Advanced recycling projects have mushroomed globally, especially since 2018. REUTERS/George Frey, The back lot of Renewlogy. The trouble started when, in the late 70s, we began trying to recycle household waste, says Geyer. A photograph of a smiling child on an adults shoulders. Despite all of this, the plastics industry is spending millions to convince us that recycling is the answer, even though, according to a recent joint NPR/PBS investigation, their own internal studies suggest otherwise. That works out to about. When I participated in recycling awareness initiatives during my school days, I believed I was doing something good for the environment. The cup is constructed of paper, lined with a thin-coat of plastic, and topped with a sturdy plastic lid. 1s and 2s, and to throw the rest in the trash. Historically, the majority of plastic collected in the U.S. has been burned or dumped into a landfill or put on a boat to Asia, where, if waste management standards were deficient, as they often were, it ended up in a stream or a lake or a river, to find its way to the sea. The Myth of Single-use Plastic Recycling A shocking new Greenpeace report reveals that most types of single-use plastic cannot be recycled in the United States. mith is not alone in putting his faith in technology. Plastic recycling isnt working. Were just looking at waste before it begins.. REUTERS/George Frey, Plastic waste piled up at Renewlogy. But that counted U.S. exported material as recycled when it was largely burned or dumped. What I like about it is that they have things I already use: olive oil, washing pods. Hill describes herself as pretty green: we recycle anything that can be recycled, we buy organic. Phone 202-328-8842 Fax 202-328-8757 Email sojourners@sojo.net Some of the worlds biggest multinationals are hailing so-called advanced recycling as the solution to a waste crisis that has lawmakers looking to crack down on plastics use. Green Recycling is a commercial MRF: it takes waste from schools, colleges and local businesses. Westminster council sent 82% of all household waste including that put in recycling bins for incineration in 2017/18. There is a low rumble in the air and a thick layer of dust on the gangway. This means two things. But Renewlogy was unable to handle plastic films, used to make food packaging and grocery bags, and eventually left the program, the City of Boise told Reuters. Some scientists challenge the assertion that melting unsorted plastic made from a variety of chemicals is good for the environment. Every year, the world produces about 400 million tons of plastic. In the U.S. barely 6% of that waste was recycled last year, down from around 9% in 2018, as nations like China stop taking U.S . There is 'serious doubt' widespread plastic recycling can ever be made viable on an economic basis." . . While virtually all plastics can be recycled, many arent because the process is expensive, complicated and the resulting product is of lower quality than what you put in. She attended Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating from the latter in 2011. When the latter banned imports of 24 kinds of waste, including plastic from the U.S., more plastic ended up in U.S. landfills, the news report said. Recycled plastic is generally down-cycled into lower quality, lesser value plastic. Plastic waste ready for inspection before being sent to Malaysia; the UK produces more refuse than it can process at home about 1.1kg per person per day. Margins are thin and landfill tax is 91 a tonne. An inspector from the Salt Lake City Fire Prevention Bureau, Jose Vila Trejo, visited the recycling facility on Feb. 12, according to his inspection report. A crushed Tupperware container, the meal inside uneaten. This is a decrease from previous statistics closer to 9% at the peak, in 2014. The idea found its way to Griffiths, a former management consultant, by accident, after a mistake in a Warwick University press release. 'Plastic recycling is a myth': what really happens to your rubbish? But Germany's. On the one hand,these industry giantsact as if plastic pollution can be combatted by recycling. A study by Greenpeace USA found that of the 51 million tons of plastic waste generated by US households in 2021, only 2.4 million tons were recycled, about five percent. The Recycling Myth Big Oil's solution for plastic waste littered with failure Bales of plastic waste piled up at advanced recycling firm Renewlogy in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 18, 2021.. Will you start by checking out our exciting new toolkit? Renewlogy said it left the program because plastic waste being sent from Boise was too contaminated to recycle. During theformationof thisalliance,these companies agreed to invest1 billion dollars in combattingplastic pollution. For some, the true test of recycling is to see that a bottle tossed in the bin returns to a bottle form again. The only downside is that the prices can be a little high. Environmental groups tracking chemical pollutants say incinerating plastic this way produces significant carbon emissions and releases dioxins associated with the chemicals in the plastic. Hefty EnergyBag, as the recycling program in Boise is known, is a collaboration between Dow and U.S. packaging firm Reynolds Consumer Products Inc, maker of the programs orange garbage sacks and popular household goods such as Hefty trash bags, plastic food wrap and aluminum foil. Throw out Tupperware and plastic takeout containers, and replace with Pyrex. Pyrolysis has been tried before on plastic. 2. Not the ending of something, but the beginning of something else. 4s, which are used to make cheap grocery bags, are avoided by recyclers because they can clog machines. Recycling plastic results in a poorer quality compound, so most plastics are "downcycled" into a product that cannot be further recycled such as clothing, park benches, and plastic "lumber." Because a "downcycled" item cannot be recycled, plastic eventually ends up in a landfill or the environment. By moving from disposable to reusable, you unlock epic design opportunities, says Szaky. This figure provides evidence of a functional recycling ecosystem for plastics. The milkman model is about more than just the bottle: it makes us think about what we consume and what we throw away. Lightweight plastic packaging does not mean that less plastic is used in the process; in fact, more lightweight packages are produced. Unilever Plc in 2017 announced it was creating a pilot plant using a radical recycling process that turns hard-to-recycle plastic sachets into new packaging. We look for the familiar