There was an alarming Netflix series, Seaspiracy, reporting our exploitation of the ocean and exponentially growing wastes into the ocean. I am not commenting on the documentary itself as it is up to personal preference and judgment. However, one message was clear from the documentary — we need to stop producing wastes (specifically plastic) and exploiting natural resources. Besides plastics, the human species are producing various types of solid wastes, food & organic wastes, recyclables, liquid wastes, etc. The majority of wastes come from organic wastes (food and green + paper/wood), and the second most is plastics.
According to Our World in Data, the human species produced 2 million tonnes of plastic waste per year in 1950, but it has increased 200 fold, making 381 million tonnes. This number is so unimaginably large that it is hard to find any equivalence to it, but it is roughly equivalent to the mass of two-thirds of the world population. Looking at the US data, Americans fill 96,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools per year with Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). Based on the speed of growth of waste amount, in approximately 62 years, all the US MSW operating systems will be filled. Other countries will reach a similar situation like the US, and basically, the world will eventually be filled with MSW. Lastly, the United Nations announced that every year collected solid waste is contributing about 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Compared to transportation and other industrial emission rates, it is low, but besides contributing to GHG emission, waste pollutes our natural resources — water, land, biodiversity, etc.
If we continue producing waste at this rate, eventually we will live in, with, on the top of waste. Wastes have already begun to conquer the earth. Thus, I would like to briefly explore our solid waste management situation and its potential solution. As plastic waste is often discussed and is one of the leading problematic waste, I will also review what plastic waste is, how it is produced, how we can reduce plastic waste, what circular economy is, and if businesses can make a profit from this transition. Then, will wrap up with potential ways to conquer solid waste to save our planet.
Plastic, what are you?
Plastics became an essential element in our day-to-day lives because they have numerous useful characteristics, such as durability, hygiene, lightweight, and cheap. In fact, if we average out the world’s waste composition, plastic waste is only produced 12% per year, but approximately 80% of it goes to landfills. Because plastics are durable, they stay in the ecosystem for approximately 20–450 years until they begin to decompose.
Besides its durability, it derives from heavy GHG-emitting fossil fuels, thus it emits greenhouse gases from the beginning of its production till the end of usage. To simplify plastic production, plastic is derived from many elements: cellulose, coal, natural gas, salt, and crude oil. Oil refinery separates heavy crude oil into lighter components and produces the main component of plastic, naphtha, ethane, and propane. According to the World Economic Forum, about 6% of annual global oil consumption accounts for plastics (equivalent to the aviation sector’s GHG-emission consumption amount). However, if the reliance on plastic continues, it could grow up to 20% of oil consumption by 2050 and accounts for 15% of the global annual carbon budget. The production of plastic also emits GHG emissions, which cannot be avoided. The CIEL report(2019) says in order to produce ethylene (derived from ethane), it makes 184.3 to 213 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is about as much as 45 million passenger vehicles emit during one year. Additionally, CIEL is expecting ethylene-caused emission rates to grow about 34% between 2015 and 2030.
According to The World Bank Group (2016), the world generated 242 million tonnes of plastic waste, which is approximately 12 percent of all municipal solid waste. 12 percent could be a small portion, but the visibility of plastic waste increased as the surge of recent plastic waste accumulation had a negative impact on the environment and health. Also, compared to organic waste, it requires a longer time period to decompose in nature. Because of its convenience, plastic has a quick turnaround to disposal. Thus, the problem here is that more than one-fourth of wastes are dumped openly and disposal sites are often managed poorly. Especially, even if people collected recycled plastics, only a few countries and few portions of recycled plastics can process properly.
How much are we really recycling and sending them to waste? Unfortunately, National Geographic announced only 9 percent has been recycled and the vast majority, approximately 80 percent, is accumulating in landfills or in the natural environment as litter.
What problems do wastes bring to us?
As National Geographic and the World Bank reported, most of the wastes either end up in landfills or open dump areas (approximately 70–80% of wastes).
