1/30/2024 0 Comments Recycled plastic particlesReduce: With plastic production volumes skyrocketing, it’s paramount that global policy measures are taken to cut back on fossil-based plastics. Let’s go through the four Rs and their roles: A new element needs to be added: replace. The traditional formula for a better future used to be ‘reduce, recycle, reuse’. It’s clear that other means must be considered to supplement recycling.Ī holistic toolbox for a healthier futureįighting plastic waste calls for a wide-ranging approach where recycling plays its important part. Around 40% of all plastic that is collected for reuse ends up incinerated instead. In 2016, 14% of plastic waste was recycled sufficiently globally. These mechanical, technological, financial and political problems regarding recycling are a blow to the global need to reduce microplastic contamination in nature. As a large share of microplastic pollution is wear-related, handling the end-of-life problems through recycling isn’t enough. This way microplastics find their way to the water we drink, the air we breathe and the soil we farm . Car tires and synthetic textiles, for example, release microplastics every time we use them. On top of the end-of-life challenges, microplastics create problems during their whole life cycle. Plastic recycling doesn’t solve microplastics released during use Instead of relying on mechanical recycling, all forms of recycling should play their part in creating a functioning recycling infrastructure. In the future, transforming carbon-rich polymers to desired materials would bring possibilities for both conventional plastics as well as new bio-based material. In chemical recycling, the polymers of the collected plastics can be changed, enabling the improvement of existing polymers. However, chemical recycling shows a lot of potential. The technological solutions for chemical recycling already exist, but it isn’t considered an official recycling option yet. Source: The New Plastics Economy – rethinking the future of plastics () and Sustainable Packaging – The Role of Materials Substitution ()Ĭurrently, the dominance of mechanical recycling slows down the development of chemical recycling processes and the required infrastructure. Some policy makers have relied on exporting plastic waste to low-income countries instead of building a sufficient recycling infrastructure.This reduces market opportunities for recycled plastic. Cheap, fossil-based virgin plastics are cheaper to produce than they are to collect, clean and process.You can only recycle the same piece of plastic a few times before the quality is no longer sufficient for reuse. In mechanical recycling the chemical polymer remains the same and the quality of plastic gradually decreases.Plastics are becoming increasingly complex and multilayered, which makes it hard for mechanical recycling to separate the different parts for reuse.Even if the materials could be separated and recycled, it often isn’t economically viable. Many plastic types are not recycled due to their low volume.This results in plastic being burned for energy. Not all plastics collected from households can be recycled with mechanical recycling.While it’s important to collect plastic for reuse, mechanical recycling has its limitations: Mechanical recycling is currently the only recycling option for plastics. Increasing and diversifying the global recycling capacity is a necessity, but there are also several problems that prevent recycling from being the sole answer to the rising plastics production. As the existing recycling infrastructure can’t handle even our current production levels, the amount of microplastics released into nature is about to grow significantly. The production of plastic is expected to at least triple by 2050. Recycling can’t cope with rising plastic production volumes In this blog, we’ll discuss the problems and development potential of plastic recycling and the tools we have available for tackling the global plastics problem. Few people, however, know what happens to the plastic when the garbage truck speeds away. In the past few years, the sorting of plastics for recycling has become a natural everyday chore for many individuals and organizations willing to do their part for the environment.
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