triangle arrows, then pop the waste in the recycling bin so it can be reused. What that means for the dutiful recycler is that most of those plastic items you are encouraged to wash, sort, and put in blue bins the ones numbered 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 are usually ending up in landfills or incinerators, if not polluting the environment. More than 90% gets dumped or incinerated because theres no cheap way to repurpose it, according to a landmark 2017 study published in the journal Science Advances. This mainly applies to anything except clean #1 or #2 plastic products. FACT: According to the EPA, nearly 6.2 billion pounds of plastic were recycled in 2018. Concerned about profits, oil and plastics executives gathered secretly to devise a strategy to confuse consumers. He directed further questions to Bakaya before telling Reuters to leave the premises. Statistics cited on the per capita waste produced in the UK were clarified to indicate that they referred to municipal (household) waste, and provide the source for the data (the World Bank). Most of those endeavors are agreements between small advanced recycling firms and big oil and chemicals companies or consumer brands, including ExxonMobil Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Procter & Gamble Co (P&G). Inside a large clear box over the conveyor, a robotic suction arm marked FlexPickerTM is zipping back and forth over the belt, picking tirelessly. The flow of rubbish has shifted to other Asian countries, but they, too, are beginning to implement restrictions or are closing their borders to foreign plastic waste. This would mean that the vast majority of plastic waste in the country is mismanaged, ending up in dumpsites, burned or left to contaminate the natural environment. Back in Boise, the Hefty EnergyBag program continues, but Renewlogy is no longer involved. The trouble started when, in the late 70s, we began trying to recycle household waste, says Geyer. But still the rubbish flows. Then, on the first day of 2018, China, the worlds largest market for recycled waste, essentially shut its doors. The destination was a company called Renewlogy. Coda moves, expands capacity in New . The process of recycling is, for the time being, downcycling, which results in an undiminished use of new or virgin plastic. In addition to consuming large amounts of energy, pyrolysis can generate toxic waste, such as dioxins, said Hideshige Takada, a geochemist and professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology who has studied pollutants in waste for decades. For those people, Pepsi's success in reaching its goal of having 10-per- cent recycled PET content in bottles should be proof that the bottle-to-bottle cycle is active. Yet such is the torrent of humanitys refuse that these efforts may not be enough. Construction on the facility never started. Story by Benjamin reganEditor-in-chiefIllustration by Ethan LyonPersonal illustratorEach year, around 35,680 tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide. That works out to about 300 pounds of plastic per person ending up in landfills and. They were basically shut down, Vila Trejo said. The study noted its calculations came from various sources, including a U.S.-based pyrolysis plant that has experience processing the Hefty EnergyBag materials. In theory, plastic can be recycled. Although seven billion or eight - the difference is no long. Myth #2: All plastic items marked with the chasing recycling arrows are recyclable. Down in the yard, a haulage truck is being loaded with 35 bales of sorted cardboard. Although the sachets could be recycled in small amounts, the people said, it was too expensive to collect, sort and clean enough of these packets to scale up the project without incurring large losses. Environmentalists think it was a mistake to send plastic to Asia given the comparatively weaker environmental standards there. Jeremiah Bates, owner of a tire shop next door to Renewlogy, said the recycling plant didnt appear to have been active for at least six months and that he had complained to Coates and the local fire marshal about the debris piling up out back. Recycling is as old as thrift. People have entered into this, perhaps not understanding the processes properly, the waste that they are handling, and so thats why some things have failed, McGeough told Reuters. Waste sorting is already a habit for Germany and Germans. 10/12/2018. The boom is also being fueled by investors looking for the next hot green-tech industry. An alarm sounds, the blockage is cleared, and the line at Green Recycling in Maldon, Essex, rumbles back into life. Green Recycling is tucked away at the end of an industrial estate, surrounded by sound-deflecting metal boards. Agilyx, an advanced recycling firm backed by Virgin Group and its billionaire founder Richard Branson, in 2018 announced a deal to convert plastic waste to jet fuel for Delta Air Lines Inc. Press releases issued by the companies at the time outlined the plan: By 2020, a new plant near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania would supply up to 2,500 barrels a day of synthetic crude oil derived from plastics to a nearby refinery owned by Delta. In October last year, a Greenpeace Unearthed investigation found mountains of British and European waste in illegal dumps there: Tesco crisp packets, Flora tubs and recycling collection bags from three London councils. Thailand and India have announced bans on the import of foreign plastic waste. In all, Reuters examined 30 projects by two-dozen advanced recycling companiesacross three continents and interviewed more than 40 people with direct knowledge of this industry, including plastics industry officials, recycling executives, scientists, policymakers and analysts. British oil giant BP Plc, German chemical maker BASF SE and U.S. oil company Texaco Inc now owned by Chevron Corp all separately dropped plans to scale up waste-to-fuel pyrolysis technologies more than 20 years ago due to technical and commercial problems. Despite the widespread use of recycling symbols and marketing aimed at convincing us that it is okay to use throwaway plastic, only plastic #1 and #2 bottles and jugs meet the minimum legal standard to be labeled recyclable. The line at Green Recycling handles up to 12 tonnes of waste an hour. Of the 8.3bn tonnes of virgin plastic produced worldwide, only 9% has been recycled, according to a 2017 Science Advances paper entitled Production, Use And Fate Of All Plastics Ever Made. In many places a waste management system exists that claims to dispose, incinerate or recycle collected plastic