The problem with plastics

 From Information is Beautiful

Guess what % of plastics have been #recycled? No prizes :(

Taxing all plastics would mean that the tax per use would be low for the multi-use kind ("tupperware") but high for single use plastic bottles.

They made 1000 times more plastic than they cleaned up

Companies such as ExxonMobil, Dow, Shell, TotalEnergies and ChevronPhillips have only diverted 0.1% of the plastic they produced since 2019 away from the environment, according to data. Photograph: Larina Marina/Shutterstock

From The Guardian

Oil and chemical companies who created a high-profile alliance to end plastic pollution have produced 1,000 times more new plastic in five years than the waste they diverted from the environment, according to new data obtained by Greenpeace.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) was set up in 2019 by a group of companies which include ExxonMobil, Dow, Shell, TotalEnergies and ChevronPhillips, some of the world’s biggest producers of plastic. They promised to divert 15m tonnes of plastic waste from the environment in five years to the end of 2023, by improving collection and recycling, and creating a circular economy.

Documents from a PR company that have been seen by the Guardian suggest that a key aim of the AEPW was to “change the conversation” away from “simplistic bans of plastic” which were being proposed across the world in 2019 amid an outcry over the scale of plastic pollution leaching into rivers and harming public health.

Early last year the alliance target of clearing 15m tonnes of waste plastic was quietly scrapped as “just too ambitious”.

New analysis by energy consultants Wood Mackenzie, obtained by Greenpeace’s Unearthed team and shared with the Guardian, looked at the plastics output of the five alliance companies; chemical company Dow, which holds the AEPW’s chairmanship, the oil companies ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies, and ChevronPhillips, a joint venture of the US oil giants Chevron and Phillips 66.


The data reveals the five companies alone produced 132m tonnes of two types of plastic; polyethylene (PE) and PP (polypropylene) in five years – more than 1,000 times the weight of the 118,500 tonnes of waste plastic the alliance has removed from the environment in the same period. The waste plastic was diverted mostly by mechanical or chemical recycling, the use of landfill, or waste to fuel, AEPW documents state.

The amount of plastic produced is likely to be an underestimate as it only covers two of the most widely used polymers; polyethylene which is used for plastic bottles and bags, and polypropylene, used for food packaging. It does not include other major plastics such as polystyrene.

The new data were revealed as delegates prepared to meet in Busan, South Korea, to hammer out the world’s first treaty to cut plastic pollution. The treaty has a mandate to agree on a legally binding global agreement to tackle plastic pollution across the entire plastics life cycle.

But the talks, which have been subject to heavy lobbying by the alliance and fossil fuel companies, are on a knife-edge in a row over whether caps to global plastic production will be included in the final treaty.

Will McCallum, a co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, said the revelations had stripped off the thin layer of greenwash hiding the growing mountain of plastic waste oil companies were producing.

“The recycling schemes they’re promoting can barely make a dent in all the plastic these companies are pumping out,” he said. “They’re letting the running tap flood the house while trying to scoop up the water with a teaspoon. The only solution is to cut the amount of plastic produced in the first place.”

Bill McKibben, a US environmentalist, said: “It’s hard to imagine a clearer example of greenwashing in this world. The oil and gas industry – which is pretty much the same thing as the plastics industry – has been at this for decades.”

ProfSteve Fletcher, from the Revolution Plastics Institute at the University of Portsmouth, said recently there was now compelling evidence that only a reduction in primary plastic polymer production, or virgin plastic, would deliver a substantive cut in plastic pollution.

Documents from the PR company Weber Shandwick outline how the AEPW was created in 2019 after they were approached by the American Chemical Council seeking ways to counter the “demonisation” of plastic and the growing calls for bans on plastic items.

The alliance paid Weber Shandwick $5.6m for its work in 2019, according to US tax returns.

The documents state the alliance was intended to change the conversation away from “short-term simplistic bans of plastic” and create “real, long-term solutions” for managing waste, like recycling.

