Ever since the mantra &#;reduce, reuse, recycle&#; began making its rounds, the idea of plastic recycling has seemed like a panacea. Who wouldn&#;t want to reduce the creation of brand-new plastic and prevent plastic from ending up in the environment&#;all while continuing to use cheaper, plentiful products?
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But recycling isn&#;t actually easy or practical in many scenarios, meaning the practice isn&#;t really the one-stop pollution solution it&#;s commonly believed to be. In fact, there are some real problems with plastic recycling, including unwanted impacts on health and a boomerang effect on pollution itself.
Plastic recycling is commonly believed to be a solution to plastic pollution, but a recent study shows the process may actually increase plastic pollution. Researchers studying a U.K. recycling facility found that at least 6% of the plastic waste brought in was shed off when washed, sloughing off microplastics into the water. That number rises to 13% if a filter wasn&#;t added to stop some material from going down the drain, according to the study.
Meanwhile, other research suggests that recycling plastic may actually increase its toxicity. A report published by Greenpeace compiled findings on the health impacts of recycling plastic. The report particularly noted that mechanical recycling releases the chemical benzene, a known carcinogen, which leads to the toxin showing up in the recycled plastics themselves.
Compared to producing brand-new plastic, recycled plastic is expensive, according to Shelie Miller, an environmental sustainability professor at the University of Michigan&#;s Center for Sustainable Systems.
&#;The biggest issue with plastic is that it&#;s so cheap to make new plastic,&#; she said, pointing to the low current price of natural gas, a key ingredient in plastic production. &#;That&#;s true of pretty much any recycling material, because the raw material has to compete with the virgin material for someone to want to buy it.&#;
Some recyclable materials are able to compete on cost, she added, noting that some, like aluminum, are actually cheaper to recycle into new products than to newly produce. But with plastic, Miller says, the math doesn&#;t pencil out. &#;You&#;re talking about a virgin material that&#;s incredibly cheap and a recycling process that is just more expensive&#; in comparison, she says.
The processes behind turning a used piece of plastic into something new aren&#;t as efficient as they need to be. For starters, the quality of plastic declines every time it&#;s recycled, meaning there&#;s a limit to how much you can feasibly keep that plastic functional. And not many plastics are truly recyclable, because facilities aren&#;t always able to process certain common types of plastic.
Plus, even if a facility can handle a given type of plastic, the way it was molded may render it incompatible with the site&#;s recycling equipment. That&#;s because there are two main methods for plastic molding: injection and blowing. Injection molding is often used for solid products, while blow molding typically produces &#;hollow&#; plastics, like milk jugs.
&#;Sometimes we get caught in this cycle of thinking about recycling as the only option when we know we are not going to recycle our way out of this crisis. It is just one of the tools that we need to use to manage plastics.&#;
Anja Brandon, ocean conservancy
From a production perspective, each method has its advantages and disadvantages but nonetheless can create the usual array of numbered plastics. But even if, for example, a producer used #2 plastic to create numerous products that eventually end up at the same recycling facility, products not made through the same molding process will have different chemical reactions once melted&#;meaning they can&#;t be mixed together during recycling.
Our systems to collect plastic aren&#;t necessarily working, either. Around 80% of American cities and towns used single-stream recycling, which means that residents don&#;t need to separate their glass, paper, and various plastics before putting them in the bin.
Doing this has increased contamination in the stream of materials ending up at recycling facilities, making it not cost-effective to process plastics that might otherwise be recyclable. Plastic waste with zero contamination is &#;much more cost-competitive&#; than contaminated plastics, according to Miller. However, she notes that even pure, uncontaminated plastic waste is still not usually cheaper to process than just making new plastic.
If the environmental health problems tied to plastic recycling impact us all, it only makes sense that the workers intimately involved in the process are impacted, too. Being a refuse and recyclable material collector is one of the most deadly jobs in the country, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Workers face numerous threats because of the number of tasks that need to be done manually, like operating compactors and handling plastics on conveyor belts, in addition to the chemical biohazards or contaminants they might breathe in or touch.
And while waste plastic exportation has been on the decline in recent years, nearly a billion pounds of plastic products were moved out of the U.S. to other countries in . The climatological consequences of that transportation are massive; the Plastic Pollution Coalition finds that carbon emissions from plastic waste exported by sea in were equal to the use of around 26,000 cars.
While Canada receives the most U.S. plastic waste, most of the top importers are less-wealthy countries, like Mexico, India, Malaysia and Indonesia, according to a plastics industry trade publication. And in countries with less stringent labor rights, like in Vietnam and Turkey, recycling workers face the same problems but with fewer protections.
First of all, keep putting accepted plastic products you use in your local recycling bins. If your municipality says it can properly recycle certain plastics&#;#1 and #2 are most widely recycled&#;don&#;t stop recycling just because the broader system is broken. &#;Sometimes we get caught in this cycle of thinking about recycling as the only option when we know we are not going to recycle our way out of this crisis,&#; explains Anja Brandon, the associate director of U.S. plastics policy for Ocean Conservancy. &#;It is just one of the tools that we need to use to manage plastics, but we need to start with reduction and reuse and all of the other tools in the tool chest.&#;
However, more consequential than recycling your plastics would be to stop using new plastics in the first place. That might seem impossible since every big box store&#;s aisles are lined with plastic bottles full of shampoo, laundry detergent, and plastic-wrapped fruit. But as more retailers aim to bring products with little-to-no plastic packaging to market or your door, more choices are available for cleaning, beauty, and grocery products that don&#;t use the material. Dispensers for unpackaged nuts and grains are common at certain grocery companies, like Whole Foods or MOM&#;s Organic Market, while new startups like The Rounds offer home products and grocery delivery with minimal packaging. And small-scale package-free shops are popping up in neighborhoods around the country; check out this growing guide to where such stores exist.
