Why revaluating the plastic waste?
Introduction
That is indeed the big question, why revaluating the plastic waste?
One easy answer might be: to save the planet from plastic contamination. Nonetheless, for small & medium-sized business (SMEs) there are several approaches to reply to that question.
From an operational angle, instead of paying for waste management, SMEs can generate more revenue streams. Additionally, in many cases, waste management companies charge less to handle recyclables instead of trash. Aside from savings in waste management costs, some SMEs could be benefited also from local incentives or tax credits, even grant opportunities to implement greener business innovations.
There is also a public image benefit in revaluing plastics, impacting the engagement of customers and attracting new clients. Forbes reports that some studies have found nearly 90% of Gen X consumers said that they would be willing to spend an extra 10% or more for sustainable products, compared to just over 34% two years ago.
A company’s good image also has its toll on the workforce. The Network for Bussiness Sustainability identified three main reasons why job seekers prefer sustainable companies: Employee pride, feeling cared for and aligned values. The attraction that companies can gain from sustainable practices such as plastic revaluation, translates into top profiles recruitment, better performance, lower leave rates and so on.
Revaluing plastic also promotes the preservation of local resources. Most of the time, business decisions affect directly the local communities they operate in. Sending less waste to landfills for instance, preventing the use of larger areas for landfills the consequent water/air pollution.
Description
Revaluating plastic waste for the environment.
The World Economic Forum [1] estimates that we generate about 400 million tons of plastic waste, yearly. In perspective, that is around 200.000 blue whales of plastic which takes hundreds of years to degrade. According to the OECD, less than 9% of that plastic waste is actually recycled, with significant differences across countries as it is shown in Figure 1.
This low rate of recycling translates to millions of tons of plastic waste that ends up in the environment, inland and also in the oceans. According to Plastic Soup Foundation, about 5 billion tons have ended up as waste in landfill or has simply ended up in the environment. Of this, between 5 and 13 million tons of plastic enter the oceans every year. Once in the soil or in the ocean, plastic finds it ways into organism causing ecosystem damage and even ending up in our very own plates and diet.
Also at macro-global level we find the effects of the actual economy of plastics. The OECD also estimates that plastics account for 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions [2], contributing to global warming and climate change. Scientific studies are still on an early stage to determine all impacts that plastic pollution has on our environment, climate and health.
Revaluating plastic waste for the economy.
Additional to the direct impact on ecosystems, health and the littering in the environment in general, all this wasted material that escapes the economy also implies a waste of energy and labor. Furniture manufacturer FLOKK reports that looking at Polyethylene (PET), High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polypropylene (PP), the expended energies to produce virgin plastics are 1.7, 3.0 and even 3.0 times greater respectively when compared to using post-consumer recycled plastic pellets [3].
In a study by Dalberg Advisors commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) [4], the cost of plastic to the environment and society is at least 10 times higher than its market price paid by primary plastic producers. In other words, globally, the economy is paying a hidden price for the unsustainable linear use of plastics. All this residual cost can be avoided or diverted from the unsustainability stream into a circular model, and plastic revaluation does have a role to play.
Revaluating plastic waste for the society.
Regarding the social side of plastic revaluation, there are different angles to see the benefits it could bring forth. There are communities directly affected by plastic waste such as landfill neighbors and coastal populations, which see their economic stability greatly impacted and therefore, social and health problems arise.
What is worst is that, in some cases, this plastic waste stream is produced far away but these communities have to pay the price.
In a recent study published in Science Advances, Lourens Meijer et al. (2021) found that for 80% of river plastics, the top 1,656 rivers need to be included, with Pasig river in the Philippines having the highest contribution to riverine plastic discharge to the oceans [5]. This means that communities in the many islands of the Philippines have to deal with plastic produced in Manila.
Plastic Health Coalition says plastic may affect our health via three pathways:
- We eat, drink and breathe microplastics every day. These small plastic particles may harm our health once they have entered our bodies.
- Plastic products contain chemical additives. A number of these chemicals have been associated with serious health problems such as hormone-related cancers, infertility and neurodevelopment disorders like ADHD and autism.
- When plastics and microplastics end up in the environment, they attract micro-organisms, such as harmful bacteria (pathogens). If microplastics containing these pathogens enter our body, they may increase the risk of infection.
People in communities affected by pollution are greatly affected in several ways, and even more people in waste related jobs. Occupations dealing with plastic waste, mainly informal ones, have always been despised, but it does not have to be this way. According to Plastic Smart Cities, there are an estimated 15 million waste pickers who remove 15 to 20 percent of the world’s metropolitan waste. This system can be so effective that in countries like India over 90% of PET bottles sold are collected. Several plastic revaluing initiatives have demonstrated to bring economic benefits and at the same time, have a heavy positive impact on their communities, such is the case of the SME Conceptos Plásticos and the NGO Ocean Sole which are presented in Section 5.
Revaluating plastic waste for compliance.