The composition of waste varies per different income levels as well. Often lower-income countries have higher organic waste than higher-income countries. On top of that, lower-income countries often do not have adequate waste management systems where the waste ends up in an open dump (approximately 93% of their waste goes to an open dump). This causes health hazards as an open dump does not have the capacity to process toxic gases appropriately and attracts rodents. If anyone resides near the open dump landfill site, they will be exposed to methane and CO2 emissions, bioaerosol emissions, contaminated water, and disease from rodents, which leads to health problems. Also, it enlarges the biodiversity and contamination gap between high and low-income countries as high-income countries export wastes to lower-income countries and it is exploiting lower-income countries’ land use for high-income countries’ wastes. Taking lands away from other living creatures often leads to the extinction of various species as well.
Poor waste management harms biodiversity, which we are familiarized with within many documentaries and news articles about how our wastes negatively impact other species. Non-degradable waste enters the food chain that causes illness and even death, and organic wastes’ compost brings pest outbreaks, disease and contaminating soil and water that will be again intaking for humans and other animals. We leapfrogged to enormous economic development and convenient lifestyles with incredible inventions, but these inventions became a weapon to the earth and other species.
Does the circular economy bring us a solution?
The circular economy is different from a ‘take-make-waste linear model, it regenerates by design and aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources. It is designed to bring economic development and benefit businesses, society, and the environment.
Our economy was based on a linear model that generated excessive amounts of wastes as there was no alternative way or concept to reuse the end products. However, different civil societies, businesses, and individuals began to actively practice circular economy systems with recycling and upcycling to solve waste issues and it took momentum from around the 1970s. We are familiar with the recycling concept, but recently upcycling is getting attracted by many people. Upcycling could be another option that we can take alongside the circular economy to reduce waste and create a valuable production chain, allowing businesses to make a profit. Simultaneously, upcycling projects can be found globally, for instance, recently in Korea, there is a boost on upcycling — fashion, accessories, and the beginning of diversifying production streams to reduce wastes.
In order to reduce waste amounts, it is inevitable for our society to practice a circular economy. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as words. Current technology cannot fully recycle and reuse the material. Especially if we look at plastics, compared to the lower cost of virgin materials, yet recycled plastic costs high and makes it less profitable for businesses to switch their production model. In addition, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation teaches that only approximately 2 percent of plastics are recycled into products with the same function and quality (e.g. plastic bags). Sorting and recycling plastics would downgrade the quality of the material. Each plastic has different melting points that it cannot be mixed with if we are expecting to recycle with full quality. Additionally, we do not yet have a perfect technology to separate or clean contaminated plastics to turn them into close enough virgin material. Even with the current recycling plastic movement, the recycling rate is approximately 9%, and the rest of them go to landfills.
Technology from businesses is important to close the resource loops, but the most important element of plastic recycling lies with consumers. Consumers are not fully aware of which plastic can be recycled, and how to recycle effectively. Therefore, all the plastics are lumped together and highly contaminated with food or other chemicals, which causes municipalities and companies to have difficulties in sorting through and recycling them. That eventually brings higher waste management costs. Plastics last long until it is decomposed, but yet because it has limited recycled material value, the life cycle is quite short until it goes into landfill sites. The best solution is not to use plastics, but as plastic is well-integrated into our life closely that is not an easy solution. Then, the alternative solution would be to at least recycle materials as much as possible, but the consumers need to be well-educated on how they can recycle relevant products and materials. Until we find an alternative material and solution, we need to maximize recycling technologies and materials. Please take a look at the below chart for your correct plastic recycling.
Types / Where can you find these plastics?/ Characteristics
1. PETE
Beverage bottles, perishable food containers and mouthwash
These plastics are easily recyclable, and most recycling plants accept them, so properly disposing of them is easy. PET plastics are recycled into the carpet, furniture, and fiber for winter garments.
