Page 5 from: Plastics Special 2020

PLASTICS SPECIAL

37recyclinginternational.com | November/December | 2020

Fotobijschrift

KaderKop
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The trouble of wanting
to be ‘green’

COLUMN / If raw materials are

likened to the family, then one

could certainly argue that plastic

is the black sheep. It gathers a

huge amount of attention,

although little of it is positive. Is

this fair?

by Kirstin Linnenkoper
A line often repeated in the industry is
that plastic is all around us. From the
packaging of our food, the clothes we
wear to the electronic devices we are
so fond of. In most cases, we don’t
even notice it because, as with many
things in life, we don’t see what’s right
in front of us.
The truth is, plastics are not bad – cer-
tainly not all of them. It’s what we do
with it. Plastics can and are being
recycled although, granted, some
more than others. Plastic bottle recy-
cling rates are at around 30% in the
US and Europe (around 45% in the
UK). In South Africa, the figure sur-
passed 65% in 2019, while Mexico
reached 55%. Japan has managed to
recycle 85% of its bottles – even
though it incinerates more than half of
all of its plastic waste.
It’s not all doom and gloom even if
the headlines don’t really reflect that.
Terms like the ‘war on straws’, ‘waste
mountains’ and ‘plastic bag bans’
have resurfaced countless times in the
last few years. In 2018, a legislator in
California called for US$ 1 000 fines
(EUR 850) and six months in jail for
waiters providing customers with
‘unsolicited’ plastic straws (the pro-
posal didn’t get the green light).
It makes it sound like recycling plastic
is a ‘mission impossible’. Isn’t it the
easy way out to simply ban materials
that we deem problematic? After
straws and shopping bags, what’s
next? And what good does it really do
if proposed paper alternatives have a
bigger CO2 footprint?
People act based on convenience and
are slow to embrace change. Whether
you’re talking about consumers litter-
ing the streets or big brands pumping

new products onto the market faster
than we can blink. To be frank, we
know better. We have realised that
relying on virgin materials is not sus-
tainable; we have realised that ocean
plastics don’t end up in the water by
themselves.
It’s got to do with us. It’s our behav-
iour that needs to change. We need
to invest more in recycling infrastruc-
ture, develop more efficient technolo-
gies and educate youngsters and
adults alike about why you can’t just
throw stuff away. That ‘waste’ does
have a value.
Not least, we need to ensure a bigger
portion of recycled content is included
in the products of the future. And we
have to design products more smartly
for recycling and reuse. This means
producers have to step up their game.
Making pledges and supporting social
media campaigns isn’t enough; lead-
ing companies need to put their
money where their mouth is to make a
difference. And by impressive
amounts, too, not just a convenient
sum they can happily lose.
Deep down, I know we can accom-
plish so much more. I’ve talked to
recyclers, technology providers, engi-
neers, researchers; they all agree the
plastics industry offers great potential
for recycling and sustainable design.
We have to find a way to unlock this
potential and not waste it. The thing
is, people tend to repeat themselves,
clinging to bad habits like an insect in
a flytrap. It makes sense, I guess.
Taking risks is scary and keeps us com-
fortably grounded, rather than leaping
forward. But I hope that we will take
the jump anyway – and escape the
tunnel vision trap of old-fashioned
consumerism.

Kirstin Linnenkoper.

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