While governments and corporations focus on ‘techno-fixes’ and individual-centric sustainability practices, it is critical for to address exponentially growing plastic production.
Recycling is the process of turning waste materials into new products and materials. Humans have been recycling metals and glass for thousands of years. But back then, recycling was simple, effective, necessary, resourceful and successfully adopted across civilisations, until the advent of plastics.
Only about nine per cent of the plastic ever produced has been recycled and it presents the greatest challenge of any material in the municipal solid waste stream. Yet, this feat gets the most attention during discussions about recycling.
Fossil origins
Nearly all plastics are made from fossil fuels-based petrochemicals. These chemicals are produced by using Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) and naphtha created from crude oil during the refining process as feedstocks (raw materials).
For producing petrochemicals, ethane, propane and butane are separated from NGL through different stages of a process called fractionation. Further, these petrochemicals are then converted into light olefins viz., ethylene, propylene and butylenes, respectively through steam cracking. These olefins are the fundamental chemical building blocks of petrochemical products including plastics.
The power and transportation sectors are moving away from their dependency on the oil and gas industry. Therefore, the fossil fuel industries are looking at petrochemicals and plastics as their ‘Plan B’.
At present, globally, petrochemicals and plastics account for 14 per cent of total oil demand and eight per cent of the gas demand. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), petrochemicals and plastics will account for approximately 50 per cent of oil demand and 58 per cent of gas demand by 2050. OECD warns that without urgent action, plastic production is predicted to triple by 2060 to 1.2 billion metric tonnes.
Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, during the ‘India Chem 2024’ event, had stated that the petrochemical industry in India is also said to boom from the current $220 billion worth to $300 billion by 2025.
In India, for decades, the plastics industry has been dominated by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).
However, in 2021, Adani Group has announced its ambition to enter into this sector through the announcement of a new Coal-to-PVC plant in Gujarat’s Mundra. This plant, if established, will convert around 3.1 million tonnes of coal into 2 million tonnes of PVC (Polyvinyl chloride), a commonly used plastic type, per annum.
The Department of Chemical and Petrochemical, Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has introduced various schemes and policies such as Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs), National Award Schemes, Plastic Parks and Centre of Excellences to boost up the growth of the chemical and petrochemical industries.
In addition to these initiatives by the Union government, multiple incentives and subsidies have been provided by the states to attract investment in their respective regions. All of these signifies that both globally and nationally, the plastic and petrochemical production is set to skyrocket.
Upcycling, downcycling recycling and sidetracking
A majority of the plastics are technically recyclable yet practically non-recyclable, hence they are “downcycled”, meaning they are often turned into lower-quality products after being processed.
For example, Polyethylene Terephthalate or “PET bottles” could be turned to textile fabrics or insulation materials. This is because there are thousands of different plastics with unique properties, uses, and recycling requirements. Plastics also contain additives such as plasticisers, stabilisers, colourants, flame retardants and fillers which together add up to over 16,000 different chemicals.
Furthermore, plastics are often combined with other materials, such as paper, metals, or adhesives which makes recycling further impossible and only one per cent of the plastics is recycled more than once!
Even recycled plastics can pose significant risks to human health and the environment. The fossil fuel-derived chemicals that form the basis of plastic are vulnerable to heat and other processes used in recycling leaching chemicals and microplastics.
The relatively new term coined by the plastics industry called “upcycling” promotes conversion of plastic waste to building materials, crafts and even “jewellery”. However, all these false solutions suffer from the same issues plaguing recycling and downcycling.
The plastics industry knew about the infeasibility of recycling as early as the 1980s, and yet continued sidetracking real solutions such as reuse, redesign and plastic production reduction.
In India, for example, the plastic polluters pay only 10 per cent of the total cost of collecting and channelising multilayer plastics while public money is used for managing the rest of the 90 per cent cost.
Due to the impracticality of recycling, the market in India is flooded with fake recycling certificates.
Furthermore, when the Central Pollution Control Board physically verified a fraction of the 2,348 registered recyclers in India, they found that they had generated 600,000 tonnes worth of fake recycling certificates and even sold them to companies. This further highlights the impracticality of plastic recycling.
Long term effects
While plastics are indispensable in certain fields such as medicine, automotive manufacturing and electronics, roughly 40 per cent of the plastics is for single use purposes only, mostly for packaging.
However, to manage the rising volume of plastic waste, the plastic industry is doubling down on its promotion of incineration or Waste-To-Energy (WTE) which have well documented negative environmental, health, livelihood and climate impacts for over a century!
Even as countries in the Global North are shutting down these toxic WTE plants that burn plastics, they are making a strong comeback in the countries in the Global South such as India.
While the governments and corporations focus on ‘techno-fixes’ and individual-centric sustainability practices, it is critical to address exponentially growing plastic production. Without addressing the plastic menace at its root, we will not be able to live sustainably in the Plasticene Age.
This article was originally published in Down To Earth and can be read here.