But documents filed in California in September, where the attorney general, Rob Bonta, is suing ExxonMobil, argue the company has deceived the public for 50 years, with misleading public statements and slick marketing, about the recyclability of plastic.

The UN treaty talks start as plastic production continues to soar. Between 2000 and 2019 the global annual production of plastics doubled, reaching 460m tonnes. Plastic waste has more than doubled, from 156m tonnes in 2000 to 353m tonnes in 2019, only 9% of which was ultimately recycled, according to an OECD report.

The crisis of single-use plastic

This diagram sums up the problem of single-use plastic.  

Ban it.

 

Waxworm saliva rapidly breaks down plastic

From The Guardian

Enzymes that rapidly break down plastic bags have been discovered in the saliva of wax worms, which are moth larvae that infest beehives.

The enzymes are the first reported to break down polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could lead to cost-effective ways of recycling the plastic.

The discovery came after one scientist, an amateur beekeeper, cleaned out an infested hive and found the larvae started eating holes in a plastic refuse bag. The researchers said the study showed insect saliva may be “a depository of degrading enzymes which could revolutionise [the cleanup of polluting waste]”.

Polyethylene makes up 30% of all plastic production and is used in bags and other packaging that make up a significant part of worldwide plastic pollution. The only recycling at scale today uses mechanical processes and creates lower-value products.

Chemical breakdown could create valuable chemicals or, with some further processing, new plastic, thereby avoiding the need for new virgin plastic made from oil. The enzymes can be easily synthesised and overcome a bottleneck in plastic degradation, the researchers said, which is the initial breaking of the polymer chains. That usually requires a lot of heating, but the enzymes work at normal temperatures, in water and at neutral pH.

“My beehives were plagued with wax worms, so I started cleaning them, putting the worms in a plastic bag,” said Dr Federica Bertocchini, at the Biological Research Centre in Madrid. “After a while, I noticed lots of holes and we found it wasn’t only chewing, it was [chemical breakdown], so that was the beginning of the story.”

In terms of commercial application, it is early days, the researchers say. “We need to do a lot of research and think about how to develop this new strategy to deal with plastic waste,” said Dr Clemente Arias, also at the Spanish research centre. As well as large recycling plants, the scientists said it might one day be possible to have kits in homes to recycle plastic bags into useful products. Other scientists are currently investigating beetles and butterfly larvae for their plastic-eating potential.

Previous discoveries of useful enzymes have been in microbes, with a 2021 study indicating that bacteria in oceans and soils across the globe are evolving to eat plastic. It found 30,000 different enzymes that might degrade 10 different types of plastic.

A super-enzyme that quickly breaks down plastic drink bottles, usually made from PET plastic, was revealed in 2020, inspired by a bug found in a waste dump in Japan and accidentally tweaked to increase its potency. An enzyme that breaks down PET has also been produced from bacteria in leaf compost, while another bug from a waste dump can eat polyurethane, a plastic that is widely used but rarely recycled.

Millions of tonnes of plastic are dumped every year, and the pollution pervades the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. Reducing the amount of plastic used is vital, as is the proper collection and treatment of waste, and full recycling could cut new plastic production.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, identified 200 proteins in the wax worm saliva and narrowed down the two that had the plastic-eating effect. “This study suggests insect saliva might [be] a depository of degrading enzymes which could revolutionise the bioremediation field,” the researchers said.

Wax worm larvae live and grow in the honeycombs of beehives and feed on beeswax, which may be why they have evolved the enzymes. Another possibility is the enzymes break down the toxic chemicals produced by plants as a defence and which are similar to some additives in plastics.

Prof Andy Pickford, the director of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the UK’s University of Portsmouth, said the discovery of the enzymes in wax worm saliva was exciting. “The reaction happens within a few hours at room temperature suggesting that enzymatic breakdown may be a route to making use of polyethylene waste.”

