• The Problems of Plastic Recycling

  • Plastic_Recycling.jpg
    Plastic disposal is a huge problem the world over, and one that is only set to grow in the coming years. We use well over 4 million tonnes of plastic in the UK alone, of which packaging accounts for about 35%. Most of this packaging goes into our household waste and so into landfill. How long that plastic takes to degrade depends on what type it is, but some estimates say that a plastic carrier bag will take over 1000 years to break down. The reality is, plastic hasn’t been around long enough for anyone to know for sure.


    In recent years big supermarkets, including the likes of Marks & Spencer, have tried to replace traditional petroleum-based packaging with bioplastic packaging. Bioplastics are derived from things like corn starch, pea starch and vegetable oil. Bioplastics are meant to be compostable, meaning that they will break down quickly either in a landfill or a home compost heap. Imagine if, instead of throwing away some packaging, you just put it on your compost heap instead! It sounds like the perfect solution, but bioplastics come with their own problems.
    Firstly, bioplastics are sometimes indistinguishable from ordinary plastics. This is good for shops who want to retain all of plastic’s good characteristics, but bad for consumers who want to recycle their packaging. If a bioplastic is put into a load of ordinary plastic recycling, it contaminates the whole batch. There is often unclear labelling so the public don’t know what they can or can’t do with their packaging.
    The second problem is the environmental cost of creating bioplastics. Just like with biofuels, crops must be grown to provide raw material. Deforestation is a problem, as is the fact that crops used for plastic aren’t used for food. It is estimated that by 2014 a quarter of US grain production will be turned over to bioplastics and biofuels. In times of rising food prices and even food shortages, this doesn’t seem like the best use of resources.
    The third problem with bioplastics is that their production is still reliant upon fossil fuels. Fossil fuels power the tractors that farm the crops, and the processing plants that make the plastics. For a product that’s designed to cut down on our use of fossil fuels, bioplastics certainly use a lot of them. This also means that the price of bioplastics isn’t competitive – consumers have no financial incentive to choose them over more traditional materials.
    It seems that the only advantage bioplastics are left with is that they break down faster than normal plastics. Unfortunately there’s no certainty about this either – sometimes they require high temperatures, which landfill sites or home compost heaps can’t provide. Bioplastics have been criticised for damaging the efforts of companies who recycle plastics, by giving unclear messages to consumers about their benefits. It could be said that more emphasis should be placed on recycling existing plastic, instead of investing cash and natural resources in an even more disposable version.

    Posted in Topics:Recycle, Tags: , on August 24, 2009