material; designing products for effective recycling; increasing mechanical recycling; scaling up collection and recycling efforts in moderate- and low-income countries, where the vast majority of ocean plastic originates; and an end to exports of waste plastic, which would force countries where the waste is generated to come up with solutions to the plastics problem. It’s called extended producer responsibility / product take-back. Please note that approximately 95 percent of the plastic that is transported by rivers into the oceans comes from just 10 rivers in Asia and Africa.

Single-use plastic packaging made from oil (PET) is the kind most drinks and food are sold in. It is, in many ways, the perfect packaging — strong, light, versatile, clear, and inexpensive. It protects products extremely well, keeps them fresh, and can even stand up to the acid and pressurization of soft drinks without breaking down or becoming permeable over months or years. Bioplastic needs to replicate these functions, and it does for some products. The two most commonly used bioplastics are PHA and PLA. Neither of these bioplastics is widely used, however, because they simply don’t compare to the strength and other properties of traditional plastic, and they cost substantially more. It is meaningful that in 2020, the global plastic market was worth 1.2 trillion Dollars, while bioplastics had a market share of 9 billion Dollars.

While both of the bioplastics now in use can be broken down by microorganisms and become part of the natural world again in a short period of time, this only happens if the plastic is collected and composted in carefully controlled industrial composting facilities — and there aren’t many of those, especially in developing countries where the problem of plastic pollution is most severe. If bioplastics directly end up in landfills, as many do, they can last for centuries. If thrown into the environment, they pose threats similar to PET plastic. Basically, they don’t decompose in the way most people think they do. Bioplastics often end up as rubbish littering our streets and oceans and killing marine life. Bioplastics are a ‘false solution’ as they are single use and there are limited options to compost them.

Reducing the amount of single-use packaging that we use is the only reasonable solution.

There isn’t a silver bullet. Instead, a variety of approaches are needed to overhaul the current economy. It’s about designing products for recycling. Currently we don’t do that. The recyclability should be first and foremost. Noticeably, in the U.S. just 8.4 percent of plastic was recycled, while in Europe about 42 percent of plastic packaging was recycled in 2017. The "pop" bottle of the future will still be the current PET bottle. It does a great job. But we need the ability to collect it and recycle it and recycle it. That is the future.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-bioplastics-will-not-solve-the-worlds-plastics-problem

(year 2020) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba9475

Yale School of the Environment - Yale Environment 360