Is plastic on the way out?

A plastic wrapped economy

From our toothbrush, to our smart-phone, to the steering wheel of our car, we use at least fifty plastic objects every day. The French philosopher Roland Barthes was certainly not mistaken when he wrote in Mythologies back in the mid-1950s: “Plastic is completely overwhelming in the ubiquity of its use: ultimately, we will invent objects in plastic just for the pleasure of using them (…) the whole world might end up being plasticised.”
At the time these lines were written, the quintessential material of the “Thirty Glorious Years” of post-war economic boom was enjoying an average annual growth in production of 8.5% per year (60 million tonnes in 1980, 187 in 2000, 265 in 2010, 359 in 2018…), an expansion far ahead that of steel, aluminium or cement. The International Energy Agency (IEA) is currently forecasting a 30% increase in demand for plastics by 2030 and 60% by 2050! The resounding success of this material in the global economy is above all due to its tremendous versatility and ability to take almost any form — combined with a low price and qualities such as its lightness, its resistance and overall performance.
Plastic has become ubiquitous in many sectors such as the food industry, construction, transport, health, electronics, etc. Its use has undeniable advantages. In transport, plastics have made it possible to reduce the overall weight of vehicles and reduce fuel consumption. In food, “plastic packaging is the essential element for preventing external contamination (chemical and microbial), preserving quality, traceability of products and reducing losses and waste by protecting food,” explains Nathalie Gontard, director of research at INRA (National Institute for Agronomic Research). In hospitals, disposable plastic accessories help limit the risk of infection, for example.

Degraded ecosystems

However, in recent years, this material has become one of the principle signifiers of the contemporary ecological crisis... In 2014, Achim Steiner, then executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), warned: “Plastic may play a crucial role in modern life, but the environmental impact of its use can no longer be ignored.” And it is the undeniably linear nature of the plastic economy, essentially based on the triptych “manufacture, consume, throw away” that is most under question. Nothing illustrates the limits of this model better than the overconsumption of plastic packaging. Most often made from virgin raw materials, it is used and then simply thrown away!
Yet plastic packaging represents 26% of the total volume of plastics produced and is projected to reach 318 million tonnes per year by 2050. This linear value chain generates large quantities of waste, which contributes to pollution and the degradation of natural ecosystems.
The 8.3 billion tonnes of plastics produced worldwide since 1950 has generated around 6.3 billion tonnes of waste (by 2015) of which around 9% was recycled, 12% incinerated and 79% disposed of in landfills or in the natural environment, according to an American study published in the scientific journal Science Advances. To summarise, three-quarters of plastics used end their lives in our land, our fresh water and our oceans! Some 8 million tonnes end up in the oceans each year, which is equivalent to unloading the entire contents of a garbage truck into the ocean every minute. For Nathalie Gontard, it is a “time bomb” because plastics take decades, even centuries to degrade. The damage done to the oceans is considerable. Ingested by fish, deposited in sediments, they infiltrate all levels of the food chain. They cause the death of marine mammals (100,000 / year) and sea birds (1 million / year) by ingestion and entanglement.
According to the Valuing Plastic study, the damage to marine ecosystems amountsto at least $13 billion per year. This waste also causes economic damage to activities such as fishing, maritime transport and tourism.

Consumers in action

If it is impossible to do without plastic entirely, reducing its use — in particular that of plastic packaging (60% of plastic waste) — has become a major concern. In the EU, several single-use plastic products will be banned from 3 July 2021. In France, the National Assembly voted on 9 December 2019 to phase out all disposable plastic objects by 2040, whilst studying Launched in the UK on social networks, the Plastic Attack movement, now active in many countries, organises protests in supermarkets: “Everyone goes to the supermarket to do their shopping with reusable packaging. After going to the checkout, we remove all unnecessary packaging and leave it to distributors (…),” explains Fanny Vismara, one of the leaders of the movement in France. “With Plastic Attack, we are looking to have an impact on all the actors in the chain in order to change practices.”
Consumers have an essential role to play in reducing the production of waste by favouring products with little or no packaging, and durable, reusable and repairable goods. And they have a major responsibility: to sort the products intended for recycling. In France, four bottles out of ten are never sorted.

Industry players innovate

“The impetus will come from the principal buyers of plastic when they impose recycled plastic in their specifications,” said Sébastien Petithuguenin, vice-president of Environment for the Federation of Plastics and Composites in France and general manager of Paprec. Several of them are already leading the way. Danone has committed to 100% of its plastic packaging being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Similarly, Unilever plans to halve the use of virgin plastics in its packaging by the same date, as does L’Oréal, which launched 100% recycled packaging a year ago.

Another example is Renault, which has a proactive policy of integrating recycled materials into its vehicles, with an average recycled plastic rate of 30% at the end of 2014. Meanwhile, in October 2019, Coca-Cola unveiled a prototype bottle made from recycled plastic marine waste. A technical feat that suggests technological advances are occurring in the field of recycling. Further upstream, the large producers of plastic resins, Dow, BASF, LyondellBasell, Total, etc, have put their research teams on the job. Total is betting on the development of chemical recycling at very high temperatures, which would increase the rate of reuse of plastics.
And governments are taking incentive measures too. Following the European directive of June 2019, plastic bottles sold in the EU will have to contain at least 25% recycled plastic by 2025 and at least 30% by 2030. In February 2019, in the Netherlands, more than 65 companies signed the Dutch Plastic Pact, aimed at increasing the use of recycled plastic.

The mobilisation of all stakeholders is essential to facilitate a circular plastic economy, as illustrated by innovative actions from the South. Launched in 2013, the Plastic Bank initiative now employs more than 2,500 waste collectors recruited from disadvantaged populations in Haiti, Brazil and the Philippines. Recycled in Plastic Bank centres, the plastic is sold to companies under the name of Social Plastic®. In Indonesia, the Project Stop programme, created in 2017, started in the city of Muncar, with the aim of incorporating local communities and the informal sector. According to its founders, funding urban waste management and plastic waste recovery systems through the informal economy is a determining factor in solving the plastic waste crisis.