examples of plastic waste

When it comes to recycling plastic, there are two terms that we hear – Recovery Rate and Recycling Rate. This is pretty much a matter of chopping it up small for reuse. Making better choices when it comes to plastic is vital and something we can all play a role in. It also reduces the speed at which we use the earth’s oil stocks. This approach helps to conserve resources and diverts plastics from la… Replacing single-use plastic bags is a key behavioural change and has been shown to overall increase awareness around plastic waste3[3]. Plastic waste can block drains, which increases the risk of major flooding that leads to property damage and human displacement.1. Show where the plastic we consume comes from and what happens with it after we throw it away. You don’t have to be shopping for someone else you can gift some of these to yourself too. This can include plastic shopping bags and squeezable bottles. Or from discarded plastic making its way into the environment. 31 March 2020. By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by TRVST. Long-term improvements require health code changes to allow the use of reusable takeout containers. A classic example is the standard disposable coffee cup, which is made of paper and a thin film of polypropylene for water-resistance. A new report has revealed the world's worst plastic waste offenders along with the steps they are taking to obstruct and undermine international efforts to end the plastic waste crisis. This model could work with regular customers and a hefty deposit system. Caps are terrible for the environment because they float on the surface of water and look like a tasty morsel for birds: “For some species, such as the Pacific Albatross, plastic ingestion is a major factor in their decline and potential extinction.” 5 Gyres believes that policy-makers should implement “leash the lid” rules, requiring manufacturers to attach caps to bottles to prevent their escape and encourage tandem recycling. It is also extremely light. However, ultimately it’s our consumption that adds to the piles of waste we produce. The Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change Celebrates One Mill... Ritch, E. , Brennan, C. and MacLeod, C. (2009). So what can we actually recycle? . Most of the attention when tossing a plastic bottle is on the bottle itself. Further, we also need to take into consideration that plastic recycling in itself consumes energy. Much of the plastic incinerated or sent to landfill is as a result of it being unable to be recycled. Waste that we see in our surroundings is also known as garbage. Stash some reusable ones in your bag. There is a collection of plastics that fall into their own category. There is a link between these chemicals to liver disease and developmental problems in children. For instance, a factory in Côte d'Ivoire is converting plastic waste into bricks and building schools, while women-led initiatives in the Solomon Islands are turning plastic waste into handicrafts. Plastic Bags (11.18%) The intrinsic evil of plastic bags is largely known by now, as … Despite this, there are a great number of bottles in the environment that have failed to reach recycling facilities. It can get stuck in trees, fences, traffic lights, or other structures. Install water fountains at work. Your email address will not be published. Thankfully a growing number of choices now present alternatives. Introduction to Plastic Pollution: In the last decade, plastic has affected the health and life of human … To reduce your LDPE, you could choose to use reusable shopping bags. 4) Outreach, education and awareness-raising Collection of Plastic. Since almost all plastic is non-biodegradable, recycling can be part of reducing plastic in the waste stream. ‘Depolymerisation’ describes processes which break the polymers back to monomers. Take a few minutes to sit down and enjoy your meal without taking it to go, thereby minimizing the amount of packaging needed. Again, many recycling programs are happy to recycle this form of plastic waste. Most facilities will recycle PET bottles and other plastics. The most commonly recycled plastics are those that are used in milk bottles and soft drink bottles, PET and HDPE. It can also be used to create fleece garments. HDPE is also relatively easily recycled and most facilities will accept it. It requires diligence, but it absolutely doable. Sorting is a significant bottleneck in the plastic recycling process. A woman wearing a face mask and a plastic … Or certainly at the point to be cost-effective. Plastic Waste: Long History, Massive Consumption Plastic was invented by John Wesley Hyatt in 1869 and has an original sense of “pliable and easily formed.” It is known as a polymer material. If you dig a bit deeper the large variety of plastic types presents often confusing information when we come to work out what we can recycle and what we can’t. In other words, there’s no way to recycle straws even if you wanted to. The accumulation of plastic objects which are dump without any scientific process is plastic waste. This can then help us to make better choices. By Rob Picheta, CNN. It’s, for this reason, that the government in the UK and other countries now require a charge for plastic bags or are looking to phase them out entirely. Nobody really thinks about caps. Recycling does vary from one city or location to another. There’s little doubt overall that the best thing we can do is reduce our need for plastics at all and look to sustainable cleaner alternatives. Overall across Europe, we now recycle 80% more of our plastic than we did 10 years ago15. The list includes “Better Alternatives