2. HDPE
Milk jugs, yogurt tubs, cleaning product containers, body wash bottles and similar products, toys, park benches, planting pots, and pipes
HDPE is much stronger than PET, and can be reused safely
3. V/PVC
Credit cards, food wrap, plumbing pipes, tiles, windows and medical equipment
PVC is seldom recycled. PVC plastics contain harmful chemicals linked to a variety of ailments, including bone and liver diseases and developmental issues in children and infants. If they are recycled, often used for flooring, paneling and roadside gutters
4. LDPE
Many types of bags, household items like plastic wrap, frozen food containers and squeezable bottles
It’s still quite difficult to recycle. Recycled LDPE is made into such items as garbage cans, paneling, furniture, flooring and bubble wrap.
5. PP
Tupperware, car parts, thermal vests, yogurt containers, and even disposable diapers
While it can be recycled, it’s thrown away much more often. When recycled, it’s turned into heavy-duty items like pallets, ice scrapers, rakes and battery cables.
6. PS
Beverage cups, insulation, packing materials, egg cartons and disposable dinnerware.
Usually thrown away, although some recycling programs may accept it. PS is recycled into various items including insulation, school supplies and license plate framing
7. Other
Sunglasses, computer casing, nylon, compact discs and baby bottles, these plastics contain the toxic chemical bisphenol-A or BPA
SPI code 7 is used for all plastics not part of the other 6 types. Not only are they dangerous, but these types of plastics are also extremely hard to recycle as they don’t break down easily.
How can businesses benefit from waste management?
Solid wastes have already begun to cover and pollute the earth. Concurrently, our health and life are at risk. In order to prevent that, solid waste management policies are becoming more rigorous to ensure not covering the earth with our wastes. More policies have been set to reduce waste production, such as a polluter pays mechanism that charges plastic bags to encourage people to use reusable bags and landfill taxes to businesses. These regulations began to pose a risk to businesses as they add more costs on them. However, as technology becomes more rigorous and advanced, risk can be turned into an opportunity.
First of all, the cost of waste for businesses has become higher to pressure less wastes to end up in landfills. Until recently though, the public has believed recycling may cost more than sending waste to landfills. However, the Eco Experts explain that recycling costs much less than just landfill wastes based on the UK case. Businesses pay approximately double the cost if they are sending a lump sum of wastes versus recycled wastes. Thus, sending waste to landfills is not a cheaper option.
According to the UK government’s report, Our Waste, Our Resources: A strategy for England, in 2018 suggests that small and medium businesses overall could save £3 billion annually through short-term investments by making their processes more resource-efficient. Also, the waste management price has increased steadily, and waste disposal price ranges from £70 to £290 per different measurement. If we look at plastic waste economics, as per Ellen MacArthur’s research, 95% of plastic packaging material value, or USD 80–120 billion annually, is lost to the economy after short first use. These costs can be turned into another opportunity for businesses rather than becoming a negative externality to our economy and society. There are more businesses that are jumping into developing alternatives, such as bioplastics, biofuels, organic wastes for animals, or waste to fuel. Among many interesting alternatives, I would like to introduce a couple of interesting items: insect bioconversion and bioplastics.
Organic waste takes the most portion of the global composition of wastes. Organic wastes come from nature, but if you landfill organic waste, it can cause serious harm to the atmosphere and humans. When organic wastes are buried in the landfill, due to lack of oxygen, it undergoes an anaerobic decomposition process and produces methane. Especially emerging economies often landfill most of the wastes and it causes health hazards to vulnerable communities. There are few new business models that came up to tackle organic waste landfills and potential food crises — insect farms. As a recent movement towards reduction in meat consumption for a reduction in GHG emissions and ecosystem protection, alternative protein began to be spotlighted. Often insect farms cultivate black soldier flies larvae and mealworm larvae as they decompose various types of organic waste and convert them into high-value biomasses such as oils and proteins. Also, Fowles and Nansen (2019) introduce cases where different feedstock to black soldier flies brought different final products from biofuels to protein feed ingredients. Thus, I see this alternative business, insect bioconversion, could be another potential business opportunity for the food industry and others. At the moment, the UK government is funding £10 million, part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, to a start-up company Entocycle which is expected to build the UK’s first industrial-scale insect farm. You can see an increasing number of startups and businesses, such as Eat Grub, Chepulines, Beyond Ag, Goffardsisters, and Protix, where the food industry is beginning to tap into insect bioconversion.
