“If it is not made easy for me, I will just not bother”. Barriers and Facilitators to Recycling Plastics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Roy ◽  
Emma Berry ◽  
Martin Dempster
Keyword(s):  
Food Packaging ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Plastic Recycling ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Single Use ◽  
Visual Reminders

Millions of tonnes of plastic are ending up in our oceans and creating a global environmental hazard. Around 50 percent of plastics are designed for single use, mainly for food packaging. Plastic waste is often found discarded as litter, despite significant investment over the last 20-30 years to increase recycling facilities and kerbside collection of waste materials. While there is a substantive body of literature about general recycling behaviour, few insights exist that may help us understand why a sizeable number of consumers and householders are failing to sort plastics for recycling at optimal levels. As a consequence, used plastic is ending up in landfill and is polluting the environment. This current study used in-depth qualitative interviews within a framework that seeks to identify underlying opportunities, motivations and capabilities of individuals when it comes to plastic recycling. The principle findings are that the respondents are generally positive about recycling and express a degree of environmental concern about the damage plastic waste causes to the natural world. However, this concern does not translate into efforts to obtain accurate information about plastics disposal. Efforts are lower when visual reminders of its harmful impact are absent, and when faced with a confusing array of packaging that combines several types of plastics. Householders believe the responsibility for making plastic recycling easier rests heavily with local government and manufacturers. Until greater uniformity in packaging is achieved, plastics recycling rates may struggle to reach optimal levels.

Microplastic contamination in a conventional wastewater treatment plant in Thailand

2021 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2098205
Author(s):  
Katekanya Tadsuwan ◽  
Sandhya Babel
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plant ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Liquid Fraction ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Sludge Sample ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Urban Wastewater Treatment

Plastic waste has become a global environmental concern. One type of plastic waste is microplastics (MPs), which can spread easily in the environment. Wastewater effluent is one of the land-based sources of MPs. This study investigates the amount of microplastic (MP) pollution in an urban wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Thailand. Water samples were collected and examined to find the types, morphology and sources of MPs. Wastewater was filtered through a set of sieves ranging from 5 mm to 0.05 mm. Sludge samples were also collected to find the potential risk from the application of dried sewage sludge. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to confirm the types of MPs. The amount of MPs in the influent was 26.6 ± 11.8 MPs/L. More than one-third of MP particles were removed after a grit trap, followed by 14.24% removal in the secondary treatment. If the peak flow rate of the WWTP is reached, 2.32 × 109 MP particles can be released daily. The amount of MPs in a sludge sample was 8.12 ± 0.28 × 103 particles/kg dry weight. Dry sludge is one of the potential sources of MP contamination in agricultural soil. Most MPs in the liquid fraction and sludge sample were fibres. Results from FTIR analysis showed that the major types of MPs in the WWTP were polyester fibres, followed by polypropylene, polyethylene, silicone polymer and polystyrene. This finding indicates that a conventional WWTP may act as a path by which MPs enter the environment.

scholarly journals Bill Calls for Dramatically Cutting Plastic Pollution

Eos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randy Showstack
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Plastic Recycling ◽  
Single Use ◽  
Set Up

With just 8% of plastic waste in the United States currently being recycled, the bill aims to set up an effective plastic recycling program and limit single-use plastic.

scholarly journals An Overview of Plastic Waste Generation and Management in Food Packaging Industries

Recycling ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Lindani Koketso Ncube ◽  
Albert Uchenna Ude ◽  
Enoch Nifise Ogunmuyiwa ◽  
Rozli Zulkifli ◽  
Isaac Nongwe Beas
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Food Packaging ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Waste Generation ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
High Population Growth ◽  
Single Use ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mixed Types ◽  
Land Water

Over the years, the world was not paying strict attention to the impact of rapid growth in plastic use. This has led to unprecedented amounts of mixed types of plastic waste entering the environment unmanaged. Packaging plastics account for half of the global total plastic waste. This paper seeks to give an overview of the use, disposal, and regulation of food packaging plastics. Demand for food packaging is on the rise as a result of increasing global demand for food due to population growth. Most of the food packaging are used on-the-go and are single use plastics that are disposed of within a short space of time. The bulk of this plastic waste has found its way into the environment contaminating land, water and the food chain. The food industry is encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle packaging materials. A wholistic approach to waste management will need to involve all stakeholders working to achieve a circular economy. A robust approach to prevent pollution today rather than handling the waste in the future should be adopted especially in Africa where there is high population growth.

scholarly journals Single-use plastic packaging in the Canadian food industry: consumer behavior and perceptions

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony R. Walker ◽  
Eamonn McGuinty ◽  
Sylvain Charlebois ◽  
Janet Music
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Food Packaging ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Consumer Awareness ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Plastic Packaging ◽  
Plastic Bag ◽  
Single Use