Plastic particles found deep in human lungs

 

A new study has provided the first evidence of plastic particles traveling deep into the lungs of humans

Depositphotos

From New Atlas

In the last decade we've seen studies unearth plastic pollution in some unexpected places, from the Arctic, to the Antarctic, and the world's tallest mountain in between. More recently, we've seen some scientists focus the search on the human body, which also continues to surprise and alarm with the whereabouts of omnipresent plastic particles. A new study has now revealed microplastics in living lung tissue for the first time, with scientists now looking to explore exactly what that means for respiratory health.

While pollution like plastic bags and soda bottles is an obvious environmental problem, much of the concern around the dangers of plastics to human health are tied to their tendency to break down into small fragments. These microplastics and nanoplastics, which can measure as small as 0.0001 mm in the case of the latter, are very difficult to trace. And studies have begun to show that they are clearly making their way into the human body.

A 2020 paper examining tissues from the lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys found plastics in all samples studied. Another study published back in 2018 found microplastics in human stool samples collected from all around the world. More recently, a study published last month detected plastic particles in the bloodstream for the first time ever.

This new study was carried out by scientists at the University of Hull and sought to build on previous work that identified microplastics in lung tissue, by sourcing tissue during surgical procedures on living patients. Analysis revealed plastics in 11 of the 13 samples studied, and detected 12 different types, including those typically used in packaging, bottles and clothing.

Male samples presented significantly higher levels of microplastics than female samples. But what really surprised the scientists was where these plastics were turning up, with more than half found in the lower part of the lung.

“We did not expect to find the highest number of particles in the lower regions of the lungs, or particles of the sizes we found," said lead author Laura Sadofsky. "This is surprising as the airways are smaller in the lower parts of the lungs and we would have expected particles of these sizes to be filtered out or trapped before getting this deep into the lungs.”

Scientists consider airborne plastic particles between 1 nanometer and 20 micrometers to be respirable, and this study provides yet more evidence that inhalation offers them a direct route into the human body. As with similar recent discoveries in this area, it raises the all-important question of what the impacts are on human health? Lab experiments have shown that microplastics can de-cluster and alter the shape of human lung cells, and have toxic effects on cells more generally. But this new understanding of the situation will help guide deeper research into their effects.

“Microplastics have previously been found in human cadaver autopsy samples – this is the first robust study to show microplastics in lungs from live people," said Sadofsky. "It also shows that they are in the lower parts of the lung. Lung airways are very narrow so no one thought they could possibly get there, but they clearly have. The characterization of types and levels of microplastics we have found can now inform realistic conditions for laboratory exposure experiments with the aim of determining health impacts."

The research was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Schemes to recycle plastic flop

Shell "cleaner energy''
How we laughed.

 From Reuters

Some of the world’s biggest multinationals are hailing so-called advanced recycling as the solution to a waste crisis that has lawmakers looking to crack down on plastics use.

The impetus is coming from two sets of players: big oil and chemical companies that make the petrochemicals used to manufacture plastic, and global consumer brands that use huge amounts of the material in packaging. These giants are striking deals with startups that claim they can transform this garbage into fuel or resin to make new plastic.

But some recent efforts in this “high-tech” recycling boom have already fizzled.

At least four high-profile projects have been dropped or indefinitely delayed over the last two years because they weren’t commercially viable, Reuters has learned. Here are the details.

❎ Dow Inc, one of the world’s biggest plastics makers, backed a program that in 2018 began taking plastic waste from residents in Boise, Idaho and trucking it more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) across the state line to Salt Lake City, Utah. There it was to be converted into diesel fuel by Renewlogy, an advanced recycling startup.

Renewlogy touted its technology as capable of handling all types of plastic waste, including takeout containers and cling wrap, things many traditional recyclers won’t touch. But Renewlogy was unable to handle plastic “films,” used to make food packaging and grocery bags, and eventually left the program, the City of Boise told Reuters.

Renewlogy said it left the program because plastic waste being sent from Boise was too contaminated to recycle.

