Is the Plastic Bag Era Over?
Chemical Recycling of
Plastic: Waste No More? (SustainableBrands)
· In January, the global Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which includes petrochemical and packaging giants such as BASF, Braskem, DSM, ExxonMobil, Henkel, Procter & Gamble, Suez and Veolia, committed to invest EUR1.3bn over the next five years to find innovative solutions to recover and recycle plastics.
· In Europe, of the 30% of plastic waste that got collected, only c. 31% actually was converted into new products as mechanical recycling only works for pure streams of plastic types (e.g. PET bottles).
· Consequentially, different methods of chemical recycling have seen a rise in interest and investment as it has the potential to yield secondary materials with “virgin” properties and act as a “complementary option to established recycling and waste management processes“.
Analysis & Comments
· While chemical recycling is not new, the growing interest in high quality recycled plastic (in part due to the new higher targets for recycled plastics in packaging products) has led to a recent surge in announced pilot projects.
· As described in the article, BASF’s ChemCycling collaboration project, for example, is aimed at discovering means to deal with plastic waste that is currently difficult to treat, particularly multi-layered plastic structures that combine various types of plastic. The company also has a reasonably small exposure to biodegradable plastics and bio-based plastics (mid-double-digit euro millions).
· Currently, the majority of plastic waste goes to landfills and incineration – particularly since China’s import waste ban, which has also led to an increase of exports to other countries. However, some of these countries, including Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, have now all introduced new restrictions on waste imports as well, in order to deal with the new situation.
· Should the volume of plastics going into recycling rather than landfills/ incineration be increased significantly over the next 5-10 years, McKinsey predicts that recycled plastics could represent a profit pool of up to USD55bn per year worldwide by 2030.
Aldi targets packaging in sustainability pledge (Plastic News)
· The German discounter grocery store Aldi has pledged to reduce packaging materials (not just plastics) by at least 15% across its entire range by 2025.
· Additionally, it has announced that by 2025, all of its packaging, including plastic packaging, will be either “reusable, recyclable or compostable”.
· As 90% of its product range is made up of private label products, the company "has the ability to influence how its products are sourced, produced and brought to shelves".
Analysis & Comments
· Regarding recyclability of product packaging, Aldi scored solidly in the middle of the range of analysed supermarkets, with c. 76% of its packaging being widely recyclable (vs. highest-scorer Morrisons at 81% and lowest-scorer Lidl at 71%).
· Almost all of the major supermarkets have signed up to the UK Plastics Pact (launched in April 2018) which aims to minimise plastic waste across the entire plastics value chain through a series of targets to be met by 2025.
Published by Mr. Crypto Lemon
on
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://mentormarket.io/cryptocurrencies/mr-crypto-lemon/is-the-plastic-bag-era-over/
Plastics no more, stop using them in your life
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Amen 🙏! Or biodégradable
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Exactly
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I hope Aldi, Lidl etc. Keep their promises. I read Vietnam is also going to ban US-trash recycling as of 2025 .
I also wonder what big-oil says about plastic bans - their markets get disrupted by electric transportation, renewable energy and now also plastic production...
They are actually investing in biodegradable plastic and bio-based plastic.
There are obviously a lot of growth in this area
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while plastic is convenient for use, it has been a global problem and surely many countries have continuously look for ways to limit the use of it. most of the garbage nowadays comprises of plastic bags and are usually found in the oceans and seas nowadays, killing marine life as what you can see in the television and internet.
some innovative approaches are also observed as most of the supermarkets have now banned the use of plastic bags. instead, they are using brown paper bags or eco-friendly bags that can be reused for future utilization.
another discovery that might be the solution is the bacteria that can digest plastics. a link about this is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideonella_sakaiensis
while this bacteria is not yet in mass production, i hope that it will be studied extensively and be used in the future.
Thank you for this great comment !
I agree with you and did hear about this initiative as well. The only way forward is through technology improvements.
Best,
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When it comes to waste, any information on it catches my attention. Really great post. I am glad the world is finally catching on about how detrimental this is to the society.
I recently watched a documentary where tons of plastics and rubbish were floating on the sea, and the plastics are so much they run for miles on the sea.
But with so much being done now, i am sure there are initiatives to get those cleaned.
I also recently find out My country(Nigeria) also has some things in place to combat excesses waste, people now gather plastic bottles to sell to recycling companies, same with cartons. I was really impressed. It also a source of income to some people considering the low rate employment opportunities in the country.
I also want to do something, I want to help create awareness about the waste sales to waste recycling companies using my social media channels. I still haven't made out time because of my busy schedule. But in a month or two, I hope i will be on my pages, posting and tweeting about waste reduction.
Lol, Sorry for the long post.
Thank you for sharing your view and what is going on in Nigeria. I think you should definitely do Something at your level. You should look at the @cleanplanet initiative. You could even heard Steem :D.
@vlemon, I don't think that plastic bags era gone forever. It's not easy to get away from the habits when we consider the global levels.
We would still have plastic I think, just bio-based ones. A company as Corbion as a JV with Total to make it from lactic acid ! :D
Sounds good and this shows that everything evolves over the period of time.
Good work on this ongoing series on recycling, @vlemon. Continuing on from my intial idea of a recycling-based coin (RecycleCoin - (RCY)), retailers could be brought into the mix (similar to how @steemhunt works) in which customers sign up for the "[retailer] recycling club" and then provide shoppers with various accessories which facilitate recycling (ex. recyclable bags), discounts on recyclable products, recycling machines which pay out in fiat and/or crypto. This would also provide a more focused way to get the retailers on board, with B2B incentives which would ultimately benefit BOTH the retailers AND the consumers (through passed-down savings)..
Thank you my dear @transcript-junky ! Can't wait to see such a coin come out.
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I surely hope we can get rid of it, I see less and less of them in the more upmarket stores but the budget stores still use them here. I think there is change and it is helping but we're still a long way off removing this plastic bags from the ecosystem completely.
Vendors talk about it,
purpose,
They hope that other units can to recycle them , then let they to take them.
because
Recycling technology is no problem
The problem is the labor spent on recycling.
There have been many times in my place.
The manufacturer shouted the slogan you said
They expect environmental groups to recycle and then send them to handle.
My place government has also implemented subsidies for the recyclers. As a result, the government has paid too much money and has not done it continued.
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