Eight million metric tons of
plastic
enter our oceans each year, and countless studies on its impact and unsettling
images are spurring consumers and NGOs to push for action. As a result,
businesses and governments worldwide have implemented bans on single-use plastic
items, such as
straws
and bags. But do bans actually address the plastic pollution issue?
Unfortunately, no — as an industry we need to do more.
While plastic has many valuable uses we rely on — from creating medical
devices
and safety helmets to food packaging that prevents waste — there are occasions
when other
materials
are more effective for the job in hand. So, how do we strike a balance? How do
we combat the rise in plastic waste without taking plastic products away from
those who need them most for everyday living? We can and should focus on driving
a circular economy — by recycling our plastic waste and innovating to repurpose
and reuse it.
Driving a circular economy
We currently live in a primarily linear economy, where the goods we use every
day are manufactured, sold, used and then discarded as waste. To move away from
this wastefulness, we need to transition to an economy that redesigns, recycles,
reuses and remanufactures to keep materials at their highest-value use for as
long as possible, and out of our oceans.
The good news is, industry is already taking steps to advance a circular economy
globally by developing innovative technologies to improve recyclability and
designing in reusability and recycled content into products, while building the
infrastructure
required to responsibly manage waste where it is needed most.
For example, Dow and other companies
continue to evaluate advanced technologies such as feedstock recycling — which,
if successful, will enable more waste to be recycled and ultimately enable
plastics to be recycled back to its basic
molecules.
This capability would reduce the need for additional fossil fuel extraction by
using waste plastics as a feedstock.
Innovation in action
As part of Dow’s 2025 sustainability
goals,
I’m proud that we are doing our part by developing initiatives that convert
plastic waste into next-generation building materials, including plastic
schools. We are partnering with Colombian nonprofit Conceptos
Plásticos to build schools in Colombia
using bricks made of plastic waste — to date, we have built three schools using
12 tons of plastic waste, and plan to build 15 by the end of 2019. We also
started the Hefty®
EnergyBag®
recovery initiative which collects hard-to-recycle plastics and converts them
into valuable resources. By 2018, we’d collected more than 176,500 bags and
diverted more than 115 tons of plastics from landfills, equivalent to roughly 92
million snack-sized chip bags.
Beyond Dow, companies, innovators and entrepreneurs are taking significant
action to explore opportunities to repurpose, reimagine and redefine how we use
and dispose of plastic. Here are three notable examples:
-
TerraCycle’s
Loop platform,
unveiled earlier this year, is developing circular solutions for
hard-to-recycle materials and is the first of its kind to offer hundreds of
name-brand products in reusable and refillable packaging. UPS will deliver
the products in reusable shipping bags and transport the bags to a cleaning
facility once done, where they will be sanitized and recycled. In addition
to founding investors Procter &
Gamble and
Nestlé, major global brands
such as PepsiCo,
Unilever and The Body
Shop
are among the initial partners that have designed new packaging for Loop.
-
Circulate Capital is an impact-focused
investment management firm dedicated to financing innovation, companies and
infrastructure
that prevent the flow of plastic waste into the world's oceans while
advancing the circular economy. In late 2018, it announced over US$100
million in expected funding to combat ocean plastic from major brands,
including PepsiCo, P&G, Dow,
Danone, Unilever and The
Coca-Cola Company.
-
Norwegian startup Empower uses a blockchain-enabled
system to encourage customers to reduce plastic pollution. Through
technology, the company records the waste brought to collection centers to
reward those who bring it in — for every batch of plastic donated, the
person is rewarded $1. Founder Wilhelm Myrer believes that the system —
which is based on the philosophy and success of the Norwegian plastic bottle
deposit system — can be used in the industrialized world, but will be
particularly effective in emerging markets, where he says tokenized rewards
can be a catalyst for engagement.
What these three examples highlight, along with Dow’s own efforts, is that
innovative solutions to reduce plastic waste come in all shapes and sizes, but
they all have one consistent goal. The plastic waste issue has attracted
significant global attention as major brands from around the world are investing
their time and resources into finding solutions.
Looking ahead, I anticipate that, as researchers continue to unveil the extent
of plastic litter, we will see a rise in the number of new technologies and
innovations. As an industry, we need to welcome new ideas and collaboration to
continue to create solutions that make a greater impact in reducing the plastic
waste infiltrating our oceans. It will take all of us — business, government,
industry and NGOs — to create solutions and work together to solve one of
today’s biggest environmental crises.
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Director, Global Sustainability & End Use Marketing
Dow
Published Jul 16, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST