COVID worsened the plastic pollution
The future depends on plastics, or, more accurately, reducing, reusing and recycling plastics.
Companies that package or ship their products using plastic are under increasing pressure to do something about the resulting pollution. I’ve visited more than 60 countries, and they all have two things in common: a plastic litter problem and people who are angry about it.
Demand for plastic, though, is growing. In response to COVID-19, manufacturers have produced enough plastic masks and gloves to blanket Switzerland, according to a study published in the academic journal Environmental Science & Technology. The researchers found a 30 percent increase in single-use
plastic products.
“Mismanagement of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a monthly estimated use of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves globally, is resulting in widespread environmental contamination,” the scientists concluded. “This poses a risk to public health as waste is a vector for SARS-CoV-2 virus, which survives up to 3 days on plastics, and there are also broad impacts to ecosystems and organisms.”
Increased demand leads to increased production. Plastics are made from oil and natural gas, and the industry has long counted on resin demand to keep the industry going as people switch to clean energy.
“The global plastic resins market size was valued at $711 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.2 percent from 2021 to 2028,” according to Grandview Research, which performs market analyses. “Rising product demand from the construction, automotive, and electrical and electronics sectors is the key factor driving the market growth.”
Visit any beach or any park, and you will also find more plastic litter: bottles and caps, tennis balls and toys, foam containers or specks of hard plastic in the sand.
Humans have been dumping 8 million metric tons of plastic into the ocean since 2010, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That’s the equivalent of emptying one garbage truck a minute into the water.
Nations around the world have passed countless laws banning plastic littering on land and at sea. But as any economist will explain, the best way to prevent waste is to assign it value. Aluminum can manufacturers solved their problem by paying for old cans, and plastics manufacturers argue the same is possible for plastics.
I’ve been writing about plastic recycling for years. Most big-city recycling programs collect it, and some plastic even ends up in shredders to become park benches or outdoor decking. But most recycled plastic is shipped overseas, where it is not recycled, according to a recent study.
To make old plastic valuable, we need recycling methods that can handle all the different formulations, even the contaminated stuff. The current mechanical system of shredding old plastic does not meet that test. The better way is to dissolve the products into their chemical constituents.
Unfortunately, the cost of that process is too high for recycled resin to compete with virgin resin. Some estimates put the cost of recycled resin twice as high. Absent government intervention requiring recycling or a technological breakthrough, market analysis firm IHS Markit says recycled resin will have a hard time gaining market share.
Many environmentally conscious companies have switched to plasticlike products made from plants rather than petroleum. But those products face the same issue; they are twice as expensive to produce, according to Thunder Said Energy, a Canadian research firm specializing in the energy sector.
Fortunately, consumer-facing companies that sell plastic goods are vowing change. Keurig DrPepper, Mondelez International, PepsiCo, Walmart, Kroger and Target have promised to use fewer single-use plastic products and spend more on recycled and bio-plastic containers.
What’s unclear is whether they will charge more or lower profits.
The solution to reducing plastic pollution, therefore, is a multi-faceted approach, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit dedicated to public policy.
Researchers calculate that demand for plastics will rise from 250 million tons in 2020 to 425 million tons in 2040, and most of that will end up in landfills or as litter if nothing changes. But there are alternatives.
Using today’s technology, we can reduce consumption by 30 percent, recycle 20 percent, substitute 17 percent and properly dispose of 23 percent of the plastic we use. About 10 percent, sadly, will always end up where it shouldn’t.
If we want to see fewer plastic bags blowing down the freeway, see less plastic detritus on our beaches and witness fewer animals suffering from ingesting plastic, we need governments to enforce stricter regulations and corporations to develop new technologies.
Most of all, though, consumers need to reject plastic wherever possible.