Ramsden also said policies banning the sale of some plastic materials can help promote plastic reuse, which could lead to reduced plastic production. Plastic recycling is a myth. If plastics were a country, they would be the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, said Lisa Ramsden, senior plastics campaigner for Greenpeace USA. More than 90% gets dumped or incinerated because theres no cheap way to repurpose it, according to a landmark 2017 study published in the journal Science Advances. The company told Reuters it has been burning Boises plastic since March 2020 as a replacement for coal. At worst, they end up as litter in the streets, the waterways and the oceans.. That number is expected to rise. An assessment of the Hefty EnergyBag program was commissioned by Reynolds. display: none; Even plastics of the same category cant be recycled together PET#1 bottles that are dyed green, for instance, cant be processed with clear PET #1 bottles. Renewlogys equipment could not process plastic films such as cling wrap, as promised, Boises Materials Management Program Manager Peter McCullough told Reuters. Last year, it spent $14 million lobbying members of Congress on various issues, the most the organization has ever spent, according to OpenSecrets.org, a non-profit initiative that tracks money in U.S. politics. Dharna Noor can be reached at dharna.noor@globe.com. Gavin Newsom, the top buyer of the worlds plastic recyclables, according to a study on the global plastic waste trade, the City of Erie Department of Public Works. Through recycling, IRG will support the manufacturing of plastic products at manufacturers in Erie, like Plastek, that contain high percentages of recycled material. The boom is also being fueled by investors looking for the next hot green-tech industry. We need a buyer for all the materials.. We are no longer supporting IE (Internet Explorer) as we strive to provide site experiences for browsers that support new web standards and security practices. 2, which is made of high density polyethylene, or HDPE; Plastic No. But even those earlier numbers are accurate. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it does not have any data to show that substitution of plastic waste for coal makes a significant difference in air emissions.. Oct 24, 2022. Oil Companies Touted Recycling To Contributions to the climate crisis are just one major problem with plastic production and disposal, the report says. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Mitch Hecht, founder and chairman of International Recycling Group, is shown, on Jan. 28, 2021, at the former International Paper property on the south side of East Lake Road. Within a year, however, that effort ground to a halt. Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Just because that plastic item you rinsed out and placed in your recycling bin is labeled as recyclable doesn't mean it actually is. Asked whether Renewlogys plant was the one it examined, Sustainable Solutions said it could not name the plant because of a non-disclosure agreement with that facility. Reuters made an unannounced visit to Renewlogys Salt Lake City operation in mid-May. Another major Greenpeace report finding: No plastic product meets a common industry-backed standard for recyclability, though many bear the well-known chasing arrows symbol. There's no way that The trouble, it said, was that Boises waste was contaminated with other garbage at 10 times the level it was told to expect. That's because what is and isnt recyclable depends on what the market is willing to buy and repurpose. Up until 2018, most recyclable plastic was shipped to China to deal with. The GreenPeace study, makes many factual and, because of that, concerning points about the recycling industry and technology.The article says that "Of the 51 million tons of plastic waste US households produced in 2021, just 2.4 million tons (5 percent) were recycled, However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages. The market value of all has declined since their debuts. For nearly two decades, China had been the top buyer of the worlds plastic recyclables, taking in more than 116 million tons of material between 1992 and Dec. 31, 2017, according to a study on the global plastic waste trade. To make sure that doesnt happen, the Greenpeace report says, the world must realize plastic recycling wont fix the problem. WebPLASTICS President and CEO, Matt Seaholm, appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press this week with a piece on the fantastic reality that is plastics recycling. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)half of the worlds plastic waste ends up in a landfill, 19% incinerated, and another 22% evades waste management systems and goes into uncontrolled dumpsites. High-income countries which export waste to poorer countries for cheap recycling do so without guarantees that infrastructure exists to manage this waste where it ends up. Whats really happening to all of that so-called recyclable plastic? Reuters Investigates offers several ways to securely contact our reporters, Jocelyn Gerst, a spokesperson for Holcim's U.S. operations, said the emissions levels of the plastic waste it burns are the same or lower than traditional fuel, and that it had a state permit to incinerate plastic. Transitioning from the lab to the real-world chaos of dirty and improperly sorted household plastic