Also, recently bioplastics began to be considered as an alternative solution for the plastic industry. According to Fortune Business Insights, the bioplastics market size is expected to increase steadily. In 2020, the global bioplastic market size was approximately USD 7,043.9 million and could grow to USD 15,523 million in 2028. Bioplastics could derive from waste cooking oil, vegetable oils, plant starch, or sugar. As it eliminates carbon emission from the initial production by not using fossil fuel as feedstock, it could eliminate the GHG emissions and is also considered to be more biodegradable. Except, the technology is not yet matured that causes R&D cost to be higher and scientists express their concern on the potential risk of competition with food resources for bioplastic feedstock and still produces microplastics that harm marine life. New technology always comes with R&D investments until it matures and is able to make a good margin. Therefore, even if it seems to make more losses than current plastic productions, I hope continuous technology development will bring break-even and eventually more profit margin with reduction of negative externalities to our society.
How can we conquer the waste issue?
Wastes cannot be eliminated as long as we are using a product or eating food. Especially after we experienced the convenience of plastics, it is difficult to eliminate it completely. The World Economic Forum states plastic is the second-largest and fastest-growing source of industrial greenhouse gas emissions as it provides convenience. Also, the report mentions that if the production, disposal, and incineration of plastic continue on their present growth trajectory, plastics will undermine global efforts to reduce emissions (By 2030, plastic emissions could reach 1.34 gigatons per year = more than 296 five-hundred-megawatt coal plants).
Thus, the ideal scenario is to eliminate plastic (also other excessive resources) completely from our lives, but we need to acknowledge that we rely on plastics heavily. Therefore, it is not possible to eliminate, but this can lead to another opportunity. As explored above, it gives an opportunity for new industry development to seek alternatives, such as bioplastics or improving recycling techniques. In order to encourage new businesses to enter this waste management or reduce material production, the government needs to create incentives for businesses and foster the startup ecosystem. Enacting policies for green technology, energy transition and transition finance could provide another solution to waste reduction. One important thing that policymakers should acknowledge is that we cannot eliminate the waste completely and not every business can close its resource loops. Therefore, they need to set a rigorous and science-based policy but need to make it feasible so that society is encouraged to follow it. This could mean recognizing, it is not yet possible to set a 0% landfill policy. Thus, it should limit how much landfill is acceptable (for instance up to only 10% or 15% of wastes can go to landfill) and continue to pay as you throw so that everyone will proactively reduce their waste amount to bury.
The government should begin to nudge consumer behavior change by providing public education on how to recycle the waste correctly, what can be recycled and what citizens can do to reduce waste as much as possible. For instance, do you remember nutrition pyramids? Nutrition pyramids are also scientific data that helps nurture our physical body effectively. However, citizens did not know about it well until the government began to educate at school. It should work in a similar way for waste management and recycling to bring bigger and impactful change. Also, recently many countries began to charge plastic bags to reduce plastic waste, and encourage cotton or paper bags to be used. Based on Yale climate connections’ research, cotton or paper bags need to be reused more than 3 to 181 times to reduce the global warming potential compared to using plastic bags. Even if alternative materials decompose easier than plastic, it still brings a question: what incentive would people get by using alternative sources if it provides more inconvenience compared to plastic? One thing is clear that once whichever material is produced, it is hard to go back to the original state. Thus, it is better to educate the public on the importance of reducing the amount of production of any products (not only plastic) from the beginning stage rather than emphasizing only plastic reduction.
Lastly, more rigorous technology research and development are required. This cannot be done only by private sectors’ initiative. Profit-driven private sectors would consider developing new technology if there is high potential growth or regulation enforcement. Therefore, cooperation among different sectors and entities is a must. Academics, scientists, private and public sectors need to come together and discuss openly what would work the best for all. On top of cooperation, the government should educate citizens so that investors and citizens can request their businesses to act smartly on their production and waste management, and enact effective policy and support to encourage businesses to explore potential technologies and solutions. We still have a long way to go to reduce our waste, but if we continue to strive for it, we will win this battle.