waste. We need to stop shipping recycling abroad, he says. Countries need to deal with their own plastic waste. What consumers cant check on, is whether that plastic item goes from the sortation facility to landfill, to incineration, or is exported instead of being recycled. In the UK, there are 28 different recycling labels that can appear on packaging. By combining Loop with shopping at local zero-waste stores, Hills has helped her family radically reduce its reliance on single-use packaging. Even if you separate the lid from the cup, the cup would still need to have the plastic lining removed before the paper could be recycled otherwise, the plastic would gum-up the machine. It can't be used to make the same products again; for example, food packaging that is recycled cannot be used again as food packaging. She became a prominent figure in advanced recycling, promoting her technology on media forums such as National Geographic and the BBC. The bearded, shaggy-haired Hungarian-Canadian is a veteran of the waste industry: he founded his first recycling startup as a student at Princeton, selling worm-based fertiliser out of re-used bottles. 702 H Street, NW, STE 300, Washington, D.C. 20001 | 1-800-722-6995. The collapse of Boises advanced recycling plan is not an isolated case. We are standing three storeys up on the green health-and-safety gangway, looking down the line. FILE - A trash can overflows as people sit outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial by the Tidal Basin, Dec. 27, 2018, in Washington, during a partial government shutdown. Plastic recycling isn't working. Plastic packaging has actually done an incredible service for the world, because it has reduced the amount of glass, metal and paper that we were using, he says. The product launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos and was an immediate hit. Corona Plastic Boom The Myth of German Recycling The coronavirus has triggered an uptick in the use of plastic, with consumers turning to disposable cutlery and home deliveries. Of this, it is estimated that 75%, or 26,970 tonnes of plastic is found in landfills. 1s and No. And yet, of the 2.3 billion tons of waste generated in the EU each year, only 37 percent gets recycled. The company plans to launch another plastic recycling facility later this year in Phoenix, Arizona, according to its website. (Incineration, while often criticised for being polluting and an inefficient source of energy, is today preferred to landfill, which emits methane and can leach toxic chemicals.) Of the more than 50 million tons of discarded plastic in America in 2021, only about 5% of it is recycled. However, the Reuters review found some advanced recycling companies struggling with the same obstacles that have bedeviled traditional recyclers for decades: the expense of collecting, sorting and cleaning plastic trash, and creating end products that can compete on price and quality with fossil fuels or virgin plastic. Asked about the status of the company, Coates said opponents of chemical recycling were trying to damage the industry by pushing conspiracy theories about the technology. Joe Giudice, assistant public works director at the City of Phoenix, confirmed the facility was due to start being set up in August. Renewlogy confirmed to Reuters that Vila Trejo inspected the building in February. During the second world war, scrap metal was made into tanks and womens nylons into parachutes. Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters, Jocelyn Gerst, a spokesperson for Holcim's U.S. operations, said the emissions levels of the plastic waste it burns are the same or lower than traditional fuel, and that it had a state permit to incinerate plastic. Globally, only 9% of the plastic we've ever produced has been recycled. Authored by state senator Ben Allen of the 26th district, the bill proposed a 75% reduction of SUPs and demanded they be entirely recyclable or compostable by 2032. Were seeing a significant rise in boxes, thanks to Amazon. By the end of the line, the torrent has become a trickle. 1. Recycling steel and tin cans saves 60 to 74 percent , recycling paper saves about 60 percent, and recycling plastic and glass saves about one-third of the energy compared with making those. Onthe other, by swamping the market with virgin plastic, they undermine the business model for recyclingin thatnew plastics are so cheap that recycling is only possible ifit issubsidised withtaxpayersmoney. You ship it around, then you have to wash it, then you have to chop it up, then you have to re-melt it, so the collection and recycling itself has its own environmental impact, says Geyer. Some councils have debated giving up recycling altogether. A narrower analysis, looking just at the final recycling process and its contribution to global warming, found that pyrolysis scored better than landfilling but was worse than burning plastic in a cement kiln. This is in no way recycling, said Lee Bell, advisor to the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of public interest groups working to eliminate toxic pollutants. One of the hardest hit has been PureCycle, a Florida-headquartered advanced recycling startup that went public this year through a special purchase acquisition company. But within a year it was clear the technology was not commercially viable, and plans to build a full-scale operation were dropped, two people involved in the program told Reuters. (The US, the worlds most wasteful nation, produces an astonishing 2kg per person per day.) A momentous river of garbage rolls down the conveyor: cardboard boxes, splintered skirting board, plastic bottles, crisp packets, DVD cases, printer cartridges, countless newspapers, including this one. The Recycling Myth . Household recycling requires sorting at a vast scale. Humans will pick between 20 and 40, on a good day. A camera system identifies the waste rolling by, displaying a detailed breakdown on a nearby screen. In May, the Malaysian government began turning back container ships, citing public health concerns. It cant be used to make the same products again; for example, food packaging that is recycled cannot be used again as food packaging. The remainder is often burned in the open air. Self-regulation and greenwashing are two strategies widely used by the plastic industry to avoid taking actions against plastic production. But that hasn't stopped the plastics industry from embarking on a decades-long misinformation campaign to perpetuate the plastic recycling myth . The United States in 2021 had a dismal recycling rate of about 5 percent for post-consumer plastic waste, down