If you can&#;t eliminate your use of a product sold in plastic, try to find new, safe ways to re-use the packaging once you&#;re done with it. Protein powder containers, for example, make awesome resealable bins, as do sauce and peanut butter jars. And plastic spice containers can be used to hold any small items together&#;like screws, coins or earring backs&#;or refilled with spices at a package-free shop.
There is growing concern amongst recyclers that our recycling efforts are not enough and that, perhaps, plastic is too problematic to recycle.
Whether you own a supermarket or eCommerce store, your consumers end up with large quantities of packaging in their homes every year. And regardless of whether your consumers are avid recyclers or not, many of us know very little about where our plastic waste ends up. Is it actually repurposed or is it left floating in the middle of the ocean somewhere?
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With this in mind, it&#;s no surprise that recyclers across the globe are questioning whether they&#;re actually saving the planet. Some have even gone so far as to label plastic recycling a myth, and it&#;s easy to see why. It appears that our current waste management systems are unable to keep up with recycling initiatives. In , nearly a quarter of all plastic waste was sent to landfills and 43% was incinerated.
So why is plastic such a problematic material to recycle and what are the problems with recycling plastic?
Recycling is the process of extracting materials to recover or reuse them for another purpose. Out of all the materials that end up in our recycling bins, plastic is probably the most difficult to recycle.
This is because plastics are composed of several different polymer types. Hence, it&#;s almost impossible to recycle different plastics together as they melt at different temperatures. Before plastics can be recycled properly, they need to be separated. This is not only time consuming, but costly. Black plastic food trays are a nightmare to separate as their dark colour makes it difficult for sorting machines to spot them.
To complicate things further, only certain types of plastics are worth recycling. For example, most plastics worsen in quality when recycled, this is known as downcycling. Such plastics either have to be mixed with virgin plastics and other materials to become valuable.
Plus, plastics such as low-density polyethylene (LDPE) need to be chemically recycled before they make it onto the shelves. And as there is currently a very limited supply, it can be expensive to produce post-consumer recyclate even though it is key for food approval. Not to mention, if such materials are being used for food packaging, they need to be manufactured in compliance with EU regulations and have a certified supply chain. This helps ensure that packaging is food approved and safe to use.
As we mentioned earlier, plastic pollution can have social as well as environmental consequences. Take Indonesia for example. Around 283,000 tonnes of plastic waste is imported into the country each year, with the majority coming from European countries.
This waste has caused levels of toxin dioxins in chicken eggs to rise almost 70 times above European safety standards. As you can imagine, long-term exposure can have adverse effects on a person&#;s health and can even lead to cancer. Hence, it&#;s important for brands to be aware of both the global and local implications that plastic waste can have.
As recycling is managed at a local level in the UK, which materials are recycled and the amount can vary drastically from council to council. Though plastic recycling doesn&#;t currently benefit from regulation at a national (or international) level, brands are not entirely powerless.
Opting for more sustainable packaging negates the need to worry about where waste ends up once it has left the shelf. Every brand has a responsibility to ensure that their model of production doesn&#;t just start and end in the factory. It&#;s all about creating a circular economy, which means keeping a product&#;s end-life at the forefront of design and production. This will not only help ease consumer consciences but also reduce brands&#; impact on global communities and the environment.
In short, one of the main problems with recycling plastic right now is that there is too much competition with virgin plastics. Virgin plastics are typically cheaper than recycled plastics as they are cheaper to produce in mass given the falling price of oil. But the market wasn&#;t always like this.
At one point in time, recycling plastic was not only the more sustainable option but also the more economic one. In , however, recycled plastics cost an extra £57 a tonne compared to virgin plastics. And the price appears to be gradually increasing each year. This could mean that as demand for virgin plastics continues to go up, the demand for recycled plastics will steadily go down. This certainly isn&#;t good for any of us, let alone the environment.
Though it&#;s currently cheaper for brands to use virgin plastics, consumer ethical spending is on the rise. In fact, ethical consumerism swelled to over £41 billion at the end of . This indicates that the war on plastic is not over quite yet.
Consumers today aren&#;t just looking for quality products, they want to buy products from brands that align with their ethics. In fact, protecting the environment is the main reason that many consumers decide to ditch brands. In alone, 47% of consumers left behind their favourite products because the brand no longer aligned with their beliefs. This suggests that brands need to pay close attention to what consumers want.
Consumers aren&#;t the only ones fighting the problems with recycling plastic. Politicians and industry leaders are also demanding better packaging materials. The Plastic Packaging Tax, which takes effect from April , will tax businesses for packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic.
The purpose of this bill is to encourage brands to move away from virgin plastics. So, the demand for recycled plastics could in fact go up, not down. What&#;s more, as demand goes up, recycled plastics will gradually become cheaper, making recycled plastics the more economic option for businesses once again.
There&#;s lots of information out there to digest and it can be difficult to know where to start when thinking about the problems with recycling plastic. But we&#;re here to help. Get in touch with our team to learn more about our mission and the products we offer. If you want to see what we can do first-hand, simply fill out our online form to order a sample pack.
We offer the perfect solution for plastic pollution waste. Our range of recyclable plastic packaging contains 30% recycled plastic. This means that your brand can have premium packaging that is also sustainable and does not compromise quality.
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