The Bullied Industry: Plastics Recycling

How to change our minds about recycling for a better future

In the series “7 Main Areas to Impact Plastic Pollution,” we covered the idea of building up recycling and a few ways to accomplish them. And we need to remember:

Recycling is not evil. Recycling is part of a successful, waste-free future. It just has not been built to serve what the world, societies, and environment need.

Rather than attacking and kicking an entire industry, it’s in our best interest to help actually build it up. Recycling enables recollection of materials already in circulation, re-valuing resources already extracted at a cost, eliminating the need to use other natural resources, and creating and maintaining jobs.

Every day we see multiple attacks on the plastics recycling industry. The ban from China definitely has brought some very well overdue attention to the industry. Most articles and posts discuss how recycling is the biggest scam; it’s never worked, it never will. Best not to recycle anything, especially plastics. On the other side of the coin, we see multiple recycling and sorting centers in the US shutting down due to not making any money. As with most things on our planet — it’s hardly a black and white situation. While plastics recycling definitely is NOT working in multiple corners of the world — there are reasons. And those reasons hold the key in saving an entire industry — restoring jobs and recovering, reusing extremely high valuables.

Recycling is part of an eco-friendly future — without recycling, there is no circularity. There is a need for communities to find out how to re-collect valuable resources — resources we’ve already extracted from the planet at a cost — both environmental and financial. It’s a resource that still holds value even after its use in packaging or other materials. Does this mean we should continue producing and living the way we have been? Definitely not. The volume of production is neither sustainable nor healthy for our planet nor for us. Our throwaway cultures and lifestyles are at least equally harmful to our health and our environment.

So what’s the point then? There is a happy medium that we need to achieve. It is doubtful that we’ll get to a point where we have laptops, screens, wastewater pipes, ever-developing AI robotics, auto or aviation parts made of bamboo or coconut husk. There will always be a need to recover the value of products post-use and consumption.

Not just for single-use plastics.

Building up recycling doesn’t mean we have to continue using single-use disposable plastics. It’s about going back to using plastic as it was intended. Applications in long-term, non-food, and human consumption products. Single-use plastics need to go away and go away ASAP. They are harmful to the planet, and they are harmful to humans from beginning to end. Plastic packaging needs to go away, too — it is unnecessary. Thankfully, there’s a wonderful uptick in companies and change-makers who are leading task forces to reduce plastic packaging.

There are plenty of alternatives that are being worked on that need to be supported if we are to find quick and effective alternatives.

Even if we can somehow eliminate all single-use plastics, replace some future products with alternatives, and create new plastics that are easier to capture and circulate within the system, we still have a problem. All the plastics that are already here — and all the plastics that will continue to be manufactured until alternatives take hold still need to be captured and properly utilized and disposed of.

There is a school of thought to leaving those plastics in the environment — cause collecting them is too costly and practically impossible to accomplish. That approach has no hope — leaving plastics in the environment is not an option. We collect what we can, just as we cut what we can. It’s not an overnight big bang approach. However, just burning them all or letting them break up and sink to the bottom of the ocean is not an environmentally friendly option. Collecting what we can and preventing those already in circulation from going into the ocean is a change to the current mindset. Once again — all of this needs to occur while maintaining our focus on redesign and innovation to eliminate plastics from everyday items.

An example is what Boyan Slat created in the last few years through The Ocean Cleanup and is developing from the Netherlands. His solution is closest to end-to-end, capturing plastics, recycling, and also investing in innovative new ways to prevent plastics from becoming an issue.

Problems with Recycling: A recap

Recapping on the main issues facing recycling today:

• The recycling processes and “rules” are too complicated for the public. The public is confused and has a disregard for recycling, particularly plastic recycling. Most people don’t know HOW to recycle, and the systems in place actually make it very complicated.
• What we call recycling in the west is not recycling at all — it’s haphazard collections and exports. The West didn’t care about the quality of the collected plastics — whether cross-contaminated with other plastics or just contaminated with a foreign matter like food, oil, or another chemical residue — as long as it’s not here, we said, the rest doesn’t matter.
• There is no value created for recycled plastics — the oil and gas industry applied a $161Billion subsidy in 2016 that directly and indirectly helped keep the cost of virgin plastic cheaper than recycled plastic.
• The demand for recycled plastics is very low — mostly due to the bullet above.
• There is a general misconception that fixing recycling means the continued use of single-use plastics.

The added benefits of recycling

• Keep a valuable resource out of the environment.
• Create jobs in more areas where labor is valuable.
• Keep the value in a finite resource extracted from mother earth.
• Reduce carbon emissions.

Rigid plastics — already here and new ones

• Fashion — the biggest polluting industry uses a lot of plastic — polyesters, elastics, rubber, shoes, equipment, etc., creating tremendous capture and recycling opportunities.
• Household Goods & Electronics — all the daily products we use, from coffee makers to our phones and cameras.
• Toys — an ever-growing industry with plastic products added to their repertoire daily.
• Plastics used in Transportation — Car parts, traffic cones, and signs, etc.
• Healthcare — uncontaminated plastics used in furniture and other assets.
• Construction & Infrastructure — plastics used as tools, parts, pipes, etc.

Smart applications for reuse

• Construction & Infrastructure — use recycled plastics in piping and other long-term applications that have no adverse impact on human health. A high-capture application reduces the impact on the environment.
• Roads — many countries and cities already started implementing plastics on their roads, if not creating modular roads made purely of recycled plastics.
• Durable applications for public use — park benches, decking, etc.
• Agriculture — piping, tools, and equipment can all be made from recycled plastics, then recaptured for further recycling and proper disposal to prevent leakage into the environment.
• Strong, sturdy Levees — with the increasing rise in sea levels and powerful storms, more and more coastal areas need stronger levee systems.

Global Applications that are working:

• TerraCycle — they recycle everything and also developed the Loop system where people can subscribe to a reuse program to return empty containers and receive new products.
• Ocean Cleanup — Boyan Slat persisted in his invention to clean up the Ocean, launched a vessel in 2018, and now is working on building solutions in developing countries and improving the recycling systems in Europe.
• Loop — Terracycle’s venture to develop a closed-loop system on the packaging — to reduce waste!
• TechniSoil — a California-based company recycling roads (yes, the pavement) along with plastic bottles to avoid having them hit the landfill, incineration, or Ocean!
• PlasticRoad — a Netherlands-based company that creates roads from purely recycled plastic.

Do you have any examples to include in this list?