Collaborating to achieve circularity

Much has been said about the world’s plastic problem, but let’s not forget that plastic has been an enabler of economic growth, making many different commodities more affordable. Offering lower costs and more choice, its production has contributed to prosperity for many people.

Indeed, it is such a useful material with many beneficial properties—product protection, lightweight and low cost—we have become addicted to plastic, and it’s an addiction that is creating environmental damage because we haven’t effectively managed the end of its life.

More than 350 million tons of polymers are made every 12 months, with polymer production growing 5 percent per year. Half the plastic we make is for single-use products that are used for a very short time before being thrown out, creating waste that lasts for centuries. Only an estimated 14 percent of end-of-life plastic goes to recycling facilities, and statistics suggest 1.3 billion metric tons of plastic will be discarded on land and in bodies of water by 2040.

The United Nations estimates anywhere between 60 percent and 90 percent of the rubbish found littering shorelines, floating on the surface and reaching the seabed is plastic. Data from Statista suggest around 70,000 particles of microplastics are consumed by an average person each year, the equivalent to approximately 100 bits of microplastic in a single meal.

The good news is that a global movement recognizes that it is time to take action and address one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century: the plastic waste problem. At least 57 countries have joined the UN’s Environment Program Clean Seas campaign since 2017 and pledged to cut their plastic footprints. Some countries have banned single-use plastics, while others have taken the initiative to build more recycling plants.

Forms of plastic always will have a place in modern consumer society, but a fundamental issue needs to be addressed if we really want to protect our planet through sustainable behaviors and materials. Most of our global economy is designed for linearity—take, make, waste—rather than circularity, but we now have the opportunity to change that.

Overcoming barriers

To create a truly circular economy, the world must overcome a number of barriers. Consumers have become used to convenience, and this means we now use 20 times more plastic than we did 50 years ago. The desire for convenience and functionality also has driven the increasing complexity of materials, making end-of-life plastics even more confusing for consumers to deal with when they need to be disposed of and harder in practical terms to recycle.

We do know there is an appetite for change, however. Our own research shows the majority of people (67 percent) want to buy more products that do not use single-use plastic packaging. Furthermore, more than half (54 percent) said they will try to stop buying products that use single-use plastic packaging completely over the next three years. Significantly, more than half (52 percent) are prepared to pay more for environmentally friendly packaging, which is extremely good news for the planet.

So, if we have support from the end users, we also need to tackle the business and regulatory environment, which doesn’t always support sustainable behavior among companies and consumers. This is a common problem in the food and beverage sector. For example, best before and expiry date labels often are required by law to protect the consumer but might not account for differences in how food is stored, such as pantry versus refrigeration, thereby encouraging confused consumers to throw away perfectly good food, creating even more packaging waste.

The world’s recycling infrastructure also remains woefully inadequate. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports that nearly one-third of plastics are not collected by a waste management system and end up as litter on land and in rivers and oceans. This problem is especially severe in developing countries that lack strong waste management infrastructure. 

Although recycling technology exists, it needs much more investment. Most plastics that are recycled are shredded and reprocessed into lower value applications, such as polyester carpet fiber; only 2 percent are recycled into products of the same or similar quality, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports. We need more advanced recycling technology that can maintain quality and purity so product manufacturers are willing to use recycled plastics. When this is deployed at a large scale, we can start recapturing the economic value of plastics, incentivizing recovery and recycling.

Finally, we also need to refocus our business models on rental, reuse, recycling and resale rather than throw away.

Collaboration is key

Not only is solving the plastic problem a huge task, it is complex, involving many different actors, from governments and regulators to product designers and retailers, industry bodies and waste management companies through to the end consumer. Collaboration across the supply chain is the key to unlocking the circular economy. We need to pool our technical expertise and resources to bring together ideas and thinking that will enable us to produce new materials that genuinely will help to solve the world’s current plastic waste problem if we don’t.

New partnerships will help us find sustainable solutions to replace single-use plastics, reduce landfill and ocean waste and stop microplastics from being made. But these things all need to be achieved without compromising the necessary functionality and protection of the food, drink and other products that we purchase.

We all have a part to play. Material manufacturers need to collaborate to understand how their materials can work together to maintain functionality while simplifying constructions and enabling the reuse of materials. Packaging designers and material manufacturers need to work together so that packaging is designed to be separated for easier and more economical recycling, without simply relying on consumer action.

When it comes to improving recycling infrastructure and recycling rates, recyclers and material manufacturers must share details on new materials and how they can be recycled, the economics that make recycling viable and how these materials can be labeled and identified from traditional, nonrecyclable packaging.

Waste management companies, retailers and trade bodies also need to focus on developing closed-loop systems to make transportation easier and cheaper, in turn making recycling economically viable. Local governments and recyclers need to consider if weight-driven targets are appropriate and develop homogeneous alternatives that encourage recycling.

Collaboration in action

An example of how effective it is to pool resources and expertise is our own relationship with international packaging company DS Smith, headquartered in London. We have been working together to find solutions to the issue of nonrecyclable paper packaging, the use of which has increased as the industry has moved to replace conventional, hard-to-recycle and single-use plastics. This has resulted in a variety of fiber-based packaging formats combined with alternative functional barriers being introduced into the recovered paper recycling streams. However, the materials currently being used to give paper the packaging functionality required for products such as food, drink and household goods are not easily recyclable and mean that the paperboard is rejected because paper mills cannot process the paper and plastic combinations. Instead, they are incinerated or go to landfill.

At Aquapak, we have developed and commercialized Hydropol, a high-performance, specialty polymer that enables product design to provide its much-needed functionality while increasing recycling and reducing plastic pollution. Hydropol allows product design to support the circular economy by enabling recycling and delivering end-of-life options. It is designed as an alternative to traditional plastics.

When extrusion coated or laminated onto paper, Hydropol adds strength and barriers to oxygen, oil and grease. It is nontoxic to the environment and marine-safe, so it still has a safe end-of-life if it is not disposed of as intended. It is already being used in products such as reusable, heat-sealable paper mailing bags.

DS Smith and Aquapak jointly commissioned a study showing that bio-digestible barrier coatings increase paper recycling rates and fiber yield without compromising functionality, providing a viable new packaging alternative that is available for use.

This independent research, “Considerations for process, product and environmental fate testing of soluble bio-digestible barriers for paper and board packaging,” was published by the Paper International Technology Association and shows that new barrier technologies such as Hydropol provide an alternative to conventional plastic coatings used in paper packaging by promoting improved paper fiber separation and removing plastic waste from the recycling process.

The tests used in the study show that Hydropol is compatible with the processes used by high-volume recycling mills and enables high fiber recovery while reducing insoluble single-use plastics. Hydropol also is now proven to give real improvement on current regulations that allow the “recyclable” label to be used if the product contains up to 15 percent unrecyclable material, regardless of it actual eligibility to be recycled.

Rising to the challenge

Investment is being made in new materials that provide the benefits of plastic and help existing materials by identifying new materials that provide circularity and multiple end-of-life options. We need to recognize there is a new way of working and harness the power of collaboration to dramatically accelerate the pace of change to transition to the circular economy.

Mark Lapping is the CEO of Aquapak Polymers, a U.K.-based specialty polymers business. More information is at www.aquapakpolymers.com.