AbstractSingle-use plastic food packaging is a major contributor to the global solid waste problem. Although the food industry is developing strategies to reduce single-use plastic packaging, it needs to better understand consumer awareness and attitudes about the issue. As consumer awareness about single-use plastic waste outpaces private sector practices, this study considered personal motivation factors, government policies, and innovative solutions related to single-use plastic food packaging. This Canada-wide study surveyed 1014 consumers and their willingness to pay premiums for sustainable food packaging alternatives and motivations to reduce single-use plastic waste. Overwhelmingly, most (93.7%) respondents were personally motivated to reduce consumption of single-use plastic food packaging. Canadians were highly motivated to reduce single-use plastic food packaging, but less willing to pay for sustainable alternatives. While environmental concerns were more critical than food safety, Canadians acknowledged that sustainable packaging alternatives were more desirable than outright plastic bag bans, despite not willing to pay for them. Using approaches that consider multiple driving factors on consumer behavior and opinions towards use of single-use plastic food packaging, limitations, recommendations and future research are proposed.

scholarly journals Building Collective Ownership of Single-Use Plastic Waste in Youth Communities: A Jamaican Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 412
Author(s):  
C. Andrea Bruce Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Primary Schools ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
School Communities ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Collective Ownership ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Single Use ◽  
Teachers And Parents

Plastic pollution is a global environmental challenge with serious implications for human health. Most of the work on plastic waste to date has focused on assessing and mapping impacts and remedial activities, which are important but do not attempt to understand the attitude and behaviour of the consumer. The problem will only be resolved by changing behaviour to eliminate non-essential use of plastics and switch to less harmful alternatives, especially for Single-Use Plastic (SUP), which makes a disproportionate contribution to plastic waste. This study examines the attitudes and behaviour of teachers and parents/guardians in school communities as a step towards building collective ownership of SUP towards reducing the use of SUP. It establishes baseline data about attitudes and behaviour in four Jamaican primary schools. It examines the attitude of teachers and parents/guardians towards SUPs and uses cluster analysis to segment them based on attitude. The results identify the heterogeneous nature of groups within the same population and highlights the need for targeted interventions. This research can contribute towards the design of strategic interventions that will build a sense of collective ownership of the SUP problem and motivate effective changes in behaviour to minimise the use of SUPs in Jamaica.

scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2 pandemic-induced PPE and single-use plastic waste generation scenario

2021 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2098082
Author(s):  
Md. Sazzadul Haque ◽  
Shafkat Sharif ◽  
Aseer Masnoon ◽  
Ebne Rashid
Keyword(s):  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Single Use ◽  
Polyethylene Bags ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Disposable Plastic ◽  
Do So

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has demonstrated both positive and negative effects on the environment. Major concerns over personal hygiene, mandated and ease in lockdown actions and slackening of some policy measures have led to a massive surge in the use of disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) and other single-use plastic items. This generated an enormous amount of plastic waste from both healthcare and household units, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Apart from the healthcare workers, the general public have become accustomed to using PPE. These habits are threatening the land and marine environment with immense loads of plastic waste, due to improper disposal practices across the world, especially in developing nations. Contaminated PPE has already made its way to the oceans which will inevitably produce plastic particles alongside other pathogen-driven diseases. This study provided an estimation-based approach in quantifying the amount of contaminated plastic waste that can be expected daily from the massive usage of PPE (e.g. facemasks) because of the countrywide mandated regulations on PPE usage. The situation of Bangladesh has been analysed and projections revealed that a total of 3.4 billion pieces of single-use facemask, hand sanitizer bottles, hand gloves and disposable polyethylene bags will be produced monthly, which will give rise to 472.30 t of disposable plastic waste per day. The equations provided for the quantification of waste from used single-use plastic and PPE can be used for other countries for rough estimations. Then, the discussed recommendations will help concerned authorities and policy makers to design effective response plans. Sustainable plastic waste management for the current and post-pandemic period can be imagined and acted upon.

scholarly journals China’s plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongguo Wen ◽  
Yiling Xie ◽  
Muhan Chen ◽  
Christian Doh Dinga
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Trade Flow ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Sharp Decline ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Waste Trade ◽  
Treatment Structure