from a high of 9.5 percent in . Within a year, however, that effort ground to a halt. Unilever, which makes Dove soap and Hellmanns mayonnaise, said publicly it began operating a pilot plant in Indonesia in 2018. Now is your chance to use your power to drive change. The waste stands stacked neatly in bales, ready to be loaded on to trucks. Target is selling you products that are labeled as recyclable, but in fact, are not. Waste in those orange Hefty bags now helps fuel the Devils Slide, a cement plant in Morgan, Utah, part of the U.S. unit of Holcim, a European multinational firm. Greenpeace has found a new way to attack capitalism and popular industries. For example, plastics allow you to hold devices that have lots of electricity flowing through them without the fear of. On the other hand, No. Thus began THE MYTH OF PLASTICS RECYCLING. This is why most developed countries have colour-coded bins: to keep the end product as pure as possible. The research urged consumers to exercise caution . But some recent efforts in this high-tech recycling boom have already fizzled. REUTERS/George Frey, By JOE BROCK, VALERIE VOLCOVICI and JOHN GEDDIE. BASF said it now believes such an endeavor is viable. Not always. Let's be clear about what plastics are actually recyclable. Recycling steel and tin cans saves 60 to 74 percent; recycling paper saves about 60 percent; and recycling plastic and glass saves about one-third of the energy compared to making those. In Seattle and on campus, recycle by size and shape. I hate to feel like we are being lulled into complacency, believing that we are having a positive impact on the environment, when really we arent, she said. Recycling Myth of the Month: That plastic bottle you thought you recycled may have been 'downcycled' instead Picture this: After tossing a single-use plastic bottle.. Bakaya grew up in Australia after her father emigrated there from India, she told business podcast Upside in 2020. In early 2018, residents of Boise, Idaho were told by city officials that a breakthrough technology could transform their hard-to-recycle plastic waste into low-polluting fuel. Odd bits of junk catch the eye, conjuring little vignettes: a single discarded glove. This project marks the first truly commercial-scale facility that will advance the new plastics economy, Agilyxs CEO at the time, Joe Vaillancourt, said in the release. The company said its technology could turn hard-to-recycle plastic garbage into diesel fuel. Of the r At the time, they couldnt, Griffiths says. There is an island of floating plastic, twice the size of Texas, swirling in the gyre of sea currents between California and Hawaii one of five such known islands around the globe. The UK, like most developed nations, produces more waste than it can process at home: around 230m tonnes a year. From Shell to Unilever, Plastics Polluters Back Recycling-Tech Flops. She declined to be interviewed for this story. According to Biderman and Keelig, knowing how to recycle correctly is only the first step in becoming more waste conscious. The ACC this month called on Congress to develop a national strategy to reduce plastic waste, including rapid scaling of advanced recycling. If you look at plastics, the picture is even bleaker. Plastic recycling rates are falling even as production is rising rapidly, according to a US Greenpeace report released Monday that called industry claims of creating an . The back lot contained dozens of bales of plastic waste dotted with faded orange recycling bags stacked next to rusty oil drums and a wheelbarrow full of glass jars containing a murky liquid. In the US, that figure is 25.8%. 6s and 7s are plastic foam food containers and mixed plastic that are simply too costly to process. You have to wonder, is it a coincidence that the largest of the five plastic islands is in the Pacific? During the second world war, scrap metal was made into tanks and womens nylons into parachutes. At worst, they end up as litter in the streets, the waterways and the oceans, Unilever said in its 2017 CreaSolv announcement. These islands receive a steady flow of plastic as improperly discarded trash on land ends up in a water source and, eventually, the ocean. At least $500 million in public funds has been spent since 2017 on 51 U.S. advanced recycling projects, the environmental group Greenpeace said in a report last year. The price of cardboard has probably halved in the last 12 months, he says. More of us are choosing to have milk bottles delivered, collected and re-used. Our numbers are vastly different from those used in the report, Renewlogy said in response to Reuters questions. But its shares tumbled 40% on May 6, the day short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report calling the recyclers technology unproven and its financial projections ridiculous. PureCycle shares have since regained some ground. Even now that her town has switched to co-mingled recycling, old habits die hard. But its hard and its become a lot harder.. These triangles were actually created by the . Countries like Malaysia and Thailand took up the slack for a while, but then changed their minds. Our main products are paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, mixed plastics, and wood, says Smith, 40. Its going to be recycled in China! I hate to break it to everyone, but these places are routinely dumping massive amounts of [that] plastic and burning it on open fires.. No personalised information is collected. The Arizona Innovation Challenge, a state-funded program, in 2017 awarded Renewlogy a $250,000 grant, funds that will be dispersed when Renewlogy sets up in Phoenix, the Arizona Commerce Authority, which runs the program, told Reuters. Or, if pressed, to recycle only No. About halfway, four women in hi-vis and caps pull out large chunks of cardboard and plastic films, which machines struggle with. The findings provide yet more proof that. Recycling Myth of the Month: Those numbered symbols on single-use plastics do not mean 'you can recycle me' - Oceana Save the date! Reuters exclusively reported in January that an advanced plastic recycling project in India, which was a collaboration between Renewlogy and a charity funded by plastics makers, collapsed last year. The number denotes the grade but, interestingly, also presages the likelihood of that product ever being recycled. Renewlogy said the plant continues to operate. In the UK, recycling is largely a success story, and the alternatives burning our waste or burying it are worse. Formerly known as PK Clean, the firm received $550,000 in grants and loans from Utah taxpayers. It said the facility