In some countries, revaluing plastic is not only a necessity for the environment, but also there are also binding rules in place. Such is the case of all countries within the EU, which are obligated to deploy European level directives and plans. Regarding plastic waste, there are several directives and communications that have to be considered, the following list includes some of the most important ones:
The European Green Deal: Overall EU strategy to achieve the efficient use of resources by moving from a linear to a circular economy model and aims to restore biodiversity and cut pollution. In particular, it identifies a need to reduce waste generation and foresee changes in the EU waste collection.
The Circular Economy Action Plan 2.0: Announces specific strategies to move from a linear to a circular model on a wide range of materials (plastics, textiles, food, batteries, construction, etc.) and foresees waste reduction targets as well as actions to promote reuse, repair and recycling.
Plastic Bags Directive: Directive (EU) 2015/720 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 amending Directive 94/62/EC as regards reducing the consumption of lightweight plastic carrier bags
Single-use plastics: Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment.
Waste Framework Directive: Directive 2018/851 of the European Parliament and the Council on amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste.
Landfill Directive: Directive (EU) 2018/850 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste.
Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive: Directive (EU) 2018/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste
Environmental management systems: ISO 14001:2015 Requirements with guidance for use
Case studies & Examples
The revaluation of plastics can be applied in different degrees for different sophistication levels of products. Some companies might use a fraction of revalued plastic into their products and others might create new lines of products. Such is the case of LEGO, in 2021 the multinational company unveiled a prototype of their famous brick made from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). With a team of more than 150 people are working to find sustainable solutions for LEGO products. Over the past three years, materials scientists and engineers tested over 250 variations of PET materials and hundreds of other plastic formulations.
The new PET bricks tackle two challenges posed by the original ABS bricks, they are neither recycled plastics nor are they recycled at the end of life, according to an article by WIRED. Additionally, thanks to this revaluation of PET (from plastic bottles), there is a 70% carbon reduction compared to the virgin ABS.
PET has one of the highest recycling ratios of all plastics, reaching up to 36% in Germany [6]. Nevertheless, other types of plastics are harder to recycle and end up in landfills or in the oceans. The Slovakian company Maneo saw this challenge as an opportunity and developed Concrete Plastics and Terrazzo. As stated on their website. “After 7 years of active research… we can use the whole spectrum of plastics: PET, PVC, HDPE, PP, CA, PS, PUR, PMMA, and CN industrial plastic waste”. The result, they can re-use up to 300 tons of otherwise non-recyclable plastics a day in a carbon neutral way. Their products offer improved characteristics in comparison with traditional concrete and terrazzo, including up to 50% reduction in weight, increased water resistance, earthquake resistance and increased strength and flexibility.
As mentioned before, SMEs can also have a great impact in society and not only in the environment while revaluing plastics. In Colombia, one SME that have approached the plastic waste problem from a social angle is Conceptos Plásticos. Their enterprise changes lives through social and economic power for women and youth collectors in developing countries. They developed building elements that use plastic waste and are easy to assemble by anyone.
In some cases, plastic revaluation also includes an artistic purpose. Ocean Sole is an non-governmental organization (NGO) from Kenia that turns pollution into flip flop artwork. Through beach cleanups the NGO sources the flip flops used in their pieces. Materials used in flip flop making span a wide range, using rubber, plastic foam, cork, recycled plastics, polyurethane, ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), etc. Their 90 employees have helped to recover near 600 tons of flip flops from the beaches, and impacted more than 1.000 people from highly vulnerable communities.
Resources
Links:
Sustainable business practices and employee well-being
Ocean Sole
Papers:
EU beverage industry SMEs demand fairer access to recycled PET
https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/news/168150/recycled-pet-reaching-smes/
Adoption of circular economy practices in small and medium-sized enterprises: Evidence from Europe
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527322000895
Graphical content:
Boosting the circular economy amongst SMEs in Europe
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/sme/pdf/Training%20materials_English.pdf
Videos:
How microplastics affect your health
Are You Eating Plastic for Dinner? | Short Film Showcase
Plankton eating plastic caught on camera for the first time
References:
[1] “Top 25 recycling facts and statistics for 2022” World Economic Forum, Jun. 22, 2022. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/recycling-global-statistics-facts-plastic-paper/ (accessed Feb. 15, 2023). [2] “Plastic pollution is growing relentlessly as waste management and recycling fall short, says OECD.” https://www.oecd.org/newsroom/plastic-pollution-is-growing-relentlessly-as-waste-management-and-recycling-fall-short.htm (accessed Feb. 15, 2023). [3] “Using recycled materials: Why bother? | Everything you need to know” https://focus.flokk.com/recycling-why-bother-everything-you-need-to-know (accessed Feb. 15, 2023). [4] “Plastics: the cost to society, the environment and the economy” WWF, 2021. Accessed: Feb. 15, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://media.wwf.no/assets/attachments/Plastics-the-cost-to-society-the-environment-and-the-economy-WWF-report.pdf [5] L. J. J. Meijer, T. van Emmerik, R. van der Ent, C. Schmidt, and L. Lebreton, “More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean” Sci. Adv., vol. 7, no. 18, p. eaaz5803, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz5803. [6] “Collection and recycling rate of PET in Europe” Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/989473/collection-and-recycling-rate-of-pet-in-europe/ (accessed Feb. 15, 2023).