One of the biggest challenges to environmental health and climate change is plastic. Plastic is such a problem because of the chemicals used to make it and how hard it is to decompose because of those same chemicals. Plus, just the sheer amount of plastic we use on a daily basis. Creating more plastic is half the issue, the other half is what we do with discarded plastic. The easiest way to deal with plastic that has been historically used is to either landfill it or incinerate it. Landfills are harmful to the areas they occupy as well as any nearby areas. Incineration adds to the greenhouse gasses being pumped into our atmosphere. Overall, the process that plastic goes through uses too much fossil fuels and is damaging to the environment.

So why is plastic still such a normalized part of our world? Money. Plastic is cheap to make but breaking it down is a different story. As mentioned before, incineration and landfilling are overarching methods that work for the majority of plastics and are among the cheapest methods of decomposition. However, because of the detrimental effects of these methods, the band-aid for a bullet wound solution to the plastic issue is recycling. The effects of recycling plastic have been exaggerated in the media and general education overall. The fantasy that once plastic is used, one can just drop it in a recycling bin and our planet will be saved, is just that, a fantasy. Recycling plastic is far more complicated than what we think about every time we throw out a plastic straw. How recyclable an item is depends on the type of plastic it is, how much of its makeup has already been recycled, and who is processing it.

Most of the time only “virgin” plastics can be recycled in any fashion, and even then, it is expensive and lower quality than just creating more plastic. A big part of the creation of plastics relies on oil. Items made of recycled materials are more expensive because the oil used to create them becomes more expensive. As a result, only 5% of plastic recycled is actually made into something new. That number is exacerbated by the misinformation of the general public surrounding plastics.

The general norm is that we can throw anything plastic into the recycling bin and feel good about ourselves even though we are part of the problem. One of the hindrances to recycling materials is food pollution. If a material is too food-polluted it interferes with the mechanical sorting process (one option to recycling). So, throwing food-polluted items like yogurt cups or other food containers into the same bin as clean plastics makes sorting all the more expensive and could possibly contaminate other materials. However, biodegradable plastics are still compostable even if they are food-polluted, but the recycling system is so focused on post-use and trying to make a failing system work that not biodegradables have not been thoroughly explored.

Contamination is a common roadblock in the recycling process, along with inaccessibility. Cars and other vehicles have multiple parts that are made of plastic because of its durability, flexibility, etc. These plastics are generally easy to convert back to their original elements but are hard to get to in a car and are easily contaminated by the other materials in the vehicle.

So, what does this all mean? Why does it matter? It matters because these are not debilitating issues. They can be fixed, and other solutions can be implemented to be more effective in saving our planet. Misinformation is the most dangerous weapon of our time, and there is a reason why the plastic cycle is not commonly known. Big oil and gas corporations are always quick to make a statement about using “100% recycled materials” by some date or time. It’s a method to gain political points with the people by relying on ignorance about how the system actually works. The secondary materials market is weak and has more risk than reward in terms of profitability. By publicly committing to something that seems eco-friendly, big corporations are able to placate the public without changing a system that is working for them in the short run.

In order for the secondary materials market to work, oil prices would need to be lower which would be unsustainable for these corporations. This result would not necessarily be desirable either. Which is why policy needs to be introduced. There have been basic policy changes meant to cut down on our overall plastic use. For example, the banning of one-use plastic bags and the “bring back your cup” policies adopted voluntarily by businesses. Government regulations in Europe have been somewhat effective in forcing companies to comply with actual ecological decisions, but they still fail to support the root of the issue: the market. There should be more of an emphasis on government incentives rather than just regulations. Make businesses want to change their habits, make people want to cut back on their plastic waste. This would obviously cost money, but in the long run the research and the secondary materials market would become self-sustaining with the right research and habit change.

Recycling is not being used to its full potential and how we design plastic is not being thought out correctly. Progress is being made to find different methods of recycling, but the fact of the matter is that mechanical recycling is just not a viable option for a lot of plastics. And we as a culture need to stop perpetuating the fantasy that it is a viable option. Allowing a willing ignorance perpetuated by corporate “greenwashing” is unacceptable and will lead to permanent damages if it hasn’t already.

Sources:

NPR: Greenpeace report finds most plastic goes to landfills as production ramps up : NPR

Techno-economic assessment of mechanical recycling of challenging post-consumer plastic packaging waste: Techno-economic assessment of mechanical recycling of challenging post-consumer plastic packaging waste – ScienceDirect 

Managing Plastic Waste─Sorting, Recycling, Disposal, and Product Redesign: Managing Plastic Waste─Sorting, Recycling, Disposal, and Product Redesign | ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (psu.edu)