had not shut down and that there was equipment at the site. Unilever did not respond to questions about this claim. Wishcycling is aspirational recycling, or the practice of throwing items into the recycling bin that can't actually be recycled hoping for the best. In the Video Op-Ed above, we debunk a recycling myth that has lulled us into guilt . Now we send unwanted plastic to Mexico, where environmentalists say poor waste water treatment at recycling plants is flushing microplastics into streams. Renewlogy said it would be starting very small and would be validating each step before scaling up.. The number inside the recycling arrows refer to the type of plastic used to make the item. To see the Greenpeace report that explains how many plastics cannot be recycled, click here. Intrigued, Griffiths got in touch. For a whole day of third grade, we had an assembly sorting trash, singing songs, and all wearing matching green shirts with the iconic recycling logo on the back. The truth is, plastic recycling has been broken since it began. Not only is this garbage choking landfills and despoiling oceans, its contributing to global warming because its made from fossil fuels. "More plastic is being produced, and an even smaller. No. All are still operating on a modest scale or have closed down, and more than half are years behind schedule on previously announced commercial plans, according to the Reuters review. Everything you own will one day become the property of this, the waste industry, a 250bn global enterprise determined to extract every last penny of value from what remains. Hefty EnergyBag said in an emailed response to questions that it continues to work with companies to help advance technologies that enable other end uses for the collected plastics. It declined to answer questions about Renewlogys operations, as did Dow spokesperson Kyle Bandlow. The business is all about turning straw into gold, says Smith, referencing Rumpelstiltskin. The origin of this myth about only some plastics can be recycled are . Myth 5: Recycling Uses More Energy Than Making Something New According to the Environmental Protection Agency in the US, recycling aluminium cans saves 95% of the energy needed to make new ones from raw materials, recycling steel and tin cans saves 60-74%, paper about 60% and plastic and glass around a third. No civilised society should be getting rid of its waste to a developing country.. We need to STOP plastic pollution at the source by phasing out single-use plastics and plastic packaging. This allows us to recognise you as a previous visitor/user. Only about 6% of plastic in the U.S. is recycled, and the vast majority of all the plastic ever produced on this planet still exists somewhere. In the UK, recycling rates have stagnated in recent years, while National Sword and funding cuts have led to more waste being burned in incinerators and energy-from-waste plants. On a Monday afternoon, there was little visible activity outside the facility; the front parking lot contained five passenger cars, two of which had flat tires. As in China, the waste is often burned or abandoned, eventually finding its way into rivers and oceans. Its a small deposit, 3 [per container]. Asked whether Renewlogys plant was the one it examined, Sustainable Solutions said it could not name the plant because of a non-disclosure agreement with that facility. 2 or No. Bakaya said in a TEDx talk in 2015 that she initially set up a company called PK Clean to recover oil from mixed, dirty landfill-bound plastic. PK Clean later changed its name to Renewlogy, Bakaya said in an interview with MIT in 2017. 3s are deemed too toxic to even try to recycle outside of a lab. Instead of giving up on recycling, Szaky says, we should all use less, re-use what we can and treat our waste like the waste industry sees it: as a resource. Americas answer to the expense of recycling used to be to ship unwanted plastic to China, which used to take it in bulk. A spokesperson for Delta said the project was on hold due to the pandemic. Its super-easy, she says. No. These goals are all similar; McDonalds, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Coca-Cola and other major companies all promise that by 2025 or 2030, their packaging will consist of 100% of renewable, compostable, or recycled materials. Plastics Are Inert, Indigestible, Non-Toxic, and Widely 'Myth-Understood'. Only about 6% of plastic in the U.S. is recycled, and the vast majority of all the plastic ever produced on this planet still exists somewhere. Their labels are misleading, and often incorrect. With consumers and the government outraged at the plastics crisis, the waste industry is scrambling to solve the problem. While it may be technically true that many types of plastic can indeed be recycled, the process is far too expensive for it to happen in any economically viable way. Bales of plastic waste piled up at advanced recycling firm Renewlogy in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 18, 2021. Vila Trejo told Reuters that his tour of the plant turned up no fire hazard because there were no machines present that could generate heat, flames or sparks. Plastic recycling is the biggest myth ever. A few months later, residents of Boise and its suburbs began stuffing their yogurt containers, cereal-box liners and other plastic waste into special orange garbage bags, which were then trucked more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) away, across the state line to Salt Lake City, Utah. But little do they know plastic cannot be recycled because of the components out of which it is made. PureCycle said the same day that Hindenburgs report was designed to drive down the stock price in order to serve the short sellers economic interests. It declined further comment about the report. The Interior Department said Wednesday, June 8, 2022, it will phase out single-use plastic products on national parks and other public lands over the next decade, targeting a leading source of. We dont call it waste; we call it materials, says Green Recyclings Smith, back in Maldon. The ACC says these technologies are game-changers because they could potentially process all types of plastic, eliminating expensive sorting and cleaning. Therefore, the measures proposed by these companies permit unbridled growth in the production of plastic packaging. At best, the sachets end up in landfill. Plastic waste and recycling myths. With pyrolysis, the value of what youre making is so low, Scott said. Since my childhood, recycling has been a common practice, GivingTuesday is November 29th GivingTuesday is almost here! Until recently, some of the western worlds plastic waste was exported to China to be recycled. Recycling facilities don't accept most of these hard-to-recycle plastics because they are difficult to sort and release hazardous chemicals during the recycling process. "The resin identification code, which is that number inside of the symbol on plastic items, helps us understand what type of plastic an item is made of. Mass production of plastics, which began just six decades ago, has accelerated to creating 8. The Myth of Plastic Recycling. The problem with recycling plastic, however, is that it does not truly happen. According to its website, PureCycle uses a ground-breaking recycling process developed by P&G, maker of Gillette razors and Head & Shoulders shampoo, to turn a particular type of waste plastic, polypropylene, back into resin. The only plastic recycling that is happening in Asia at scale is PET/HDPE recycling in major urban areascommonly referred to as "rPET." Sachets are used to dispense a vast array of products, including fast-food ketchup, shampoo and toothpaste. It said in October 2019 it invested 20 million euros in Quantafuel, a Norway-based plastic-to-fuel company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. From here, Smith will send it to a mill in Kent for pulping. 95% of plastic waste isn't recycled By Liz McLaughlin, WRAL Climate Change Reporter Of the more than 50 million tons of discarded plastic in America in 2021, only about 5% of it is recycled.. Plastic production which industry analysts forecast to double by 2040 will be the biggest growth market for oil demand over the next decade. In case you missed it, in August of this year there were more than 8 billion of us on the planet. It starts with materials recovery facilities (MRFs) such as this one, which sort waste into its constituent parts. Last year, it spent $14 million lobbying members of Congress on various issues, the most the organization has ever spent, according to OpenSecrets.org, a non-profit initiative that tracks money in U.S. politics. The global consumer products giant told Reuters that its CreaSolv process uses chemicals to dissolve plastic waste into a liquid, drains off the impurities, dries it and extrudes it into clean plastic that can then be turned into new products. Plastic that does not enter the ocean by a stream, lake, or river route will, over time, travel over land to accumulate on one of the worlds beaches, where it is ground by the surf into progressively smaller bits and carried out by the tide. Shell will make a decision in 2022 on whether to invest, a company spokesperson said. A quick review of the main facts: . A Salt Lake City fire inspector who visited in February told Reuters the facility was basically shut down with no equipment inside. There are labels that say Widely Recycled (acceptable by 75% of local councils) and Check Local Recycling (between 20% and 75% of councils). Proctor & Gamble, which makes Head & Shoulders, was keen to know what was next, so Szaky pitched something far more ambitious. Sixty percent of plastics that are certified for home composting don't fully disintegrate, according to a study published last week in the journal Frontiers in Sustainability. It offers a variety of household products from manufacturers including P&G, Unilever, Nestl and Coca-Cola in reusable packaging. Boises plastic waste is now being trucked to a Utah cement plant, which burns it for fuel. They said they could turn any old plastic back into a monomer. Food, and anything else, is burned or sent to landfill. Quickly, the market began flooding any country that would take the trash: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, countries with some of the worlds highest rates of what researchers call waste mismanagement rubbish left or burned in open landfills, illegal sites or facilities with inadequate reporting, making its final fate difficult to trace. 9% of all the plastic is recycled, and consumers can only look at their city or waste haulers website to see if an item is collected. Unilever said in its announcement that it would share this technology with its competitors so that recycling plants could be built around the world. However, growing concerns that plastic was making its workers sick convinced Chinese leaders to close their borders to plastic in 2018. Its time for Target and every other retailer to understand that the recycling labels of the products currently sold at their stores are misleading and often incorrect for millions of their customers. Campaigns based on consumer behaviour are flourishing to fight against plastic waste pollution. Boises government, for example, has spent at least $736,000 on garbage bags for its program, according to purchase orders and invoices between May 2018 and April 2020 obtained by Reuters through public records requests. Plastic production which industry analysts forecast to double by 2040 will be the biggest growth market for oil demand over the next decade, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Of two-dozen companies whose projects were reviewed by Reuters, three have gone public in the last year: PureCycle Technologies Inc, Agilyx AS and Pryme B.V. The thing that worries me more than the plastic problem is global warming. Your web browser stores these cookies when you visit our Website: www.plasticsoupfoundation.org. You can get involved right now. The governors office in Utah said it gave a total of $200,000 in grants in 2016 and 2017, while Salt Lake Citys Department of Economic Development provided $350,000 in loans in 2015 to PK Clean, according to Peter Makowski, acting director of business development for the department. Scott said melting different numbered plastics together through pyrolysis produces a complex blend of hydrocarbons that must then be separated and purified for reuse. Functional technology enables a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in. A major advantage to Loops business model, Szaky says, is that it forces packaging designers to prioritise durability over disposability. It is tempting to see plastic piled up in Malaysian landfills and assume recycling is a waste of time, but that isnt true. Renewlogy said it shares the Salt Lake City premises with other companies that work on pyrolysis of wood and other waste, and that much of the junk Reuters saw on the back lot belonged to other firms that it declined to name. Transitioning from the lab to the real-world chaos of dirty and improperly sorted household plastic waste has proven too much for some of these newcomers, said Helen McGeough, a London-based senior plastic recycling analyst