Is a World without plastic really possible? Is it a utopia or is it really possible to do without plastic?
This is what we will try to understand together during the July week of the Digital Innovation Days dedicated to sustainability.
Current status.
Plastic is undoubtedly a destroyer of ecosystems.
According to an American study by the CIEL (Center for International Environmental Law), which considers the emissions generated for plastic production and disposal, plastic increases the greenhouse effect like 189 coal-fired power plants, and the impact could even triple by mid-century.
In 2019 alone, its production, incineration and disposal added more than 850 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, find the full study here, and by 2050, the production and disposal of plastic could generate 56 gigatons of carbon dioxide, or 14 percent of the earth's entire remaining carbon budget.
A far from clear scenario is painted by the SKY, especially considering that that of plastics, is a life without end.
In fact, plastic dispersed into the environment continues to produce greenhouse gases at every stage of its life cycle-from the extraction of fossil fuels, to its refining and production, to its disposal in landfills, incinerators, recycling, and dispersal into the environment, rivers, and oceans.
It also appears that it falls to the oceans to take on the burden of absorbing a significant amount of the greenhouse gases produced on the planet: up to 40 percent of all the carbon dioxide produced by humans since the beginning of the industrial age has been absorbed by the oceans.
But unfortunately, that is not all:
What is a natural ability of the oceans to absorb and capture carbon dioxide is being challenged, and severely limited, due to the huge amount of plastic and micro-plastic dispersed in the sea, which, when subjected to solar radiation, in turn emits methane and ethylene (here a study on this subject by the International Pacific Research Center).
To get an idea of how much plastic is leaking into the oceans, and especially how much of it we "eat," I suggest you watch the documentary Seaspiracy on Netflix that examines the global fishing industry, challenging notions of sustainable fishing and showing how human actions cause widespread environmental destruction.
For fans of the theme and cinema, the Cannes Film Festival this year offers several really interesting titles dedicated to the environment theme.
We just can't get enough of it.
Despite the severity of the problem, we just can't seem to do without plastics, and the expansion of petrochemical industries toward the production of plastics is increasing all over the planet, despite restrictions imposed by various world governments.
The past decade has seen major efforts in at least 127 countries around the world, including regulations, bans and public awareness initiatives.
Pandemic and Plastic
But even so, the pandemic has marked the problem even more.
If we consider the pandemic period in fact, the pandemic saw a surge in the use of single-use plastics.
While the pandemic has reinforced positive thinking about the usefulness of plastics in health protection (see protective devices), we have also been faced with an uncontrolled and disproportionate return of single-use plastics: gloves, cleansing wipes, foot guards, headphones, chair covers, clothing kits for doctors and health care workers.
But it doesn't end there.
The pandemic, and related quarantines, stimulating online shopping led to a growth in packaging production, not to mention food orders, the latter growing by an average of 56 percent.
But it seems it is still too early to tell whether the pandemic numbers will be significantly impacting the global environment.
But is it really impossible then to do without plastic? And is recycling enough to solve the problem?
Recycling is not enough, let's say that right now.
The recycling process is not always 100% effective, and not everything is recyclable.
We know that in order to significantly reduce pollution, we need to move toward processing and making biodegradable materials and sustainable products.
The technologies of Henkel make it possible to produce paper bags, packaging, and straws that provide performance comparable to plastic, with less, but not zero, environmental impact of course.
Recycling makes sense, but it must be done in the right way.
We manage to recycle only a small fraction of it, with expensive and complex processes.
The idea that it is enough to sort waste also risks pushing us to use even more plastic.
And it is wrong.
Despite the success of recycling campaigns, in most (rich) countries plastic recycling continues to be a marginal activity, as written in September 2018 by theOECD in a report, where it was found that globally the amount of plastic recycled corresponds to 14-18 percent of the total.
What happens to the rest of the plastic?
The rest of the plastic ends up in incinerators and waste-to-energy plants (24 percent) or is left in landfills or dispersed into the environment (58-62 percent).
Recycling does not pay economically.
Throwing the crushed plastic bottle in the recycling bin is just the beginning of the recycling process, and it is not certain that that bottle will become something else.
If we take the Bel Paese as an example, according to a study by theISPRA, l'Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, only 30 percent of the plastic collected in Italy is recycled. Another 40% is burned in waste-to-energy plants or incinerators, and the rest ends up in landfills.
The reason for such low numbers is that basically the process of mechanical recycling, besides being complicated, is onerous and inefficient with different materials.
So there is no point in recycling?
Yes, it is very much needed. What we recycle still has a strong positive impact on the environment and the economy.
We need to do more and better.
The vast majority of the world's recycled plastics go through a recovery process called mechanical recycling.
This process happens in steps, which if you want to learn more, I invite you to look at a study done in 2017 by Belgian researchers "Mechanical and chemical recycling of solid plastic waste" which you can find here.
In summary, you should know that mechanical recycling involves sorting, washing and then shredding the plastic into very fine flakes called "flakes" which are similar to, but not as edible as, those of the well-known brand. The "Flakes" are then turned into granules (more convenient to be reused and made into new plastic items in turn).
