Page 37 from: May 2013
37May 2013
that this would help reduce ocean pollution. I
certainly don’t think this is the answer, but it
highlights how strongly some people feel about
these issues. And now witness the recent rise of
the “Green Fence” in China to try to stop other
nations from dumping their trash there – mixed
in with some recyclables. And then that waste
often finds its way to other less regulated parts
of the world.’
What has been the most fundamental
change to the structure of the recycling
markets since 1998?
‘The significant rise in prices for most com-
modities due to the increase in demand as the
developing world, notably China, demands
more of the tools and toys the “developed
world” takes for granted. Recycled materials are
in much higher demand now, and therefore
competition and growth in recycling have
accelerated. The BRIC countries, especially
China, have been growing so rapidly that they
have created a dramatic increase in demand for
resources. China has concurrently developed a
strong domestic recycling infrastructure – both
formal and informal – to meet this demand.
And this infrastructure has created a worldwide
network of brokers constantly looking for scrap
and waste streams to sell to Chinese processors.
This has increased the demand – and prices – for
the materials produced by recyclers in domes-
tic countries, which grew their businesses by
exporting their products to China.’
What have been the biggest lessons of
the last 15 years?
‘Once the “pump is primed” as with e-scrap and
car recycling legislation, normal market forces
such as competition and economies of scale
evolve and make recycling more economical.
For example, companies now compete for most
e-scrap streams whereas they used to be paid
to take the materials. The cradle-to-cradle con-
cept espoused by Bill McDonough and Michael
Braungart – ie, design with intention and end-
of-life in mind – also facilitates recycling.
The reliance on the export model for recycled
materials carries a number of risks. It shuts
down recycling and supporting jobs in the
domestic recycling sectors for the exporting
countries. It reduces the availability of lower-
cost and more efficient materials for domestic
manufacturers. China – and other countries –
can change their import regulations rather
frequently and very quickly, such as the recent
“Green Fence”. The local eco-systems and work-
ers are often at risk due to lack of knowledge
and resources for processing materials prop-
erly. The by-products are sometimes handled
in ways that not only damage the local eco-
system but also find their way to the global eco-
system, so we ultimately pay the price and are
not completely “exporting our problems”. Like-
wise, products made in developing countries
and sold in developed countries can contain
substances of concern which are not allowed
for use in domestic manufacturing because the
same controls are not necessarily in place in
those countries.’
From your point of view, what has been
the best or most inspiring speech or
event of the last 15 years?
‘You mean besides my TED talk (https://www.
ted.com/talks/mike_biddle.html)? There are
too many to list but here are three. The girl who
silenced the world for five minutes: Severn
Suzuki addressing the UN (https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0). I
guess I have to say not so much inspiring but
perhaps more enlightening for those not aware
is Al Gore’s: “An Inconvenient Truth”. And the
latest one: the movie “Trashed” (https://www.
trashedfilm.com/) is definitely up there. This
should shake things up a bit.
How have attitudes to recycling
changed in the last decade and a half?
‘I think most people in the world now get that
recycling is not only about saving the environ-
ment from a pollution standpoint but also
about harvesting resources in a more econom-
ical and environmentally sound manner. The
USA is slowly changing and catching up to
Europe – and the rest of the world – but landfill
is very cheap and exporting is “out of sight, out
of mind”, so it’s very easy. As Winston Church-
ill famously said: “We can always count on the
Americans to do the right thing, after they have
exhausted all the other possibilities.”
I am hoping that we have exhausted all other
possibilities. Younger generations are not happy
that their precious devices might be made in
ways that harm people and the environment,
and they are beginning to understand that
“unmaking stuff” is much riskier to people and
the environment than making it. In plastics
recycling, there has been a dramatic change in
the way people perceive the plastics in their life;
many see it as a “love-hate” relationship. Plas-
tics provide an incredible number of benefits
to us such as energy and carbon dioxide savings
in most of the applications in which they are
used compared to the alternative materials:
food preservation and safety; product safety
(think helmets and sports protective clothing);
and lightweighting in cars, trucks and planes
to make them more fuel-efficient. But largely
due to how we manage – or don’t manage – our
waste, what used to be a new, space-age and
“cool” material has become a concern to many
people over the last 15 years or more. More
recently, there is a growing concern about plas-
tics in our oceans and this seems to have
become a focus area for many people and
organisations to rally around.’
Do you anticipate more consolidation
in the recycling sector?
‘Absolutely. And consolidation and larger scale
will deliver the three main things that have held
plastics recycling back and which held back
steel recycling decades ago: higher-quality recy-
cled plastics as larger companies can afford
more sophisticated investments; more consist-
ency of quality and performance of recycled
plastics by simple statistics and the utilisation
of better technology; and reliability of supply
of recycled plastics – something that has held
back many large customers from using more
recycled plastics in their products.’
Specifically, what do you wish most for
MBA Polymers and for yourself?
‘That MBA continues to grow capacity across
the world (especially back in the USA), closing
the loop with electronics, automotive and pack-
aging plastics, at a minimum. And that all of
our investors, including yours truly, get a good
return on the considerable financial, life and
time investments they have made in MBA.’
‘The reliance on
the export model
for recycled materials
carries a number
of risks.’
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