Innovative Plastic Recycling Techniques to Combat Plastic Pollution

As the world continues to experience environmental degradation and climate change, finding sustainable ways of living is important. One way is recycling, which reduces waste and limits the use of new resources to make products. Several plastic recycling innovations may help create a more sustainable future.

One of the latest recycling innovations is making polypropylene more easily recyclable. Polypropylene is the second most-used plastic, yet only 1 percent of the amount produced is recycled. John Layman, the chief technologist and founder of PureCycle Technologies, has developed a revolutionary process that removes the color, odor, and contaminants from polypropylene plastic waste and transforms it into a pure resin, the basis for plastic products.

Another innovation is the development of roads that contain used plastic products. Companies are melting plastic products, combining additives, and paving roads with the mixture.

Another innovative way to recycle plastic waste is to make eco-bricks by stuffing clean and dry single-use plastics into empty plastic bottles. These “bricks” can serve as reusable building blocks for tables, beds, stages, or walls. South Africans have built a school from eco-bricks.

One of the most promising recycling innovations is the development of biodegradable plastic that breaks down into natural materials, eliminating the need for recycling or long-term waste disposal. Although further steps are needed in this area, several companies are developing biodegradable plastics that are durable and sustainable.

Another emerging technique in plastic recycling is chemical recycling. Unlike traditional mechanical recycling, chemical recycling breaks down the plastic at the molecular level, converting it into its basic chemical building blocks. These building blocks can then be used to create new plastic products without losing any quality in the process.

Another innovation is the use of compostable products made from plant residues. Companies are now using agricultural waste to create disposable tableware that is both biodegradable and compostable, without the use of chemical additives. This not only reduces plastic pollution, but also helps to promote the circular economy by creating a closed-loop system where waste is transformed into new products.

To truly address the plastic pollution crisis, however, there is a need to transition to a recycling economy. This means reducing reliance on single-use plastics and phasing in more sustainable alternatives. For example, reusable water bottles and metal or bamboo straws can replace disposable plastic versions. Purchasing products made from recycled materials will help to close the loop on the recycling process and give waste materials new life.

While these innovative solutions offer hope, they must be accompanied by broader changes in behavior and policies to have a significant impact on the environment. Individuals can take steps to reduce plastic consumption and support companies that prioritize sustainability. Governments can also promote sustainability by implementing policies that encourage recycling and limit the production of single-use plastics.

Plastic pollution is a complex problem that requires a multi-faceted approach. Innovative plastic recycling techniques offer hope for a more sustainable future.

While recycling is a crucial aspect of waste management, incorporating sustainable practices into daily life is just as important. Individuals can contribute to a more sustainable future by adopting habits such as reducing single-use plastic consumption, conserving energy, and supporting policies that promote sustainability. Only by taking a holistic approach to sustainability can a healthier planet be ensured for future generations.

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How to Make Recycling More Manageable

Recycling is supposed to be the last resort after efforts to reduce and reuse have failed. Unfortunately, most plastics are not reusable, and cheaper alternatives are few, making reduction difficult to attain.

Recycling plastic is expensive compared to manufacturing new plastic. For context, more than 85 percent of all plastic waste produced in the United States ends up in landfills. Plastic waste cost society, the environment, and the economy over its more than 150 years lifespan. For instance, it’s estimated that plastic waste produced in 2019 will cost $3.7 trillion over its lifetime.

The first step to making plastic recycling economically viable is to make recyclable plastics. All plastics come with a recycling rating of 1 to 7, one being the most recyclable and seven being the hardest to recycle. Consequently, most recycling efforts go to one and two, while the rest are shunned because they resist recycling, are expensive to recycle, or have no market for recycled products.

Beyond what can be done at the source, there are measures consumers can take to reduce the cost associated with plastic recycling. Consumers should put problematic plastics like bottlecaps, coffee pods, etc., in their respective bins to make it easier for recycling companies. Also, they should not put non-recyclable plastics that cannot be separated, like laminated papers, in recycling bins.

Plastic bags, bottle caps, and credit cards are called “tanglers.” They get caught in machinery, causing shutdowns. Moreover, they are difficult to collect, costly to sort, and environmentally harmful to recycle.

Recycling is relatively easier when similar plastics are recycled together, meaning only one plastic-type can be reprocessed at a time. Most recycling plants are mechanical, meaning sorting is manual.

Food waste contaminates the recyclables, rendering them economically unattractive because recycling companies would have to spend more to clean them up. To reduce the chances of recyclable materials ending up in a landfill, empty, clean, and dry recyclable materials before dropping them off.

Recycled plastic tends to be of low quality. Consequently, recycling plants avoid plastics that do not justify the recycling cost. So they’d rather make new plastics than recycle. However, recycling technology is advancing and expanding the use of recyclable plastics. For instance, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are exploring a plastic recycling method that recycles three widely used plastics, turning them into commercially valuable chemicals. Although this method is still susceptible to the problem of sorting, it has expanded both what’s recyclable and the use of recycled plastics.

The thing that makes plastics so useful is the same thing that makes them difficult and costly to get rid of. The cost of plastic waste comes in many forms, from health costs, mismanaged waste costs, waste management costs, greenhouse gas emissions, marine life losses, etc. Given the hidden high cost of plastic waste, more must be done to reduce the cost of recycling and thus the amount of plastics that end up in landfills. Plastic waste pollution is a far-reaching problem that demands a concerted effort to address. Plastic manufacturers, consumers, and recycling companies all have a role to play in recycling plastic.

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Published: Plastic Recycling and Its Importance

I published “Plastic Recycling and Its Importance” on @Medium