The recycling dilemma: Most plastic still ends up as waste

 Due to the record amount of plastic produced daily, with less than 10% recycled, we need to reconsider our approach to recycling.

Over 90% of the world’s plastic is not recycled, highlighting the seriousness of the pollution crisis. Less than a tenth of all plastic produced to date has been recycled, and only 1% has been recycled twice.

The rest ends up in Landfill and Incinerators. It contributes to environmental pollution, with the ocean absorbing about a garbage truck’s worth of plastic every minute.

Moritz Jäger-Roschko, a plastics expert at Greenpeace Germany, states that being recyclable doesn’t guarantee it is actually recycled. “Currently, it is simply cheaper to produce new plastic products than to collect and recycle them.”

Not all plastics are the same

One of the main obstacles to greater recycling is the type of plastic. Of the thousands of types of plastic, some, such as cross-linked polymers, are difficult to handle. Marc KREUTZBRUCK, head of the Institute of Plastics Engineering at the University of Stuttgart, says that mechanical recycling is not mechanically

But because they are strong, durable, and heat-resistant, they are the kind of plastics used in aerospace, electronics, and automobiles.

Kreutzbruck states, “These plastics are utilized in lightweight construction within the transportation sector.

Hazardous chemical additives

Another important consideration is that plastics are often made with additives that make them more flexible, stronger, or cheaper. According to Sarah Perreard, co-director of the Global Plastic Footprint Network coalition, the use of additives has “increased dramatically” over the past decade.

The problems are as complex as plastics themselves. Many additives are harmful to human health and the environment and can leach out during recycling, even from recycled products. Recycling streams tainted with hazardous additives can be classified as toxic waste by regulatory agencies, complicating or prohibiting recycling efforts.

Additives can mix unexpectedly during recycling, lowering the quality of the final product and making it less appealing to manufacturers.

Other types of plastics—such as PET and HDPE, used in beverage and detergent bottles, respectively—are easy to recycle because it are easy to identify the materials they are made from. Yet, they are often thrown away.

If something can be recycled but there’s no system to collect and process it, it won’t be recycled. It will not even be managed properly,” says Perreard.

Composite packaging includes items like chip bags or coffee pods, made from a mix of plastic, aluminum, or paper. These are almost impossible to separate, and most recycling plants cannot process them at all.

Finding solutions

Experts emphasize the need to rethink plastic recycling, and some are discovering innovative methods to turn hard-to-recycle waste into useful materials.Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist at the University of New South Wales in Australia, questions the belief that all recycled products should return to their original form.

“Our journey started at a time when we were saying, when people say it’s not recyclable, what does that mean? But what if we can rebuild a completely different product from it?”

Sahajwalla noted that she is a pioneer in ‘micro factories’ that convert mixed plastic waste, including e-waste plastic, into valuable materials that are normally hard to recycle.

“We make plastic filament from 100% recycled materials sourced from hard plastics, like those from IT printers, and use it in a 3D printer,” she said.

“The idea is to re-use the new material from the source.”

“Our micro factory in Sydney is where our industrial partner converts plastic into filament.”

“A broken computer or printer part can be 3D printed using recycled plastic.”

“So, let’s not say the problem is with the raw materials. Let’s talk about how we can design and redesign our manufacturing processes,” Sahajwala said.

The role of policy

However, according to Moritz Jäger-Roschko recycling alone will not solve the crisis, but production will has to be decrease. That is why policy is also important. Experts say that effective regulation is really needed.

He says that the Plastic Footprint Network’s Perreard is calling for global rules that apply to every country. “Businesses also want these rules.”

Recent talks on the UN Plastics Agreement present a unique chance to address plastic pollution and improve recycling efforts. According to Jäger-Roschko, Greenpeace is calling for a 75% reduction in plastic production by 2040.

Still, the fossil fuel industry, which supplies the oil and gas from which plastics are produced, is firmly entrenched.

Pereard stated that oil-producing countries oppose a strong agreement because transitioning to renewable energy will deplete their oil reserves, and plastic remains a valuable commodity for them.

He is pushing for policies that would hold companies accountable for their packaging throughout its life cycle.

After all, experts say, these big companies have helped create the plastic crisis and are not redesigning their packaging. They have a responsibility to reduce the use of single-use plastics and invest in real recycling systems.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker
(The article was initially published in the journal DW) 
(For the convenience of readers from the Asian subcontinent, it was rewritten by Rahman Mahfuz in an easier form.)