LITE FOOT SPOTLIGHT: SOLUTIONS FOR PLASTIC POLLUTION
Happy (almost) Earth Day, Lite Foot friends! As we spend the weekend celebrating Mother Earth, it’s important to educate ourselves on some of the major environmental issues facing our planet. Today, we’ll be focusing on plastic pollution and what we can do, individually and collectively, to help change this BIG problem.
Last week, Environment Georgia Research & Policy Center, the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter, and the Ogeechee Riverkeeper sponsored a webinar entitled Real & False Solutions to Georgia's Plastic Pollution Problem. Lite Foot’s own Katie Rodgers-Hubbard participated as one of five speakers to provide expert knowledge regarding solutions to plastic pollution.
As many of our readers know, plastic pollution is a major issue all over the world. Jessica Wahl of Environment Georgia shared the statistic that if plastic were a country, it would already be the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world. She went on to say that by 2030, plastic production will be responsible for the same amount of climate warming as 295 coal-fire power plants.
We can find plastic waste everywhere, including the most remote corners of the globe and even within human bodies. It can feel like an overwhelming task to tackle plastic pollution issues that currently plague the planet, but there is hope.
“This is a problem that is decades in the making, not centuries,” said Jennette Gayer, Director of Environment Georgia. “So, it’s something that we can grapple with.”
Recently, companies like PureCycle and Brightmark have been making waves with their proposals to turn plastic waste into fuel, which sounds like an excellent avenue to utilize much of the plastic waste choking our planet. However, there is more to this process than what initially meets the eye.
Veena Singla, a Senior Scientist with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), provided an enlightening overview of a process known as “chemical recycling,” which includes turning plastic into fuel.
Many of us are familiar with standard recycling, also known as “mechanical recycling,” which utilizes specific types of plastic collected from recycling programs, cleans the products, shreds them, and then turns the items into plastic pellets that can be reused to make a new product.
Chemical recycling also starts with plastic waste, but it breaks down the plastic by adding heat, chemicals, or a combination of both. The outcomes of chemical recycling result in either fuel or the plastic continues to breakdown to create, in theory, other chemicals or plastic products.
Sounds great! So, what’s the catch?
The issues with chemical recycling are multifaceted. Singla pointed out the process of turning plastics into fuel is not actually recycling at all. She said the point of recycling is to return an item into the material cycle with the intent of reusing the product in another way to reduce the demand for plastic. However, the NRDC’s research concluded the plastic-to-fuel pipeline is simply turning one kind of waste into another type of waste.
“You’re turning plastic waste into fuels that get burned that get turned into air pollution,” Singla said. “When you burn these fuels, you’re creating greenhouse gasses as well as other kinds of harmful air pollution.”
The result of utilizing chemical recycling to generate fuel simply moves waste from the earth to the sky and atmosphere, added Singla.
Wahl reiterated this point and highlighted the fact that the messaging around chemical recycling is problematic. While companies within the plastic industry are now admitting the limitations of materials that can be mechanically recycled, these businesses have switched the narrative to state they will chemically recycle other plastic materials. However, Wahl said processing one metric ton of plastic waste in a pyrolysis (plastic-to-fuel) facility results in at least three metric tons of carbon dioxide. Further, she said more dirty energy is spent making the fuel than the energy contained in the fuel itself.
Wahl also noted the city of Macon, GA recently cancelled its plans to build a Brightmark plastic-to-fuel facility. The company was unable to show city officials that their methods were proven and safe for the community, so the Mayor pulled the plug on the deal.
The takeaway here is that we all need to remain vigilant in cross-referencing scientific findings about new “recycling” forms so that we don’t fall victim to greenwashed marketing ploys and companies who overpromise, under deliver and generate toxic waste that will inevitably poison vulnerable communities.
With the emergence of chemical recycling facilities to deal with plastic waste, we must also think about the intersectionality between environmental justice and social justice. Chemical recycling facilities have a major impact on the surrounding communities. These plants release hazardous materials and air pollutants linked to cancer and asthma as well as potentially harming fetuses carried by pregnant women, Singla said.
The communities disproportionally impacted by facilities like PureCycle, Brightmark or other toxic polluters are historically marginalized groups, said Chandra Farley, the founder and CEO of ReSolve.