❎ In March 2019, Enerkem, a Montreal-based advanced recycler, announced that Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) had joined a consortium of equity partners in a waste-to-chemicals recycling project to be based in Rotterdam, which they claimed was the first of its kind in Europe.

Enerkem says its technology uses extreme heat to turn plastic and other common household garbage into “bio-methanol,” a fuel for use in the chemical industry and transportation sector. The Rotterdam project was supposed to convert waste from the equivalent of more than 700,000 homes, Enerkem said in a March 2019 press release.

Two sources directly involved with the project told Reuters it was cancelled late last year due to uncertainty about the plant’s ability to secure a reliable waste supply and to turn a profit.'

❎ Unilever Plc in 2017 announced it was creating a pilot plant using a “radical recycling process” that turns hard-to-recycle plastic sachets into new packaging. Sachets are used to dispense a vast array of products, including fast-food ketchup, shampoo and toothpaste.

The global consumer products giant told Reuters that its CreaSolv process uses chemicals to dissolve plastic waste into a liquid, drains off the impurities, dries it and extrudes it into clean plastic that can then be turned into new products.

Unilever (ULVR.L) said in its announcement that it would share this technology with its competitors so that recycling plants could be built around the world.

Unilever, which makes Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, said publicly it began operating a pilot plant in Indonesia in 2018. But within a year it was clear the technology was not commercially viable, and plans to build a full-scale operation were dropped, two people involved in the program told Reuters.

Although the sachets could be recycled in small amounts, the people said, it was too expensive to collect, sort and clean enough of these packets to scale up the project without incurring large losses.

In an emailed response to Reuters’ questions, Unilever said the project had faced “some disruption due to Covid-19” but that the pilot plant was still operating. It declined to say at what capacity.

“We’re actively working with others to determine ways to scale this technology,” a company spokesperson said.

On May 6, Reuters called the factory complex where Unilever’s plant was situated in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia. A front desk operator at the complex said no one had visited Unilever’s recycling facility in at least six months.

Unilever did not respond to questions about this claim.

Consumer goods companies like Unilever use billions of single-serve sachets to sell laundry detergent, instant coffee and other basics, mostly in poor countries. These packets are nearly impossible to recycle, and have become a major source of pollution in places like Africa and Southeast Asia.

“At best, the sachets end up in landfill. At worst, they end up as litter in the streets, the waterways and the oceans,” Unilever said in its 2017 CreaSolv announcement.

❎ Agilyx, an advanced recycling firm backed by Virgin Group and its billionaire founder Richard Branson, in 2018 announced a deal to convert plastic waste to jet fuel for Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL.N)

Press releases issued by the companies at the time outlined the plan: By 2020, a new plant near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania would supply up to 2,500 barrels a day of “synthetic crude oil” derived from plastics to a nearby refinery owned by Delta.

“This project marks the first truly commercial-scale facility that will advance the new plastics economy," Agilyx’s CEO at the time, Joe Vaillancourt, said in the release. Branson tweeted on Nov. 25, 2018: “This is a major step forward in the search for a cost effective low carbon aviation fuel.”

Construction on the facility never started.

Current Agilyx CEO Tim Stedman told Reuters in March the project was delayed due to negotiations over contracts and finances and “was eventually killed by COVID,” referring to the pandemic that spread around the world in early 2020. In a June email to Reuters, he described the project as “on hold” and said “we remain optimistic” about its prospects.

Plastics emissions

Source: Grist

From Grist

When you think about plastic, what comes to mind? Microplastics at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, whales dying with truckloads of garbage in their bellies, that zero-waste Instagram influencer you follow?

A new report shows it’s high time to think more about the fossil fuels that go into making those plastic products. The global plastic industry is on track to produce enough emissions to put the world on track for a catastrophic warming scenario, according to the Center for International Environmental Law analysis. In other words, straws aren’t just bad for unsuspecting turtles; plastic is a major contributor to climate change.

