(CUS) WASTE PLASTIC - THE SOLUTION

THE ONLY SOLUTION: MAKE LESS PLASTIC 

Recycling has long been pushed as the natural solution to plastic pollution. But the truth is, plastic recycling only escalates the problems it sets out to solve, creating new dangers for the environment and threatening human health.

As more information about plastic recycling comes to light, it has become clear that it will not solve plastic pollution, with recycled plastics actually more toxic than virgin plastic.

What has been framed as the answer to the plastic problem is unravelling as another example of industry greenwashing, serving only to delay the necessary transition to alternative materials.

Plastic can be quite difficult to recycle, and the process varies depending on the material, but generally plastic waste is collected and sent to recycling centres where it is separated, shredded and then melted down to a liquid state ready for casting into a mould.

The process is time-consuming and emissions-intensive, with it being far easier to produce new, virgin plastic than recycle plastic waste. This goes a long way to explaining why adoption rates for plastic recycling have been slow to say the least.

Recycled plastic accounts for just 6% of global plastic production and only 9% of plastic is actually recycled. Around half of it ends up in landfill, a fifth is incinerated and the remainder is mismanaged, being left to leach into the environment.

Of this mismanaged waste, much of it ends up in the ocean, with estimates indicating that between 8 million and 11 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year.

Recycling is the only method that could theoretically make plastics sustainable, so naturally has become key to the long-term future of the plastic industry.

At present, however, there is little evidence to suggest plastic recycling is having a positive impact, with efforts to develop a recycling process that is legitimately safe and sustainable so far proving unsuccessful.

There are two main types of plastic recycling: mechanical and chemical. Most plastic is recycled mechanically through a process of sorting, washing, grinding and re-granulating waste plastics. Chemical recycling is a more recently developed method that involves breaking down the chemical structure of plastic using heat or chemical processes.

Mechanical recycling

Mechanical recycling refers to a multi-stage process of sorting, cleaning and shredding waste plastic into tiny particles, ready for melting down into new plastic. It’s commonly used to recycle PE and HDPE, with typical end-products being plastic bottles, carrier bags and cosmetics bottles.

The main drawback with mechanical recycling is that it changes the molecular structure of the plastic, in turn reducing its material integrity. As a result, recycled plastic is routinely mixed with virgin plastic to make new products, and even then, it can still only be recycled two or three times.

Chemical recycling

Chemical recycling (sometimes referred to as advanced recycling) has been pushed by the plastic industry as a solution to the shortcomings of mechanical recycling, supposedly increasing both the quality of recycled plastic and the number of plastic materials that can be recycled.

This method draws on a range of complex chemical processes, including pyrolysis, gasification and depolymerisation, to break down plastics to the molecular level for use as building blocks for new plastic products.

In reality, chemical recycling is yet to be implemented at scale, currently accounting for a tiny fraction of overall plastic recycling. Only certain plastics can be recycled using chemical processes and where this is the case the process is not always successful.

A report from Beyond Plastics and the International Pollutants Elimination Network found that this purportedly advanced method of plastic recycling hasn’t worked for decades, and only produces small amounts of material that can actually be recycled, while also generating considerable amounts of hazardous waste.

And even if these issues could be resolved, chemical recycling would still be plagued by many of the same flaws faced by mechanical recycling. Neither method removes the toxins used to make the plastics in the first place. On top of that, the process still alters the plastic in a way that will always reduce its quality and limit its number of uses.

The plastic industry has long been aware of these facts, as a recent report from the Centre for Climate Integrity documents, but this has not stopped it from funnelling huge amounts of resources into a campaign of fraud and deception to promote recycling as a viable solution to the plastic problem. More of this article (CUSP) - link - the source of SUP (Candid) - link - (more like this (plastic recycling) - link - more like this (plastic pollution) - link - why the Global Plastics Treaty failed - link