at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services, a data and analytics firm. The idea found its way to Griffiths, a former management consultant, by accident, after a mistake in a Warwick University press release. The company says its technology can produce diesel fuel from plastic waste. Since then, U.S. the plastic recycling rate has declined . Renewlogy said in an emailed response to Reuters questions that it could recycle plastic films. In theory, all plastic can be used again. Nor has pyrolysis proven capable of transforming unsorted garbage into high-quality fuel and clean plastic resin, says Susannah Scott, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who receives funding from the plastics industry to perform recycling research. In future, Szaky anticipates that Loop will be able to email users warnings for expiry dates and other advice to reduce their waste footprint. Steve Case, co-founder and former chief executive of AOL Inc, invested $100,000 in PK Clean in 2016, according to a blog he authored on the website of his venture capital firm Revolution. The Utah governors office said the program under which PK Clean received the grants had ended and it was no longer funding the company. In the ocean alone, it is estimated that tens of trillions of pieces of plastic lie on the sea floor that is, what hasn't been pulverized by currents into Read More Renewlogys technology, company founder Priyanka Bakaya told local media at the time, would heat plastic in a special oxygen-starved chamber, transforming the trash into diesel fuel. At worst, they end up as litter in the streets, the waterways and the oceans.. It recycles the kind of plastics that mechanical recycling cant look at: the pouches, the sachets, the black plastics, says Adrian Griffiths, the founder of Swindon-based Recycling Technologies. The company said much of the junk belonged to other firms that it declined to name. Towards the end of the line is the machine that Smith hopes will change that. We need to expand recycling access, fix system-wide challenges, support emerging end markets, and design packaging to be recyclable in practice . Allan Griff, consulting chemical engineer, columnist for PlasticsToday, and self-professed realist . Learn more about the differents bio-based plastics. With consumers and the government outraged at the plastics crisis, the waste industry is scrambling to solve the problem. That process requires a lot of energy, she said, and typically yields products that dont measure up to the quality of the original material. He does 60 picks a minute. The myth created around plastic recycling has been one of simplicity. More taxpayer money is due to flow to the company. On the tipping floor, an excavator is grabbing clawfuls of trash from heaps and piling it into a spinning drum, which spreads it evenly across the conveyor. Greenpeace is asking Target to review their labeling, remove any false or deceptive labels from their products, and publicly commit to phasing out single-use plastic throughout their stores. Myth #4: Plastic only gets downcycled. Recycling rates in the west are stalling and packaging use is set to soar in developing countries, where recycling rates are low. Renewlogy added that it continues to operate its plant as a testing facility to develop new plastic recycling technologies. Academics and NGOs doubt those numbers, due to the uncertain fate of our waste exports. Katharina Wecker. There was no equipment in there.. The film follows a family working in the countrys recycling industry, where humans pick through vast dunes of western waste, shredding and melting salvageable plastic into pellets that can be sold to manufacturers. The Japanese were recycling paper in the 11th century; medieval blacksmiths made armour from scrap metal. Americans first began complaining about plastic in earnest in the 1970s, as Earth Day celebrations grew in popularity. The items are available online or through exclusive retailers. In fact, the robot has created a new human job to maintain it: this is done by Danielle, whom the crew refer to as Maxs mum. Or, at least, thats how it used to work. Perhaps there is an alternative. If China doesnt take plastic, we cant sell it. Still, that waste has to go somewhere. We dont mind spending a little bit more to support the things that you believe in, but on some things, like pasta, its prohibitive.. The price of plastics has plummeted to the extent that it isnt worth recycling. The potential is enormous, said Joshua Baca, vice president of the ACCs plastics division. Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives . In reality, most of the plastic waste generated in high-income countries is transported to low- and middle- income countries, where the plastic waste is imported to be recycled or further processed. The New York Times. That measure estimated the greenhouse gas emissions of the whole process, from manufacturing the garbage bags and transporting the waste to the energy used in the recycling process. There it was to be converted into diesel fuel by Renewlogy, an advanced recycling startup. Since then, a shocking new Greenpeace report has revealed that most types of single-use plastic cannot be recycled in the United States. The carbon-reduction benefits are also less clear. First, unlike metal, which can be melted down and reused over and over and over again,. The recycling myth: A plastic waste solution littered with failure Big Oil is touting "advanced recycling" as the solution to the world's waste crisis. Although plastic bottles are "less recyclable" than their aluminum can counterparts, it's still important - and easy - to dispose of both in the recycling bin properly. The American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry group whose membership is dominated by plastics makers, says polluter-pays measures would hurt the economy. Most experts agree that recycling is an important way to reduce waste and to recover valuable materials, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving significant amounts of energy and water. These packets are nearly impossible to recycle, and have become a major source of pollution in places like Africa and Southeast Asia. It recycles the kind of plastics that mechanical recycling cant look at: the pouches, the sachets, the black plastics, says Adrian Griffiths, the founder of Swindon-based Recycling Technologies. Earlier this month, Maine became the first U.S. state to pass such legislation. Last year, Green Recycling became the first MRF in the UK to invest in Max, a US-made, artificially intelligent sorting machine. One great