21^st Eco-gen Ambassador Program- Free Topic Report, October 2018

Many of us participated in the recently organised essay competition by Tunza Ecogen, on the topic of beating plastic pollution. If Alexander Parkes, ‘the father of plastics’ read our essays, would he wish that he’d never created plastic, or would he accuse us of indiscriminate use of his great invention?

An aircraft, a biscuit packet, a toy, a syringe, a refrigerator, a baby diaper, a laptop, a doctor’s glove, a thermal jacket, a drainpipe, a mobile phone, a water bottle, a credit card, a television and its packaging… All have one common factor- Plastic, the most ubiquitous and popular man-made material, considering that we have produced over nine billion tons in last sixty years. Driven by convenience and profits, we overproduced and over-consumed, little realising that its resilience comes with non-biodegradability.

Plastic pollution resulted from our over-dependence on it, especially single-use plastics. About two-thirds of all plastics produced to date, turned into waste, most of which lies in oceans, the final sink. While solid waste endangers marine life, micro-plastics have reached our dining tables, via biological food chains.

Unarguably, plastic pollution, today outweighs the benefits of plastics, necessitating an urgent solution.

Beating plastic pollution requires a systematic control throughout the supply chain- starting with producing less, reducing use and seeking eco-friendly alternatives; followed by reusing and recycling more to keep plastic out of waste stream and minimise demand for new plastic; and then proper management of waste and existing pollution.

At the onset, flooding of markets with single-use plastics must be stopped at source, by phasing them out with carefully legislated bans, except for unavoidable applications like medical industry or food packaging for disaster relief.

Taxing of plastics can further discourage use. Stringent policies, bans and levies can substantially reduce demand for new products. Recycling and reuse initiatives, ‘buy back’ offers, ‘deposit and return’ schemes, incentives, community cleanups and educational campaigns, can serve as behavioral and economic nudges, towards lasting change in consumer behavior.

Waste management and recycling of plastic waste should be incorporated at design stage, especially in food and packaging industries, two main contributors of plastic waste. Strict regulations and controls on packaging should make producers take responsibility of recycling the packaging of their products. Deposit schemes can collect plastic packaging to be cleaned and refilled.

Polyethylene, PET and nylon or similar standardized composition of plastics could be used to make reusable bottles and boxes, rather than multi-layer plastics or different kinds of plastics that cannot be collectively recycled unless separated laboriously.

Governments and businesses must support research on using renewable resources to create compostable, biodegradable or recyclable alternatives that are environmentally sustainable, economically viable and widely available.  These must compete with attractive attributes and relatively low carbon footprint of plastic production, use and recycling.

Bioplastics, though better in some ways, need cost intensive collection and handling systems. This would result in bioplastic waste also reaching the oceans.

We must focus upstream to incorporate sustainability into composition of plastics or any alternatives, designing them as circular systems with materials that never end up as waste, like an ice cream cone where we eat the cone with the ice cream!

Many innovative ideas are being researched, to create alternatives from a variety of materials or combinations, including food waste, agricultural and forestry byproducts, sugar and carbon dioxide, seaweed, shrimp shells, mushrooms, and many more.

Additionally, large scale up-cycling can greatly reduce existing and new waste. ‘Plastic Whale’ initiative projects plastic as a raw material, by engaging tourists in fishing plastic waste from Amsterdam canals, aboard boats made from fished out plastic. India has built safe, durable ‘green’ roads mixing shredded plastic waste with heated bitumen, while ByFusion machine invented in New Zealand, converts plastic waste into bricks, through a process that generates 95% less greenhouse gas than concrete.  

Finally, recovery of plastics from ocean beds needs to be achieved through pioneering ocean cleaning systems. It was heartening to know about an underwater remote operated vehicle designed by a twelve year old to remove micro-plastics from marine environments.

As consumers, we must make smarter choices and lifestyle changes to reduce plastic demand and send a clear message to retailers and producers. My family for instance, avoids products with excess packaging and we buy food products from a market with bulk bins, where customers use their own containers and bags.

Simple household practices can help to reduce waste. We make yogurt with starter from a previous batch and never buy plastic packed yogurt or buttermilk.

Another important consideration is about rich countries recycling their waste in poor countries. Following China’s decision to ban imports of foreign recyclable material, European Union announced a ban on single-use plastic products. To beat plastic pollution, every individual, every nation should bear responsibility for their own waste.

Beating plastic pollution requisites global action, reinventing plastic chemistry, innovating product design, adopting recycling strategies, reorienting consumer behavior, and most importantly some sacrifice of convenience in exchange for a healthy environment.