Now” (that’s where the BAN acronym comes in) – ways in which consumers, industry, and government can take voluntary action without waiting for technological fixes. It’s … Treehugger uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Single-use disposable packaging is everywhere, from cookie containers and candy bar wrappers to potato chip bags. Of course, not forgetting plastic bags. Around the world, we use a colossal amount of plastic each day. ‘Plastic to Fuel’ describes processes where the outputs are fuels. If you're a business owner, refuse to sell disposable plastic bottles, following in the noble footsteps of places such as. 7 We are making progress when it comes to plastic recycling. Please see our, can cause harm to marine life as they either ingest or become entangled in our waste, One single piece of plastic in the environment can take hundreds of years to break down, Made correctly we can use plastics safely to package food and across various healthcare applications, BPA has now been linked to a number of health issues including cancer and fertility problems, We now produce around 348 million tonnes of plastic every year, Research has shown that increasing recycling is the best scenario for dealing with plastic waste, we now recycle 80% more of our plastic than we did 10 years ago, Globally plastic production is forecast to quadruple by 2050, And in the US only around 9% of plastic is recycled, mixed with new plastic or used for applications requiring a lower grade, chemical recycling that makes it possible to recycle mixed plastics, it will be sent to an ‘energy from waste’ facility, we only process a third of our plastic waste in the UK, shown to overall increase awareness around plastic waste, which is a toxic chemical and can cause disruption to hormones as well as a range of health problems. Required fields are marked *. Once it becomes a recycled material, we can turn it into furniture, pens, and bottles. By using Treehugger, you accept our, Food Wrappers & Containers (31.14% of pollution in environment, by unit count), 11 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Plastic Waste Today, 19 Ways to Stop Creating Unnecessary Trash, A Beginner's Guide to Plastic-Free Living, Our Love Affair With Single-Use Plastics Is Over, 7 Things You're Probably Recycling Incorrectly, "The Story of Plastic" Is a Moving Film That Reveals Where Plastic Comes From – And Where It Goes, 10 Additional Tips for Living With Less Plastic, Straw Bans Won't Fix the Plastic Problem, but Something Else Can, 10 Plastic Items You Can Give Up Right Now, Vancouver Says No More Foam Food Containers, Plastic Bottles Are the Most Common Litter in European Waterways, how to banish straws from your life forever. Plastic baggies, plastic wrap, and plastic storage containers are worth re … Plastic recycling refers to the process of recovering waste or scrap plastic and reprocessing the materials into functional and useful products. It is safe to say that we can find plastic waste hard to avoid. Look up the heartbreaking video of a straw being removed from a sea turtle’s nose and you’ll never want to use one again. Globally plastic production is forecast to quadruple by 205010. Always be sure to screw the lid onto a bottle before recycling. Take your own water bottle. They contain BPA, which is a toxic chemical and can cause disruption to hormones as well as a range of health problems16. This is especially the case when we come to throw away mixed plastics. These are Trinidad and … Today many goods made from recycled plastic are as good as those made completely new. The company began a Zero Plastic, Zero Harm campaign around 12 years ago. Minimizing their use requires a cultural shift in people’s relationship with food. Create a visual example of the plastics journey through the ecosystem on cotton buds example. The goal of recycling plastic is to reduce high rates of plastic pollution while putting less pressure on virgin materials to produce brand new plastic products. Your email address will not be published. You’ll typically find it in applications that require the plastic to flex, also including plastic wrap and cables. Many plastic applications are incredibly useful, which in turn has led to plastic’s popularity and ubiquity. The amount of recycling we send to a facility either in the UK or overseas is known as the recycling rate. Known for its durable properties, this is a plastic that is safe for use in items such as plastic Tupperware containers and even medicine bottles. There are economic and logistical factors that determine the extent to which we recycle plastics. Different plants, technologies and policies further can present more complex requirements to understand when sending our plastic off to be recycled. It’s in wrappers, containers and bottles, cars, shoes and even baby wipes and tea bags. It is known for leaching and is not a material that we can recycle easily. Better Alternatives: Stop using straws. Coronavirus is causing a flurry of plastic waste. BPA has now been linked to a number of health issues including cancer and fertility problems1. On land, wind can carry plastic waste or litter throughout the environment. This remains the case despite the fact that plastic waste sent to recycling can get shipped elsewhere or end up incinerated. This can range from one to seven: If we are to reduce plastic waste, then it helps to gain an understanding of the different types of plastic. This further aids the case for the concerned amongst us to take the time to understand the different types of plastic waste. For example: "Feedstock’ recycling describes processes which convert mixed residual plastic waste back into a