AbstractSince the late 1990s, the trend of plastic waste shipment from developed to developing countries has been increasing. In 2017, China announced an unprecedented ban on its import of most plastic waste, resulting in a sharp decline in global plastic waste trade flow and changes in the treatment structure of countries, whose impacts on global environmental sustainability are enormous but yet unexamined. Here, through the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, we quantified the environmental impacts of changes in the flow patterns and treatment methods of 6 types of plastic waste in 18 countries subsequent to the ban. In the short term, the ban significantly improved four midpoint indicators of environmental impact, albeit contributed to global warming. An annual saving of about 2.35 billion euros of eco-cost was realized, which is equivalent to 56% of plastic waste global trade value in 2017. To achieve global environmental sustainability in the long run, countries should gradually realize the transition from export to domestic management, and from landfill to recycling, which would realize eco-costs savings of about 1.54–3.20 billion euros.

scholarly journals Progress in Starch-Based Materials for Food Packaging Applications

2022 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-177
Author(s):  
Lucia García-Guzmán ◽  
Gustavo Cabrera-Barjas ◽  
Cintya G. Soria-Hernández ◽  
Johanna Castaño ◽  
Andrea Y. Guadarrama-Lezama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Chemical Modification ◽  
Shelf Life ◽  
Food Packaging ◽  
Environmentally Friendly ◽  
High Demand ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Single Use ◽  
Processing Techniques

The food packaging sector generates large volumes of plastic waste due to the high demand for packaged products with a short shelf-life. Biopolymers such as starch-based materials are a promising alternative to non-renewable resins, offering a sustainable and environmentally friendly food packaging alternative for single-use products. This article provides a chronology of the development of starch-based materials for food packaging. Particular emphasis is placed on the challenges faced in processing these materials using conventional processing techniques for thermoplastics and other emerging techniques such as electrospinning and 3D printing. The improvement of the performance of starch-based materials by blending with other biopolymers, use of micro- and nano-sized reinforcements, and chemical modification of starch is discussed. Finally, an overview of recent developments of these materials in smart food packaging is given.

Development of Leather Cutting Board from Plastic Waste

2021 ◽  
Vol 116 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fitsum Etefa Ahmed ◽  
Rotick K. Gideon
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Melting Process ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Plastic Recycling ◽  
Reinforcing Material ◽  
The Cost

Cutting is the process in which goods or garment material are cut and converted into pattern shapes of the goods or garment components. There are two methods of Leather cutting, which are hand cutting and machine cutting. Hand cutting is done with the use of hand knife, cutting board and cutting patterns. Machine cutting can be done using semi-automatic cutting machines or fully-automatic cutting machines. Currently, in Ethiopia, different local and foreign investors are participating in leather products manufacturing. Most of the leather product manufacturing industry and some Small and Medium enterprise’s (SME’s) in the country are using leather cutting machines in order to cut leather goods or garment parts. Most of the industry and SMEs are using imported cutting board made of plastics and rubbers. However, these cutting boards are expensive.   This research aimed at developing a cutting board made from HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) plastic waste as main material, calcium carbonate as a filler and glass fiber as a reinforcing material. Primary and secondary data gathering techniques were applied simultaneously. Primary data were collected through interview and field observation. Secondary data was gathered by reviewing different literature. The cutting board developed through collecting HDPE plastic waste, washing, shredding and melting the shredded plastic with filler and reinforcing material. The melted plastic poured in to cutting board mold and cooled. The developed cutting board was compared with HDPE cutting board available in the local market. The developed board showed relative compression and hardness properties with the HDPE cutting board available in the market. In the cost analysis, the developed cutting board is cheaper than the cutting board which available in the market. However, the cutting board in the market has better surface texture and quality than the developed cutting board. Melting HDPE plastic waste using metal or clay cooking pots and charcoal fire is a tedious task and smoke from the fire will cause human health problem and will affect environment. Consequently, manual plastic melting method is not feasible for mass production, because it is difficult to control the amount of heat (charcoal fire) during melting process. Based on this the authors recommend using machine based plastic melting and molding during HDPE and related plastic recycling.

scholarly journals Humanity’s Best Friend: A Dog-Centric Approach to Addressing Global Challenges

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Sykes ◽  
Piers Beirne ◽  
Alexandra Horowitz ◽  
Ione Jones ◽  
Linda Kalof ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Canis Lupus ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Grey Wolf ◽  
Cultural Complexity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Mutualistic Relationship

No other animal has a closer mutualistic relationship with humans than the dog (Canis familiaris). Domesticated from the Eurasian grey wolf (Canis lupus), dogs have evolved alongside humans over millennia in a relationship that has transformed dogs and the environments in which humans and dogs have co-inhabited. The story of the dog is the story of recent humanity, in all its biological and cultural complexity. By exploring human-dog-environment interactions throughout time and space, it is possible not only to understand vital elements of global history, but also to critically assess our present-day relationship with the natural world, and to begin to mitigate future global challenges. In this paper, co-authored by researchers from across the natural and social sciences, arts and humanities, we argue that a dog-centric approach provides a new model for future academic enquiry and engagement with both the public and the global environmental agenda.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document