The Obstacles To Plastic Recycling And Who Is Overcoming Them
Plastic was invented in 1907 and since then it has only grown in popularity and versatility. It is a material that can be adapted to a multitude of applications and in many fields does not have a material that can compare. Despite these benefits, however, plastic remains a dangerous material for our environment. It can last for decades in our environment, and when it comes to repurposing and finding more uses for it it is much more difficult to recycle than materials like glass, aluminum, or paper. This is not to say that plastic should not be recycled as it does have the potential to support a more circular and sustainable economy by bringing about multiple uses to this traditionally single-use material. However, for recycling to reach its full potential the infrastructure has to be in place to match both the demand as well as the technology that is needed to recycle so many different types of plastic.
One of the main obstacles to the recycling plastic market is an abundance of misinformation on how recycling works and what can be recycled. For example, resin codes do not equal recyclability. The numbers and symbols you often see on plastic products were simply adopted by the Society of Plastics Industry in 1988 to provide an industry-wide standard that would make it easier to identify and sort recyclable plastics. However, this does not mean that all plastic products with these symbols get recycled or are recyclable. Thousands of different kinds of plastic have been developed due to different combinations of dyes and additives to the basic resin, these combinations, in turn, result in different melting points and other properties that make it impossible to recycle different types of plastic together. Each type of plastic may require its own machinery and process. Therefore, in order to be made into another plastic product, they must be sorted by plastic-type.
Although the technology to recycle these different types of plastic exists, the infrastructure does not. Communities must be able to cost-effectively collect and sort plastic and businesses must be willing to accept the material for processing. This requires proper sorting by the community, which is hard to enforce or if you are using an “all-bottle” recycling system, this results in a labor-intensive and costly endeavor for recycling facilities. Additionally, material recovery facilities have trouble keeping up with the processing of all these new materials as technology needs to be adopted to properly handle all the new polymers that are being created. Not only do these facilities need to decide whether they will do the sorting or work with the type of sorting that is implemented in the larger community, but there is also a lack of standardization among these facilities in terms of what can be sorted for recycling. Some facilities may have the technology for separating the thin plastic or wax coating from a disposable cup for example, but others do not and this then influences how community members can sort their plastic. The same issue exists with products like grocery bags. To combat this, technology has been invented such as that being implemented by GrayParrot AI. Their system uses artificial intelligence to quickly and efficiently sort waste materials by type or even as specific as to whether or not it is food-grade approved. Taggant technology is also being developed by companies like NanoMatrix, whose chemical tracers would facilitate sorting and increase traceability throughout the product lifecycle. Businesses and product manufacturers play a large role in how effective the recycling market can be as they have a say in the type of plastics that are used and the demand for what kinds of plastics exist. If businesses continue to manufacture products with excessive packaging and use polymers that are difficult to recycle, it will remain a challenge. However, it is important to note that consumers will also perpetuate this cycle if they continue to buy these products and not demand more sustainable options from these businesses.
Fortunately, policies are being developed and implemented that require businesses to make these sustainability commitments demands for more sustainable alternatives. For example, in the United States, the California Recycling and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act aims to place a 1 cent tax on single-use plastics. The bill is headed by Recology, a waste management company, which estimates it would bring a few billion dollars in revenue each year, which would go to recycling and composting infrastructure as well as subsidies to the various players in the recycling industry, including curbside pick up programs and reclaimers who process plastic. The aim is to get enough signatures, about 890,303 to get it on the 2022 ballot. Similarly, in Europe in EU introduced a charge in January 2021, which is calculated on the weight of non-recycled plastic packaging waste with a rate of €0.80/kilogram. These policies are incentivizing manufacturers to increase the recycled component of their products. Although many plastic bottle manufacturers such as Coca-Cola and Unilever are targeting at least 50% recycled material by 2030. However, some are also shifting to other materials such as bio-based or non-plastic alternatives which, unfortunately, often have a larger environmental impact than plastic because of higher energy usage, CO2 output, and weight.
Businesses will have to start incorporating these sustainability measures as more policies go into effect and consumers continue to value it more. In fact, 76% of Americans expect corporations to take action against climate change. Not only does it benefit the environment, but it would be economically beneficial as well. A report by the New Climate Economy found that the combination of action from governments, other stakeholders, and businesses that take action on climate change by adopting green policies, technologies, and strategies for growth could realize a total of $26 trillion in economic benefits. As such, MikaCycle aims to facilitate the process in order to increase the use of recycled materials by ensuring quality, transparency, and traceability.