petrochemical raw material, for use as steam-cracker feedstock and industrial waxes. HDPE does not lose its shape or degrade in sunlight, therefore we can also find it used for outdoor furniture and bins. Install easy-to-access water or soda fountains at schools and workplaces. L. Rigamonti, M. Grosso, J. Møller, V. Martinez Sanchez, S. Magnani, T.H. Plastics are either disposed in landfill or offshore after reaching their end of life, therefore, results in plastic waste. Although it is possible to recycle, not many programs do. And hence it is often either mixed with new plastic or used for applications requiring a lower grade5. By understanding the different types of plastic waste, we can better understand where to act to reduce plastic’s impact on the environment. However, largely down to the huge volume we consume, The US only recycles around 25% of PET bottles. And even then it breaks down into small plastic particles called microplastics which are almost impossible to recover. As awareness of this problem grows it can be helpful to understand the many different types of plastic waste. Here’s why it’s important: When you call ahead to order takeout, tell the restaurant you’ll bring your own container. Garbage is mainly considered as a solid waste that includes wastes from our houses (domestic waste), wastes from schools, offices, etc (municipal wastes) and wastes from industries and factories (industrial wastes). Present the statistics on the plastic pollution problem: the number of plastic entering the world's oceans, estimated minimum and the maximum time is taken to decompose on the example of various consumer goods. In a perfect world, 100% of the plastic generated would simply be reused, degraded, or reincarnated into another product. The advantage here is the chemical recycling prevents the need for plastic waste to be sorted, making it a lot easier to process mixed plastics, which is what a lot of recycling centres actually receive. These have to be either separated by hand or by special equipment. We are making progress when it comes to plastic recycling. Katherine Martinko is a writer and expert in sustainable living. And plastic harms our environment in a number of ways. She holds a degree in English Literature and History from the University of Toronto. In addition to containers, more plastic waste is generated from durable products, such as furniture, and nondurable products, such as plastic bags. We use it for protection around items that have been packaged, it is also used as insulation and in cups. Eco Friendly Straws: Alternatives to Plastic Straws, Plastic Whale: Turning Plastic into Adventures, Difference Between Degradable and Biodegradable Plastic Bags, Endocrine disruptors in bottled mineral water: total estrogenic burden and migration from plastic bottles, The Effects of Plastic Pollution on Aquatic Wildlife: Current Situations and Future Solutions, Plastic bag politics: modifying consumer behaviour for sustainable development, Decomposition and analysis of refractory oceanic suspended materials, Recycling and recovery routes of plastic solid waste (PSW): A review, Environmental evaluation of plastic waste management scenarios, Waste-to-energy: Dehalogenation of plastic-containing wastes, Plastics and environmental health: the road ahead. Shell is using a liquid feedstock made from plastic waste in its chemical plant in Norco, Louisiana, USA to make a range of chemicals. 3) Transboundary movements of plastic waste. Within this symbol is a number and the number relates to the type of plastic that the product is made of. Of course, using a plastic that can be recycled is a wise move. One of the biggest constraints here is that mechanically recycled plastic material rarely has the same quality of new plastic. FACT #10. Voluntary action is key because, as the BAN list explains in its Findings and Recommendations, nearly all of these products have no economic value in today’s recycling systems. These break down readily in the sun and surf, but the tiny plastic particles remain, getting ingested by animals that think they’re food and later suffer the consequences of filling their bellies with toxic, non-digestible plastic. Waste is defined as unwanted and unusable materials and is regarded as a substance which is of no use. We now produce around 348 million tonnes of plastic every year14. Once you understand what is able to be recycled near you you can use this information to help increase the likelihood that your plastic is actually recycled. As this is a weak plastic, it breaks up very easily. This type of plastic, known as the poison plastic, should not be used for food or drink as it does contain harmful chemicals. This should help them cut down 7000 metric tons of waste in plastic materials from the world. Obviously, the goal is to lower the overall amount of generated plastic waste. 50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away. Plastic recycling has been described as the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products, sometimes completely different in form from their original state [16].Classifying by the final product of any given recovery process has further differentiated between alternative plastic recycling methodologies [17]. Better Alternatives: The 5 Gyres report suggests the bulk purchase of snacks in reusable bags (now possible in all of Canada’s Bulk Barn stores) and requesting that made-to-order baked goods be served in recyclable containers, like paper boxes. With the sheer volume of straws used on a daily basis (roughly 500 million per day in the U.S. alone), this amounts to a disgusting number of straws getting tossed in landfill and oceans each year. They are ubiquitous, persistent, ugly, and unhealthy. Although whale sharks are the biggest fish in the sea, they're still threatened by ingesting small bits of plastic. Once extracted the plastic production process emits harmful CO2 adding to the climate change problem. The process of mining the raw oil-based materials we use to create plastic disrupts natural habitats and can cause chemicals to leach into the environment during extraction. 