waste has proven too much for some of these newcomers, said Helen McGeough, a London-based senior plastic recycling analyst at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services, a data and analytics firm. News and Media. Steve Case, co-founder and former chief executive of AOL Inc, invested $100,000 in PK Clean in 2016, according to a blog he authored on the website of his venture capital firm Revolution. In the small town of Franklin, New Hampshire, the collection of recyclables were halted altogether in the wake of China's ban, according to the Concord Monitor. Courtesy :https://www.twincities.com/2022/09/29/matt-seaholm-no-minneapolis-billboard-plastic-recycling-is-not-a-myth/. Read the original article. The company said much of the junk belonged to other firms that it declined to name. Some of the worlds biggest multinationals are hailing so-called advanced recycling as the solution to a waste crisis that has lawmakers looking to crack down on plastics use. Plastic bottles are currently banned in Brewster, Chatham, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Orleans, Provincetown, and Wellfleet. Manufacturers must stop making so much unnecessary plastic to reduce the amount entering the economy. Renewlogy added that it continues to operate its plant as a testing facility to develop new plastic recycling technologies. While traveling just before the Labor Day holiday I A narrower analysis, looking just at the final recycling process and its contribution to global warming, found that pyrolysis scored better than landfilling but was worse than burning plastic in a cement kiln. Earlier this month, Maine became the first U.S. state to pass such legislation. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. At best, the sachets end up in landfill. A recent Greenpeace report found that people may be putting plastic into recycling bins but the amount of plastic transformed into new items in the U.S. is at a new roughly 5 Plastics have long been stamped with the numbers 1 to 7 inside the familiar chasing arrows logo to help traditional recyclers separate the waste before processing it. Under the legislation, companies can lower payments by using packaging composed of recycled material or without toxins, like PFAS, that are easier to recycle. In June 2019, Boise said in a statement it had temporarily stopped sending its waste to Renewlogy while the Utah plant upgraded its equipment. The Chinese were actually paying for this material, so the prices for a lot of these materials plummeted, said Anne Germain of the trade group National Waste & Recycling Association, in a phone interview with NBC. Plastics are incredible. Reporting by Joe Brock in Singapore, Valerie Volcovici in Boise, John Geddie in London, Additional reporting by Federica Urso in Gdynia and Fathin Ungku in Singapore, Editing by Marla Dickerson and Katy Daigle, 30 projects by two-dozen advanced recycling companies, published on the Hefty EnergyBag programs website. Advanced recyclers say theyre overcoming these problems with innovations in energy efficiency and purification. While traveling just before the Labor Day holiday, albeit for work, I was greeted on an open highway in Minneapolis by a gigantic billboard emblazoned with, Plastic Recycling is a This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. This kind of message is not only inaccurate it is an untruth that undermines public confidence and consumer participation in the entire U.S. recycling system. 2023 The Association of Plastic Recyclers. The concept of recycled plastic seems to promise a way out, but plastic recycling is largely a myth. But in the end, corporate America needs a deeper commitment to the plastic waste problem. The plastic recycling rate in the United States is estimated to have declined to about 5% to 6% in 2021, down from a high of 9.5% in 2014 and 8.7% in 2018. REUTERS/George Frey, Bales of plastic waste piled up at Renewlogy. California, in its effort to stem the rising tide of plastics, became the first state to mandate a minimum recycled content standard of 15% for most beverage containers starting in 2022, and increasing to 25% in 2025. The plastic recycling model was never economically viable, but oil and gas companies still touted it as a magic solution to waste, selling the American public a lie so the companies could keep pushing new plastic. Provided by This is in no way recycling, said Lee Bell, advisor to the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of public interest groups working to eliminate toxic pollutants. Unilever said in its announcement that it would share this technology with its competitors so that recycling plants could be built around the world. Hirsch pointed to a 2020 investigation by NPR and PBSs Frontline, which found the makers of plastic the nations largest oil companies lobbied states in the late 80s and early 90s to mandate the chasing arrows symbol appear on all plastics. signed into law last year by Democratic Gov. Triple-whammy of cyclones, a 1-in-200-year event, drove Italy's deadly flooding, Renewlogy did not respond to questions about how much of Boises plastic waste it had recycled. REUTERS/George Frey. Pyrolysis has been tried before on plastic. The first step to plastic recycling is gathering waste plastic products. When all alternatives have been exhausted, recycling keeps material in the economy and temporarily delays the need for more virgin plastic. Research has long shown that most recycling facilities do not accept five of the seven classifications of plastic including plastic foam and PVC because they are particularly difficult to sort and are often contaminated with toxins. The Arizona Innovation Challenge, a state-funded program, in 2017 awarded Renewlogy a $250,000 grant, funds that will be dispersed when Renewlogy sets up in Phoenix, the Arizona Commerce Authority, which runs the program, told Reuters. Unilever did not respond to questions about this claim. The result is waste leaking into the environment, and toxic plastic blocking drainage channels and causing floods. 