Tag: plastics

Plastics: From Cradle to Grave and Resurrection – my thoughts on a recent conference

Plastics – from Cradle to Grave and Resurrection

I attended a conference (that I helped organise) about Plastics – the aim was to look at the whole issue rather than a single item. It covered recycling, micro plastics and health impacts as well as some regulatory issues and new research.

Despite following a lot of the news (and there seems to be a lot of news at the moment) I still learn quite a lot. There are issues with the Packaging Recovery Notes – (the tax that has to be paid for anyone buying large amounts of packaging) and the amount issued compared to the amount recycled in this country (apparently prices are currently going through the roof). I learnt that there is such a term as bin juice for all those liquids that get left in the bottom of bins. Even though all councils collet plastic bottles the recycling rate is only 59% – but still we think that recycling isn’t easy enough. However, on the downside, there is very little recycling of film, even though in theory it is possible to recycle it to be used in a number of common applications.
61 million tonnes of PVC are still produced annually – even though there are alternatives that are less harmful to make and to dispose of for most uses. This might be because there are fewer and fewer uses for chlorine, the byproduct of making salt.
One of the biggest causes of microplastics is from car tyres, but also detergents, clothing, pharmaceuticals, paints and personal care products are also significant sources.
There was also the suggestion that most innovations that are highlighted are focussed on ‘virtue signalling’ and not actual solutions, something that I found interesting in one talk that was otherwise quite dull.
But it wasn’t all bad news.
I learnt about chemical and enzymatic upcycling of plastics to get back to reusable monomers. This was a very interesting idea, as most recycling ends up losing some of the original polymer and is often for less valuable uses. This even gives the option of removing those additives from some of the hard to manage black plastics.
And then, there is the government funding that has been allocated through Innovate UK and the Circular Plastics Network (www.ukcpn.co.uk accessed 28/06/19). It looks as though there are lots of new ideas out there following the Innovate UK funding announced last year.

Help maybe at hand to recycle plastic bottles.

An article published on the New Scientist website this month highlights research that has discovered a strain of bacteria that could make recycling PET (polyethyleneterephthalate) drinks bottles more lucrative. These are a strain of pseudomonas bacteria that can change the low value PET into higher value PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates) plastics some of which are used in the production of medical devices. According to Wikipedia PHAs are polyesters that are ‘produced in nature by the bacterial fermentation of sugars and lipids’.
The incentive to recycle the billions of PET bottles produced is currently low because the low value PET is recycled to more PET. Now, a team of researchers in Dublin, may have found a way to convert this low value plastic into higher grade PHA. By heating the PET in the absence of oxygen they break it down into terephthalic acid (TA). They then found a strain of bacteria which will convert this into PHA.
Not only would this reduce the amount going to landfill it could also make recycling more profitable – maybe mining landfills for plastics will come a step closer after all.

Interesting Articles

Just a quick note to point out a couple of interesting articles that I saw in the Times newspaper today (12th August).

First of all the good news is that the ban on whaling has resulted from humpback whales being removed from the at risk list and are now catergorised as being on the lowest level on the endangered scale.  In the last 15 years numbers have increased from 17,600 to 40,000.  However, there are other residents of our oceans who are still endangered, including various species of whale and porpoise.

On a different note, my beloved has become vindicated.  Some time ago he predicted that it would not be long before we were mining landfill.  Apparently many waste consultants are now saying that the increasing cost of plastics is bringing this closer to being a reality.  It is already happening in the US, and it is thought that the landfills in the UK many of which have been in use for up to thirty years could yield up to 200 million tonnes of plastics.  However, this may be delayed until 2020 as the methane emitted from the decomposition of decaying waste is syphoned off as an alternative energy source.