5 Gyres is currently running a #FoamFree campaign, urging people to campaign for Styrofoam bans in their communities. However, only around 1% of PVC plastic is recycled. Of all the plastic ever made, half was made in the past 15 years. This is a form of plastic that we can use for piping, windows, and different types of medical equipment. This is still a relatively new technology but it is constantly improving. Whether we opt for plastic that we can recycle or plastic that we cannot recycle, the amount we use has to be reduced. This can simply be because we haven’t washed it or separated recyclable plastic from those that are not. When we consider the UK alone, just 13,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were recycled in 2000. 2) Plastic waste collection, recycling and other recovery including financing and related markets. These are plastic products you should reject at every opportunity, opting for better alternatives whenever possible. We are all encouraged to do our bit and recycle. These are items that are difficult to recycle. But we don’t know what to do with all this plastic once we’re finished with it. This is particularly so in the marine environment since many of these contaminants are hydrophobic, which means they do not mix or bind with water. We can find polystyrene on many beaches while a lot of it finds its way into the oceans. Should it be impossible to recycle plastic waste economically, it will be sent to landfill and in some cases, it will be sent to an ‘energy from waste’ facility7. Plastic material is cheap to produce, versatile, and durable. Despite this, there is one thing that we need to think about – how much plastic we use. One New Year's resolution, to use less plastic, is no … Also, they plan to ban the use of plastic materials in cosmetics in order to achieve the same (Kristi, 2018). Made correctly we can use plastics safely to package food and across various healthcare applications8. This is important, for example, for reducing the approximately 8 million metric tons of waste plastic that enters the Earth's ocean every year. Better Alternatives: Increase the deposit on bottles to reduce littering and encourage recycling/returning to vendor. Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. Read my guide on how to banish straws from your life forever. Research shows these policies work: Best of all is to start using reusable containers for water and soda. Bottles have a relatively high recycling rate (between 74 and 74 percent, depending on the kind of plastic). Some types of plastic and plastic waste contain BPA, which is an endocrine disruptor. However, we are now recycling upwards of 350,000 tonnes each year. Fortunately, there has been an increase in recycling programs that will accept this form of plastic. Multinationals dump 500,000 tonnes of plastic waste in developing countries every year. This activity is known as the plastic recycling process. They get tangled in trees and waterways, ingested by sea otters, turtles, seals, birds, and fish. The liquid, supplied by Nexus Fuels, is made from hard-to-recycle plastic waste via a specialised heating technique called pyrolysis. After recycling, we can reuse it in items such as bubble wrap and even furniture. The 5 Gyres Institute has published a report called “The Plastics BAN List.” Its purpose is to assess which plastics are most damaging to human health and the environment. Today many goods made from recycled plastic are as good as those made completely new9. The good news is that more of us are doing our bit when it comes to recycling. Plastic waste generation is strongly influenced by primary plastic use, but also the product lifetime. To add to this, marine species are also ingesting it, leading to health problems and death. With so many different types of plastic waste, it can all seem a bit hard to wrap your head around. Plastic recycling reduces C02 emitted from the manufacture of new plastic, emissions from incinerating plastic waste, and prevents waste from going to landfill. Yafei Shen, Rong Zhao, Junfeng Wang, Xingming Chen, Xinlei Ge, Mindong Chen. It is safe to say that we can find plastic waste hard to avoid. Things like sachets (the ketchup package in the fast food restaurant and the ubiquitous packaging used by brands that contain one day’s worth of soap or snacks in Asia) are made of plastic but also have a lining of aluminum or some other metallic material; or it’s plastic and paper combined; or some plastic has additives for color or durability. A new report by Tearfund calculated for the first time how many tonnes of plastic pollution, four multinationals, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-cola, Nestlé, and Unilever, dump in six developing countries: half a million tonnes! Tell your server you don’t want one. when you head out so you can take extra food to go. At least 0.19 kg per person per day of Trinidad and Tobago's plastic debris end up in the ocean, or for example Saint Lucia which generates more than four times the amount of plastic waste per capita as China and is responsible for 1.2 times more improperly disposed plastic waste per capita than China. Plastic Straw Ban Begins. Therefore, once broken up, it spreads through the