2 or No. The recycling process itself also creates problems. However, out of the 267 million tons of garbage we produce, only about 94.2 million tons, or about 35%, of it, is recycled (Krosofsky, 2021). Scott said melting different numbered plastics together through pyrolysis produces a complex blend of hydrocarbons that must then be separated and purified for reuse. Last week California's Attorney General accused the fossil fuel/petrochemical industries of "perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis," Reuters reports, Nor has pyrolysis proven capable of transforming unsorted garbage into high-quality fuel and clean plastic resin, says Susannah Scott, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who receives funding from the plastics industry to perform recycling research. From there, the material is generally downcycled to make carpet, plastic lumber or a bench, none of which are further recyclable. Advanced recycling is in its infancy, and as with any emerging technology, setbacks are to be expected, a dozen industry players said. Consumers have long assumed if a package contains one of these symbols that item is recyclable, but thats not the case. Recommended for you. In theory, all plastic can be used again. The collapse of Boises advanced recycling plan is not an isolated case. This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, collect data for ads personalisation and provide content from third parties. Two sources directly involved with the project told Reuters it was cancelled late last year due to uncertainty about the plants ability to secure a reliable waste supply and to turn a profit. Meager recycling efforts cannot keep up with this pressure, and global plastic pollution will double during this time period. And such assessments must consider all social, environmental and economic costs. The impetus is coming from two sets of players: big oil and chemical companies that make the petrochemicals used to manufacture plastic, and global consumer brands that use huge amounts of the material in packaging. An inspector from the Salt Lake City Fire Prevention Bureau, Jose Vila Trejo, visited the recycling facility on Feb. 12, according to his inspection report. Getty Images/Dewey Saunders Temp Check By Each step produces millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Collecting, sorting, cleaning and preparing used plastics has become more labor intensive, requires more energy and is costly. In the 2010s, the US fracking boom released a flood of cheap natural gas into US markets, said Carroll Muffett, CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law, who did not work on the report. Join Today! Agilyx, an advanced recycling firm backed by Virgin Group and its billionaire founder Richard Branson, in 2018 announced a deal to convert plastic waste to jet fuel for Delta Air Lines Inc. Press releases issued by the companies at the time outlined the plan: By 2020, a new plant near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania would supply up to 2,500 barrels a day of synthetic crude oil derived from plastics to a nearby refinery owned by Delta. Encks Tips for Recycling and Avoiding Plastic Recycle paper, metal, glass and cardboard. Waste in those orange Hefty bags now helps fuel the Devils Slide, a cement plant in Morgan, Utah, part of the U.S. unit of Holcim, a European multinational firm. Through recycling, IRG will support the manufacturing of plastic products at manufacturers in Erie, like Plastek, that contain high percentages of recycled material. These packets are nearly impossible to recycle, and have become a major source of pollution in places like Africa and Southeast Asia. Germain applauded the law, noting that since its passing, the market value for plastics in California has jumped higher than anywhere else in the country. These types of studies will really push the chemical recyclers to think about their operations, said Tad Radzinski, president of Sustainable Solutions Corporation, the consultancy which conducted the study. 1, which is made of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET; Plastic No. Choose loose vegetables, or products wrapped in packaging that can be refilled. We cant just be pushing material into recycling and hoping that somebody is going to buy it, Germain said. This could help alleviate some confusion about the materials. The back lot contained dozens of bales of plastic waste dotted with faded orange recycling bags stacked next to rusty oil drums and a wheelbarrow full of glass jars containing a murky liquid. Banning or restricting exports would help. For many Americans, recycling is a single-stream process, meaning plastics, glass, metal and paper all get lumped together in the same bin. Jason Wilson is a Senior Writer at Readers Digest. 