Plastic waste and the recycling myth

By Dr. Tim Sandle
Published August 8, 2021

Tonnes of microplastic granules from a burning container ship have inundated Sri Lanka's west coast - Copyright AFP LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI

At the present rate, the levels of plastic emissions globally are likely to initiate effects that humanity will not be able to reverse. New research finds plastic pollution to be a global threat. The report also signals that unless actions are taken to reduce emissions of plastic to the environment, then the consequences for the planet will be catastrophic.

According to Greenpeace, while plastic is useful and versatile, the large qualities that are used are highly problematic. As a symbol of the throwaway culture, vast quantities of plastic pollute flows into the oceans causing considerable damage to the food chain.

Another way of expressing the problem is where it is projected that plastic pollution will weigh as much as 1.3 billion tonnes in just two more decades.

The Swedish researchers have been looking at the extent of the current problem. According to the lead scientist, Professor Matthew MacLeod, achieving change will be culturally challenging: “Plastic is deeply engrained in our society, and it leaks out into the environment everywhere, even in countries with good waste-handling infrastructure.”

The central concern is that while people express support for ecological issues in general and plastic pollution specifically, the signs are that change is not happening to any great extent.

For instance, plastic emissions are trending upward even though awareness about plastic pollution among the public, according to opinion polls, appears to have increased significantly in recent years.

The new research appears in the journal Science, in a paper titled “The global threat from plastic pollution”.

Can the damage be reversed? To do so will take enormous political will. A different research team estimate the scale of human response needed to reduce future emissions and manage what is already floating around out there requires a fundamental shift to a framework based on recycling all end-of-life plastic products and phasing out plastic products wherever possible.

However, as the Swedish researcher point out, recycling plastic is not easily achieved. While governments urge people to recycle plastic, this does little to actually reduce plastic pollution. This is because, technologically, recycling of plastic has many limitations. Some types of plastics cannot be recycled and the extent to which they are recycled depends upon technical, economic and logistic factors.

This means recycling plastic is often simply too expensive and even plastic collected by a local authority for recycling still ends up in a landfill site (where it can enter water streams).

It also stands that a common approach by many high-income countries is to export their plastic waste to lower-income countries with poor facilities, even assuming an attempt is made to recycle rather than landfill.

For example, the U.S. exported 436 million kg in 2019 and is continues to export over 5,600 shipping containers (30 million kg) of plastic waste every month to other countries, so that the waste can be disposed of.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-science/plastic-waste-and-the-recycling-myth/article#ixzz731fiau25