environment easily. Save my name and email in this browser for the next time I comment. We have the ability to recycle some plastics but not others. The recycling of PET plastic involves shredding it and then repurposing into other products such as bottles, carpet or furniture. Re-think your food storage. Further, recycling plastic is more energy-efficient than producing new polymers. As such, there is no absolute rule of what can and can’t be recycled. Incorrectly disposed of plastic can collect in the Ocean where it can cause harm to marine life as they either ingest or become entangled in our waste2. For example, bottles made from one type of plastic and lids from another. Children’s toys also contain this type of plastic. One single piece of plastic in the environment can take hundreds of years to break down 4. Under the proviso, we need to deal with it in the first place. A case in mind when it comes to this kind of recycling is accumulation of past papers for re-pulping plus manufacturing into novel paper products. They give animals an artificial feeling of satiety, resulting in eventual starvation. Many of us now take our own bags to the supermarket, carry reusable bottles, and look to minimise the goods we purchase packaged in plastic. However, Leo Baekeland introduced the revolutionary of plastic in 1907, with the intention of creating a material that could be used as an […] This is done to limit the scattering of plastic waste in the environment. Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the ocean from land is predicted to increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.3 [/su_table] [1] From the Land to the Sea: How … (My new tactic, after having one too many straws stuck into bar drinks accidentally, is simply to drink beer when I’m out because it comes in returnable glass bottles here in Canada.). However, plastic does present some health concerns. It’s in wrappers, containers and bottles, cars, shoes and even baby wipes and tea bags. Not too long ago, the companys founder and CEO, Ray De Vries announced that the company was switching from plastic … All the same, we must do more. It can be primary plastics, such as cigarette butts and bottle caps, or … In many cases, specifically in more developed countries, plastic waste is disposed of responsibly and sent to facilities to be sorted, recycled or recovered. Research has shown that increasing recycling is the best scenario for dealing with plastic waste6. It can … With pictures across the Internet and many a news article showing plastic-covered beaches many now realise that when disposed of incorrectly plastic waste poses a real risk to the environment and wildlife. We find plastic almost everywhere. That is plastic items made from different types. Plastic packaging is one example of a plastic that becomes waste often within second, minutes or days of being used. Another example is that of a South African company based out of Cape Town called AirWater. The many different types of plastic waste are partly where the problem lies. Straws have no recovery system whatsoever, which should be illegal. To reduce the amount of PET that you use, you could choose to switch to reusable bottles and containers. Better Alternatives: Reusable bags and containers are the way to go. These are highly persistent, and only a pathetic 3 percent are recycled. Moving from single-use to reuse not only helps eliminate plastic waste and pollution but also, if done well, offers significant reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other negative externalities*. However, ultimately it’s our consumption that adds to the piles of waste we produce. This is in contrast to building and construction, where plastic use has a mean lifetime of 35 years. The recovery rate relates to the amount of plastic that has been collected. Whereas plastic is not going to go away quickly if we better understand how to deal with it we can all play a more informed role. “Today science tells us that the majority of plastic waste ending up in oceans is coming from land, specifically due to limited or nonexistent waste management,” says Simon. For example, as of 2017, only 8% of US plastic was recycled. Making better choices when it comes to plastic is vital and something we can all play a role in. These choices all add up. However, there are many reasons why we should consider using reusable items in place of plastics. This may come as a shock to those people who think recycling is a viable green solution: You’ll recognize every single one of the following items from your own forays into parks, along beaches, and through forests. Despite this, recycling technologies are evolving and that does help the situation in a way. Of the top thirty global polluters per capita, ten are from the Caribbean region. It’s also worth noting that we only process a third of our plastic waste in the UK13. Almost all plastic will come with a symbol that represents three arrows chasing each other. Of course, not forgetting plastic bags. There are lots of resources here on TreeHugger for zero-waste shopping, using glass jars, containers, and cotton bags. This safe and clean plastic is common in a number of items around the home. Moreover, glass plus aluminum are also ordinary items which can also be recycled. If you’re a restaurant owner, adopt an “ask first” policy where you don’t hand out straws unless a client wants one. January 1, 2019. A big part of the problem is that many of these products are designed to be eaten on the go. Most large scale facilities don’t actually do this for us because it is too labour intensive, and therefore costly.

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