2 plastic bottles and jugs can be legitimately labeled as recyclable in the U.S. since those are the only two types of plastics widely accepted at most sites. Researchers are working to apply cutting-edge blockchain technology to advanced recycling. In hindsight, she said, it would have been better to build a customized recycling program with a local partner so that Boise could control where its waste was going. Greenpeace surveyed the nations 367 materials recovery facilities and found that only PET No. There it was to be converted into diesel fuel by Renewlogy, an advanced recycling startup. There was no equipment in there.. According to its website, PureCycle uses a ground-breaking recycling process developed by P&G, maker of Gillette razors and Head & Shoulders shampoo, to turn a particular type of waste plastic, polypropylene, back into resin. Oct 24, 2022. Many of the companies producing the majority of single-use plastic waste in the world have pledged sustainability-related changesin recent years while spending millions in marketing to convince the public that their plastics are recyclable. Plastics sent for recycling should be treated in the most socially and environmentally responsible way. Bales of plastic waste piled up at advanced recycling firm Renewlogy in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 18, 2021. Renewlogy said it supplied no data to Sustainable Solutions. Muffett, of the Center for International Environmental Law, said its the right time for leaders to plan to curb plastic production, not only because of the urgency of climate change, but also because of looming gas shortages in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine. Ramsden also said policies banning the sale of some plastic materials can help promote plastic reuse, which could lead to reduced plastic production. Those numbers can often be found on plastic bags, Solo cups, styrofoam containers and toys. Most recycling facilities send our plastic to landfills or oceans, because its not actually profitable to recycle. The material also contributes to ecosystem degradation, lets off endocrine-disrupting and, Despite these numerous issues, the oil industry. The company plans to launch another plastic recycling facility later this year in Phoenix, Arizona, according to its website. The Plastic Pandemic: COVID-19 trashed the recycling dream. The current 2021 U.S. plastic recycling rate is estimated to be between 5 to 6%. WebMyth #1: Anything With a Recycling Symbol On It Is Recyclable Contrary to popular belief, just because something has a recycling symbol on it doesn't mean it's recyclable. 3 is polyvinyl chloride, or PVC; Plastic No. Through education and innovation, we have the potential to craft a truly circular economy where all usable materials, like plastics, are infinitely recycled and repurposed, not wasted. You can refuse single-use packaging when shopping if alternatives are available and affordable. Weve come a long way from previous eras of exporting too much of our recyclable materials to foreign countries and sustained innovation and investment in recycling systems can continue to ensure we recover, not waste, useful materials like plastics. Boston Globe published an article, "Plastic recycling is a 'myth,' study says." It said the facility had not shut down and that there was equipment at the site. The Magna Pickup is a light weight canister that can lift up to 8 lb and is completely portable. Matt Seaholm: No, Minneapolis billboard, plastic recycling is not a myth. Renewlogy co-founder Benjamin Coates emerged from the building to speak to a reporter. Its urging U.S. lawmakers instead to ease regulations on and provide incentives to advanced recycling companies. In the same report, APR estimates that plastic waste recycling supports more than 200,000 American jobs, which, doesn't sound like a myth to me. Some of this is burned outdoors, which comes with its own risks to health and the environment. Current Agilyx CEO Tim Stedman told Reuters in March the project was delayed due to negotiations over contracts and finances and was eventually killed by COVID, referring to the pandemic that spread around the world in early 2020. Other countries, too, are shutting their doors to foreign waste, putting pressure on the developed world to deal with its own garbage. A front desk operator at the complex said no one had visited Unilevers recycling facility in at least six months. Finally, theres little economic benefit to recycling plastic. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2'); }); Growing mountains of plastic waste are accumulating in the poorest countries as affluent nations such as the UK ship their recycling overseas. It compared the environmental impact of recycling plastic waste through a heating process known as pyrolysis the approach Renewlogy used to two traditional ways of handling it: burning it in cement kilns or putting it in a landfill. Others started charging residents fees to cover the ballooning costs of their programs. Simple labelling can help consumers make informed decisions about how, where and what to either reuse or recycle, which would help prevent recycling loads becoming contaminated with non-recyclable waste and toxins. But recycling more will not address a major issue: after being recycled once or twice, most plastics come to a dead end. Everyone knows to sort their cardboard, glass, paper and plastics for recycling collection. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines). Still, hundreds of millions of tons of plastic are produced each year, which is a major problem for the climate: Plastic production and disposal account for 3.4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Theres simply too much plastic, and its just not practical to recycle most of it, said Ramsden. The law aims to incentivize the industry to stop creating excessive or non-environmentally friendly packaging, Grohoski said. Another recent study showed that recycling facilities can release hundreds of tons of microplastics into the environment each year. But its shares tumbled 40% on May 6, the day short-seller Hindenburg Research published a report calling the recyclers technology unproven and its financial projections ridiculous. PureCycle shares have since regained some ground. #ada-button-frame { Most of that plastic waste ended up in landfills or incinerated because the bales were largely contaminated and couldn't be recycled. Plastic recycling has actually declined by up to 4.5 percent since its peak in 2014, the new Greenpeace report says. And so the ability to have an economically viable recycling program was jeopardized.. Myth 1: Items Made From Different Materials Must be Sorted Some towns may ask its residents to separate recyclable materials, however many locations, particular in the US, choose to use single-stream recycling, which allows consumers to place all recycled materials in a single bin. Spoiler alert its not. APR Design Recognition Program & Recipients, APR Design Guide for Plastics Recyclability, Podcast: Plastic Recycling Conference Predictions with Dan Leif, APR Press Release: North American Plastic Recycling Volumes Recover From Pre-Pandemic Levels, Plastic recycling volumes increase in 2021, Earth Day 2023: Recycling and the Circular Economy. Companies must take action now to eliminate single-use plastics and packaging and not rely on false solutions such as recycling, says Greenpeace. Franklin used to sell its mixed recyclables for $20 per ton. Hefty EnergyBag, as the recycling program in Boise is known, is a collaboration between Dow and U.S. packaging firm Reynolds Consumer Products Inc, maker of the programs orange garbage sacks and popular household goods such as Hefty trash bags, plastic food wrap and aluminum foil. Haley Falconer, Boises sustainability officer, said the city has learned from the setbacks. Optical sorter technology combines cameras, sensors, artificial intelligence and even robotic arms to sort material with greater precision and capacity meaning we can recover more recyclable materials than ever before. However, the report notes that full body shrink sleeves that are added to these plastic products make them non-recyclable if they are not removed for processing. Renewlogy is among a crop of advanced recycling startups using heat or chemicals to turn plastic waste into new products. In fact, according to a 2020 Greenpeace report, most types of plastics in the U.S. are not recyclable and usually end up in landfills or incinerators, if not polluting the environment. Only recycle plastics with No. But plastic production has increased. Triple-whammy of cyclones, a 1-in-200-year event, drove Italy's deadly flooding, scientists say. ", One of the major barriers for recycling is the economics of virgin plastic and subsidization of the fossil fuel industry. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundations new plastic economy initiative, an item must have a 30 percent recycling rate to receive their recyclable classification. Enter advanced recycling. "Instead of getting serious about moving away from single-use plastic, corporations are hiding behind the pretense that their throwaway packaging is recyclable," said John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA oceans campaign director, in a press release announcing the report's findings. Frustration with a deliberate attempt to spread misinformation aside, this experience turned on a light bulb for me: Aside from curbside bins and the age-old reduce, reuse, recycle adage, the average American probably doesnt really understand how modern recycling works and is thus vulnerable to agenda-driven critiques. Most recycling facilities send our plastic to landfills or oceans, because its not actually profitable to recycle. They were basically shut down, Vila Trejo said. The Association of Plastics Recyclers (APR) shared a report just a few weeks ago showing that recycling rates may not be as low as some would like you to believe. The jig is up.". It's an opportunity to recognize the problem here at home here in America and be a part of the solution and create a more circular waste management system, rather than shipping it off and hoping for the best, Grohoski said. All other plastics, it states in its recycling guide, should be thrown in the trash.. Big Oils flagship plastic waste project sinks on the Ganges. Reuters it has been burning Boises plastic since March 2020 as a replacement for coal or,!, they end up in landfill PVC ; plastic No bottles are currently banned in Brewster, Chatham,,! Into the environment, and global plastic pollution will double during this period... Leaking into the environment Peter McCullough told Reuters its mixed recyclables for $ 20 per ton during... 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