Recycling cannot be relied on to reduce plastic pollution alone

Plastic is a cheap, lightweight, durable and versatile material. Because of its ability to produce industrial-scale goods in many different shapes and colors, it is increasingly popular. The number of plastic products is increasing day by day. And with the increasing amount of plastic, environmental pollution also increases. It is accompanied by environmental, economic and social losse

Recycling status

Governments and decision makers in the plastic value chain have been advocating the expansion of the recycling system. Recycling is used as a way to reduce the amount of virgin plastic materials. The cost of recycling is considered a sunk fee. Many businesses have pledged such as: "products made from 100% recycled plastic", "contain at least 25% recycled materials in the product" or support recycling in many different ways. They do it to increase the current recycling rate, which is only 15%.

But while it is true that recycling is a very important part and that we must certainly pursue the goal of recycling, we cannot overcome the plastic crisis with recycling alone. Studies have estimated that even expanding collection and recycling systems now to the greatest extent the economy allows, waste pollution will still increase by 40%. Especially in the southern hemisphere, where infrastructure is most limited. Simply put, if we only focus on recycling, our pace of implementation will never catch up with the rate of plastic pollution

Factors that affect growth

The growth rate of recycling is affected by many factors. The first is how quickly we can scale up our collection and recycling systems. For the global collection system to meet the pollutant rate, 500,000 people will need to operate regularly every day until 2040. In addition, the population is mainly living in countries with lower middle income. In those countries, there are often a lot of problems with limited waste collection. In those countries, the capital that can be moved is quite meager. In addition, it is also home to many rural areas with limited transport infrastructure. One thing is sure to make shipping difficult and expensive.

Physical recycling is also known as mechanical recycling

In addition, the value chain deficit could be as high as 42%. Physical recycling can only be done 3-5 times before the material is completely damaged. Chemical recycling also presents some challenges. Garbage still needs to be collected. Most current chemical recycling technologies do not generate enough profits to pay for collection. Besides, chemical conversion also has a deficit in the process. It also cannot handle heavily contaminated material. And with that said, in many parts of the world, its economic efficiency is too low

Conclude

For sustainable development, people do not have to fight against plastic. What we need to fight is plastic pollution. Therefore, we need to clearly understand that expanding the collection and recycling system is extremely necessary. It is also the foundation of the circular economy. But that alone is not enough to stop plastic pollution with current funding and policy constraints. And even with full deployment, we will still have to see 56% growth in greenhouse gases and 125% in consumption through 2040.

Therefore, it is necessary to coordinate recycling with reduction and replacement measures. It is estimated that alternatives and mitigation could reverse the growth of plastic for about 20 years. The only problem left is to expand the recycling system enough to handle the current volume of waste.