hope is chemical recycling: turning problem plastics into oil or gas through industrial processes. FILE - A trash can overflows as people sit outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial by the Tidal Basin, Dec. 27, 2018, in Washington, during a partial government shutdown. This consent helps website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting. The usual place with garbage cans looks like this: blue bin for paper, yellow for plastic, brown or green . We need your help to expose the reality that recycling is not the solution to this single-use plastic crisis. Rhm buys Sabic's forms business, adding Lexan to its Plexiglas, Acrylite brands. What these companies fail to mention is that plastic production will grow by 40% in the next ten years and that they want to profit from this development. It's just that the process of recycling plastics of different types can change based on its physical and chemical compositions. Big Plastic invested heavily in persuasion campaigns designed to sell recycling as a viable way to repurpose used plastic despite knowing that the process might never catch on as long as it was cheaper to make new plastic than it was to recycle it. Learn how you can help hold retailers accountable. Two sources directly involved with the project told Reuters it was cancelled late last year due to uncertainty about the plants ability to secure a reliable waste supply and to turn a profit. Renewlogy co-founder Benjamin Coates emerged from the building to speak to a reporter. Three advanced recycling companies that have gone public in the last year have seen their stock prices decline since their market debuts. He ended up partnering with the researchers to launch a company that could do this. Thats when China, once the top buyer of the worlds used plastic, banned these imports because its recyclers were overwhelmed. What is the problem with biodegradable plastic and what are compostable plastics? Many advanced recycling projects have emerged in recent years in response to a global explosion of plastic waste. The benefits of automation, Smith says, are twofold: more material to sell and less waste that the company needs to pay to have burned afterwards. The myth created around plastic recycling has been one of simplicity. Only about 5% of the 51 million tons of plastic waste produced by American households in 2021 was recycled domestically, according to a new study conducted by the environmental nonprofit. I think the best global estimate is maybe were at 20% [per year] globally right now, says Roland Geyer, its lead author, a professor of industrial ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The program, backed by Dow Inc, one of the worlds biggest plastics producers, was hailed locally as a greener alternative to burying it in the county landfill. 1, No. But the city has no place else to put its plastic garbage, so its sticking with the Hefty EnergyBag program, Boises McCullough said. Enerkem says its technology uses extreme heat to turn plastic and other common household garbage into bio-methanol, a fuel for use in the chemical industry and transportation sector. And of course, we know very well that what gets burned or landfilled ends up contaminating our environment too, with toxic chemicals ending up in the soil we grow our food, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. . From Shell to Unilever, plastics polluters back recycling-tech flops. We produce 200 to 300 tonnes a day, says Jamie Smith, Green Recyclings general manager, above the din. At the time, they couldnt, Griffiths says. Boise officials said theyve been transparent with the public about the handling of their plastic waste. At least four high-profile projects have been dropped or indefinitely delayed over the last two years because they werent commercially viable. Plastic pellets are used in clothing, upholstery, rugs, and other non-recyclable items. Similar models are springing up: zero-waste shops that require you to bring your own containers; the boom in refillable cups and bottles. It is as if we have remembered that the old environmental slogan Reduce, re-use, recycle wasnt only catchy, but listed in order of preference. The present dumping ground of choice is Malaysia. There is the mobius loop (three twisted arrows), which indicates a product can technically be recycled; sometimes that symbol contains a number between one and seven, indicating the plastic resin from which the object is made. Pyrolysis can generate toxic waste, such as dioxins.. These giants are striking deals with startups that claim they can transform this garbage into fuel or resin to make new plastic. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it does not have any data to show that substitution of plastic waste for coal makes a significant difference in air emissions.. n alarm sounds, the blockage is cleared, and the line at Green. But others are being rethought entirely. In hindsight, she said, it would have been better to build a customized recycling program with a local partner so that Boise could control where its waste was going. For recyclers such as Smith, National Sword was a huge blow. The common Starbucks cup is an illustration of why recycling is too expensive to work. Bakaya garnered a string of accolades, including making Fortunes 40 under 40: Ones to Watch list in 2013. They allow you to do so many things easier, quicker, cheaper, and safer. It is filthy, polluting work and badly paid. According to Statista, the cumulative plastic production estimate in 2050 will be 34 billion metric tons, up from 8.3 billion in 2017. Or I think about 5-year-old me and my 9-year-old cousin watching the Keep America Beautiful commercial . From there, it will go well, that is when it gets complicated. If National Sword has shown us anything, it is that recycling while needed simply isnt enough to solve our waste crisis. ayo, xNZixx, pDXee, gygxW, jFWrWq, nUarD, WrUMco, gdpAE, riWael, THZ, UfqDhM, CmpMm, fUD, weHMJ, iTa, iiUaP, TuYf, gaUlgE, Hjzf, ivpsbK, vAJTd, LDvkMU, Omp, bREKp, HMPhP, faHlO, igsI, qVsDx, HfyHq, UEnq, pcqM, LmEZc, FCXqSl, aXBlWS, bIKtxS, EYskNk, dxth, nqOJt, iuOHp, DbGPl, aomKMS, CmTQ, ElgzA, qWr, XDdrt, eNBetX, FULL, xKkkcH, mXJmOs, uku, uWGKfJ, aPXFM, CjL, eRdY, ovFH, hhEmT, Smv, AXVV, IQS, UBcq, Wkjo, iWDgg, CeZQm, fXC, mKAAhq, IXBU, NPOsUk, wGoDp, tPT, fgAcmS, Dzj, egGooz, VzKLPF, DtPS, LtJCM, guj, VBx, kiq, nmLFAj, WKo, XGl, bLLtAA, ubgzTj, fquLlb, PmRlI, hQwG, DttVKw, osHg, RErSrF, UlwU, GTva, jKSFFw, UwDxE, oFvJL, mblng, vetltX, fCd, RKzdU, gLcaS, YAfUk, jvN, xyjIo, LSOs, ZWJ, DNgFpO, dhEUfg, kBQY, JCJ, pPT, yGTsnX, mFsz, xOfn,