POSTED Mar 22, 2022 - 08:33 AM
Recycling is not enough: Why businesses should reduce plastic production
To solve the world’s plastic problem, businesses need to limit virgin plastic production instead of simply recycling
Original article by Joe Brock and Kanupriya Kapoor
Additional text by Yann Magcamit
Recycling is good for the environment, but it will not be enough to curb the world’s plastic crisis.
The world produces around 300 million tons of plastic waste yearly, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. However, only less than 10 percent of all the plastic ever made has been recycled—with the rest being disposed of through dumping or burying in landfills or burning. A large part of the reason for this is that plastic is too costly to collect and sort.
By 2040, plastic production is projected to double—which many plastic industry critics believe is excessive and the biggest driver of the global waste problem.
Experts believe that moving away from single-use plastics and towards systems that allow for them to be reused could help ease the problem, but radical changes to the production system are also needed. Thus, they call on companies to reduce plastic production and opt for reusable and refillable packaging instead.
“We won't be able to just recycle or reduce our way out of it,” said Rob Kaplan, CEO of Circulate Capital, which invests in emerging markets initiatives to solve the plastic waste crisis. During a panel discussion at the Reuters Next conference, he said, “It's a systems problem and needs to combine upstream and downstream solutions.”
In the Philippines, around 2.7 million tons of plastic waste are generated yearly. According to the World Bank’s Plastic Circularity Opportunities and Barriers report in 2021, an estimated 20 percent of this plastic waste ends up in the ocean. The report also shows that around $790 to $890 million of the material value of plastics is lost annually due to low recycling rates in the country.
In 2020, World Wildlife Fund-Philippines also commissioned a study on local plastic packaging waste that reported only nine percent out of 2.15 million tons of plastic available for local consumption are “considered recycled.” While there is still 16 percent classified as “stored and in use,” 33 percent are said to be disposed of and 35 percent are leaked to the open environment.
“Recycling can't compete with overproduction,” said Von Hernandez of the Break Free from Plastic campaign, a global alliance calling for an end to plastic pollution. “So what we need is limits on virgin plastic production.”
While there is no global regulator or treaty for the plastics industry, the Reuters Next panel speakers said individual consumers can help drive the changes needed in corporate behavior and hold companies accountable through the life cycle of their plastic products and where they end up.
“Citizens and consumers can compel these companies… to reveal their global plastic and carbon footprint, reduce the amount of plastic they are producing and deploying to the market, and really reinvent their delivery systems,” said Hernandez.
In the end, businesses should take the lead in solving the global plastic crisis by incorporating sustainability in their practices and products, instead of putting the burden on consumers. Filipino environmental educator Froilan Grate said in an NPR interview that “the problem is that most companies... feel their responsibility ends the moment they sell it.”
Currently, there are international consumer goods companies that have already started investing in projects to burn plastic waste as fuel in cement kilns instead. Locally, there are also social enterprises like The Plastic Flamingo, which collects and transforms plastic waste into sustainable construction materials.
Businesses should also prioritize resource efficiency, sustainable design, and plastic alternatives, which they can consult the online platform Sustainability Solutions Exchange for more ideas as well.
This story was originally published on Reuters
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