“Race is the most significant predictor of a person living near contaminated air, water or soil,” said Farley, who also serves as the Chair of the Georgia’s NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Committee.
Farley founded ReSolve to advocate for climate justice initiatives and create equity-centered infrastructure. Her company works with fence-line communities neighboring facilities that output toxic waste. She believes there is no one better qualified to speak about solutions to the issues caused by plastic waste, chemical recycling or other environmental problems than the people who are directly affected by the pollutants.
She works to build relationships between community members and their elected officials so together, they can lobby for the fair treatment of people living directly next to facilities that generate hazardous waste. Her company is creating pathways for residents to voice the unique problems and health challenges they face while opening up pathways of communication to ensure that executive of factories and plants that pollute the environment are held accountable for their actions.
In addition to building relationships and generating community-derived solutions to plastic pollution problems, another speaker offered additional options for tackling waste issues from the perspective of a recycler.
Kate Bailey, a founding member of the Alliance for Mission-Based Recyclers, suggested a three-prong approach to tackling plastic pollution. First, she said it’s important to eliminate unnecessary plastics. Items like plastic cutlery, plastic bags, straws, Styrofoam, PVC, black plastic products—these are all problematic to the recycling process. Bailey said plastics that cannot be recycled should not be produced, and on a more hopeful note, the U.S. plastic industry is staring to admit their mistakes in producing these items in the first place.
Bailey’s next solution is to scale up programs that are proven to work, like universal recycling. This means if there is a trashcan or trash service in a public space, a recycling bin should also be available. She extended the solution to curbside trash collection as well. If municipalities provide trash pickup, they also need to provide recycling to all residents. Bailey cited that only three in ten recyclable bottles (#1 soda bottles & #2 milk jugs) make it to a facility to get reused. So, generally speaking, we lack reliable avenues for the public to get their recyclable materials to the right place. By scaling up recycling services, we can make a big impact on reducing plastic pollution.
Finally, Bailey encouraged listeners to refuse false solutions. While she knows recycling is not the end-all-be-all in creating sustainable answers for dealing with plastic waste, Bailey reiterated the messages of Singla and Wahl to not be fooled by greenwashed strategies, like those being employed by companies pushing the misleading ideas around chemical recycling.
Katie Rodgers-Hubbard rounded out the webinar with call to action for individual consumers to simply eliminate unnecessary plastic purchases.
“If we continue to buy plastic, they will continue to make plastic,” said Rodgers-Hubbard.
She implored individuals to consider sustainable swaps to the plastic products they typically purchase. She also said it’s no longer a sacrifice to choose eco-friendly products as so many of the sustainable items available today are high-quality, long-lasting and plastic free. You can reduce the carbon footprint of your home by choosing plastic-free alternative from vendor like Lite Foot Company.
Whether you are looking to generate change around plastic pollution on a large-scale level or in your own household, Lite Foot Company is here to support you.
For Earth Day 2022, we encourage you to pick one area in your life where you can make the swap to a sustainable product. If you need help, check out Lite Foot Company’s checklist of eco-friendly products you can switch to throughout your home.
Let’s remember our individual actions matter when we collectively make the choice to eliminate plastic waste from our lives.
Do you have other ideas and solutions to the plastic pollution problems we are facing globally? Comment below or email us at blog@litefootcompany.com to continue the dialogue of ways we can help save our planet from plastic!
Resources from webinar speakers and sources:
-https://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html
-https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/chemical-recycling-greenwashing-incineration-ib.pdf
-https://ambr-recyclers.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/AMBR-Chemical-Recycling-Will-Not--Solve-Our-Plastics-Problem.pdf
-https://ambr-recyclers.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/AMBR-The-False-Promise-of-PTF-Technologies_2022.pdf
-https://theconversation.com/plastic-warms-the-planet-twice-as-much-as-aviation-heres-how-to-make-it-climate-friendly-116376
-https://www.ciel.org/project-update/plastic-climate-the-hidden-costs-of-a-plastic-planet/#:~:text=if%20the%20production%2C%20disposal%2C%20and,%2Dhundred%2Dmegawatt%20coal%20plants.
Participating Organizations:
-https://www.nrdc.org/
-https://environmentgeorgiacenter.org/
-https://www.re-solve.org/
-https://ambr-recyclers.org/
-https://www.litefootcompany.com/