If the plastic industry is allowed to expand production unimpeded, here’s what we’re looking at: By 2030, global emissions from that sector could produce the emissions equivalent of more than 295 (500-megawatt) coal plants. By 2050, emissions could exceed the equivalent of 615 coal plants.

That year, the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from production of single-use plastics like bags and straws could compose between 10 and 13 percent of the whole remainder of our carbon budget. That is, the amount of CO2 we’re allowed to emit if we want to keep emissions below the threshold scientists say is necessary to ensure a liveable planet. By 2100, even conservative estimates pin emissions from plastics composing more than half of the carbon budget.

[Read more here]

The more I think about it, the more strongly I move in favour of a carbon price.  There are so many sectors, so many polluters.   A carbon price will catch them all.

A replacement for styrofoam

Igloo's wood fibre coolbox

From SeaVoice News:

Whether it is spring break, the dead of winter or the middle of a blazing summer, anytime you go to a beach you are likely to see a styrofoam cooler or even hundreds of them. While we have become so accustomed to seeing these products keep our food and drinks cool, it is a major concern.

Styrofoam, which is made from petroleum and is a non-sustainable resource, takes hundreds to thousands of years to decompose. Adding to the problem, styrofoam is made by expanding small beads of the polymer polystyrene, making it extremely easy for the product to be broken down into smaller pieces but being unable to decompose.

This creates a huge problem for billions of marine creatures across the world. It is a very common occurrence these days for marine researchers to find styrofoam pieces lodged in the intestines of animals that cause blockages that become lethal.

 Igloo has created a new product called Recool that is made from tree pulp instead of those tiny foam beads. The Recool promises to hold 20 ice-packed cans cool for up to 12 hours, and hold water for up to five days. According to Igloo, it can be dried out and re-used for multiple outings. And when the cooler eventually begins to crumble, wood pulp products can generally be shredded and tossed in your garden where they will biodegrade.

The cooler will run you a cool $10 making it a very affordable option that sets precedence for how the future of the industry should react. The official release date for the new cooler is just in time for summer as it will be rolled out May 1st.

While this is a great step forward in the industry, we need to continue tackling other products that continue to use styrofoam. It is estimated that Americans alone throw away 25 billion polystyrene coffee cups a year. While this number is absolutely gut wrenching, technology is allowing us to create new and exciting products such as the Recool and should help us invent a cleaner future that we are looking forward to be part of.

Everything we do now could be done in a different way which will reduce or eliminate environmental costs.  We can make electricity using renewables, we can transport goods and people using electricity, we can make synthetic jet fuel and diesel which doesn't add to emissions, and we can replace plastic.  Just because we've done something one way for decades doesn't mean we have to continue doing it that way.

This road is literally rubbish

From Melbourne's The Age newspaper:

To the naked eye Rayfield Avenue looks like any other residential street in Craigieburn, a suburb in Melbourne's north.

Few visitors would realise they are driving along a road that is quite literally rubbish.

In May, Hume City became the first council in Australia to trial a new form of asphalt – known as Plastiphalt – that is made out of plastic bags and glass bottles diverted from landfill.

The project has put Rayfield Avenue on the map. It has been mentioned in conferences as far afield as Sweden and Nigeria, and Hume City has fielded lots of phone calls from local councils wanting to know more.

The 300-metre stretch of road contains 200,000 plastic bags, 63,000 glass bottles and toner from 4500 used printer cartridges mixed with asphalt.

Cr Porter says the rubbish used in the road is equivalent to that collected in the recycle bins of Rayfield Avenue residents over 10 years.

“We think that is something to be pretty proud of,” he says.

The scourge of plastic pollution – 4 billion bags are used each year in Australia with most ending up in landfill – has become even more pressing following China’s crackdown on imported waste.

[Read more here]

Jim Appleby of Downer, Hume mayor Geoff Porter and Peter Tamblyn of Close the Loop on Rayfield Avenue.

Photo: Justin McManus