But each of these steps, however, is complicated and presents problems involving the different elements that make up plastics and the sorting of the plastics themselves (e.g., the plastic waste we throw in the garbage comes largely from packaging, which is why it is almost always contaminated with non-polymeric organic and inorganic substances).
This mechanical process involves significant costs as well as complexity and appropriate machinery, and does not return a product with high quality standards that can always be reused in the same way.
Therefore, plastic recycling is not a sustainable business, and at times is potentially loss-making, if public incentives and relief are excluded.
The real cost to be reduced would be the environmental cost.
The poor profitability of plastic recycling has become evident as of 2018.
Before that time, about 70 percent of the world's plastic waste, much of it produced in Europe and North America, was collected, loaded onto cargo ships and shipped to China-the whole process was cheaper than recycling the plastic on site.
The recycling of most of the world's plastic was thus left to China, but things often did not work out and much waste was dumped in landfills or scattered into the environment.
Starting in January 2018, however, the Chinese government passed more restrictive rules, banning the import of different types of materials, requiring that the waste be no more than 0.5 percent contaminated. As a result, shipping virtually stopped, and recycling supply chains in Europe and the United States went into crisis.
Subsequently, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and Malaysia began accepting plastic, but have since had to retrace their steps given the massive mass of plastic waste they faced.
Some hope for chemical recycling.
Many experts hope that the problems and inefficiencies of mechanical recycling of plastics will be overcome by chemical or molecular recycling, a technique that has been talked about for a few years now but has not yet been applied on a large scale.
Chemical recycling is a "depolymerization" process, which in short means: materials are chemically broken down into their simplest elements and then reused. The most commonly used technique is pyrolysis, which using heat breaks down the chemical bonds in plastics to generate a liquid material that can be used to produce new virgin material.
This would mean that much of the plastic could be 100 percent recovered.
For now, however, the recycling chemical is expensive, and some researchers are skeptical that pyrolysis processes could release toxins and toxic substances into the environment.
According to industry, however, the chemical recovery will bring plastic recycling rates up to the levels of other materials such as paper and metals.
But everything could have been avoided.
All this should make us reflect on the fact that in a future-which we hope will be as near as possible-our economic system will increasingly assume a so-called "circular", as the approach defined as "linear" - disposable - has, and is amply demonstrating its limitations bringing it to the brink of an abyss.
And yes, we could have avoided it if only we had made a more conscious use of resources, and if what should have been the right mindset for us, for industries should have been a technological challenge toward innovation.
But how are we moving forward?
As of July 3, 2021, EU countries will have to align with the European Directive on single-use plastics.
With the European Directive on Single-Use Plastic, theEuropean Union is banning the sale of a long list of disposable plastic products, such as cutlery, plates and straws.
Starting July 3, 2021, in fact, all 27 member states will have to put the directive into practice.
What products will be banned by the European directive?
The list includes: cotton swizzle sticks, cutlery and plates, straws, beverage stirrers, balloon rods, cups, and expanded polystyrene food and beverage containers.
What products will still be on the market?
Glasses (no sign of disposable plastic cups, which means they will still be on sale in all countries of the Union), masks and gloves (green light to all personal protective equipment widely used because of the current health emergency), balloons (only poles will be banned, but classic balloons can still be used at parties).
Good news for sure, but in Italy?
Italy lacks the transposition decree to implement the directive, and there would be no shortage of economic, legal and environmental setbacks.
To date there is only a draft, and whose discussion moreover does not appear to be scheduled in the Council of Ministers.
But that is not the only problem.
In fact, Italy is among the top European countries for the production of plastics, and banning these products risks an increase in layoffs and closures of an entire industrial sector.
In addition, the directive targets both biodegradable and non-biodegradable bioplastics.
The only ones to be excluded from the ban were cellulose and lignin, which would have less impact on the environment.
The solution, as anticipated earlier, lies not only in a matter of sustainable thinking, but also in research and innovation by the industry in the sector, which to date is still insufficient.
How to be part of the solution to the plastic problem.
I want to greet you by pointing out how we too, in our own small way, can be part of the solution to this problem called plastic.
The month of July, it's the #PlasticFreeJuly.
But what is the #PlasticFreeJuly?
Plastic Free July® is a global movement to help millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution by choosing to reject single-use plastic.
If you didn't know him, don't worry, I discovered him myself a short time ago.
At https://www.plast icfreejuly.org you will find an indescribable amount of tips and initiatives dedicated to the issue and the world of sustainability in general, with dozens and dozens of suggestions on "how to do the right thing" and be part of the solution to the plastic problem.To participate in the Plastic Free July®, all you have to do is sign up on the official website and put all the tips into practice. Try it to believe, you will realize for yourself what you can do.
Brand Ambassador
Luca Ferri
Photo Credits:
Photo by OCG Saving The Ocean on Unsplash
Photo by Marc Newberry on Unsplash