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Turning plastic wastes to resources |
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by Sumit Chowdhury | 25-11-2018 19:05
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A grim future threatens the whole world, especially the lives of thousands of species, including humans, as we keep polluting the environment in many ways. Pollution from plastic wastes is one of the biggest threats at present. However, there is still hope to save the day by turning these plastic wastes into resources. For a country like Bangladesh, which is already threatened by the adverse effects of climate change, the accumulation of plastic wastes in our land and water and the pollution caused by this pose a grim reality. We have so far tried various ways to dispose of plastic wastes recycling, incinerating, dumping at landfill sites, and reusing those in some alternative ways. However, none of these proved to be efficient in the context of Bangladesh yet for different reasons. According to the Department of Environment, the country produces around 381 tonnes of plastic waste every day, out of which around 143 tonnes can be recycled. This basically means that only 38 percent of the plastic is recyclable. One reason why recycling proved to be inefficient is that the wastes are not dumped in an organised way. Different types of plastic products are often dumped together at the same place, thus accumulating there in tonnes and making it difficult to sort between the different types to ease the recycling process. This often raises the cost of operation too, thereby making very few interested in this business. Dumping the wastes at landfill sites is not a good option either, as the wastes would not decompose, at least in a thousand years or so, and instead stay there making the land unusable for any productive purpose while the wastes sometimes pass on to the nearby water channels during rains and flooding. Meanwhile, incineration is a faster and easier way to dispose of the wastes, but probably equally damaging to the environment in the same way as dumping them around, as the fumes from the burning plastic include many toxic gases, including some of the most potent greenhouse gases, which pollute the air to a significant extent. However, we can contain the fumes and turn those into black soot which can be processed to produce ink. The ash from incineration of the wastes can be used to make bricks, just like what Ethiopia is doing. It is time we learn from what other countries are doing to fight against this worst ever man-made disaster to environment. If we look at Sweden and Germany, the two countries which are recycling wastes, especially plastic wastes most efficiently, we would find that they are using their wastes for incineration, but in a process which will generate energy. The process, namely waste-to-energy, is quite a profitable one and is capable of producing energy in the form of electricity in quite the same way as a thermal power plant works, only using plastics instead of fossil fuel in this case. source: daily star
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6 Comments
thank you for sharing us about how we can act to beat plastic pollution
Posted 29-11-2018 21:05
Hello Sumit
'One reason why recycling proved to be inefficient is that the wastes are not dumped in an organized way.'
This is a really important point that many do lack notice of. To make sure that the collected plastics could be actually used in recycling, a proper separation on the waste should be guaranteed.However the exact rule on this matter isn't quite fully understood among people and it would nice if some kind of educational events could be prepared to actually teach how waste management should be done.
Thanks for the report!
Posted 29-11-2018 01:03
Hello Sumit, many countries try to make use of proper and high recycling methods and process but it seems a bit far from our objectives as statistic reports tell us :(
However, keeping ourselves get involved in recycling and performing proper recycling would devote to the decreased cost of recycling process in factories and governmental projects
Thanks for your report!
Posted 27-11-2018 16:05
Hello Sumit
A warm Namaste from Nepal
'This his basically means that only 38 percent of the plastic is recyclable' This line in the report shows how Bangladesh is improving,
Once in my 8th stander i got opportunity to visit Bangladesh (Gazipur) to participate in Jamboree from scout. I still remember a incident, we were given our lunch in a plastic box and one scout leader told us to throw that outside the window after finishing lunch.
I was unaware about plastic pollution at that time and i throw outside not only me all scouts in the bus throw plastic box outside the running bus.
Same is condition in my country too.
From your report i get that Bangladesh is improving far better, and hope plastic pollution is less and recycling is less than 9 years when i visited Bangladesh.
Yes it is time to fight against Plastic pollution by less using, reusing, recycling plastic products.
Sumit, thank you very much for the report, i hope Bangladesh will improve rapidly in plastic pollution.
Also thank you for reminding me days of Bangladesh before 9 years.
Posted 26-11-2018 16:00
Simply incredible. We can turn plastic waste into important resources.
Posted 26-11-2018 15:33
Sumit,
Turning waste-to-energy...actually, that's the current area of research. But, the type of waste here are those that can produce methane gas which I'm not sure plastic materials can. They(plastic) can only be recycled for further use and utilization.
Thanks for the report.
Posted 26-11-2018 06:16