This Ocean Plastic Moment: Taking Steps Beyond the Bans

Ocean plastic pollution is having a moment. Formerly a fringe concern of environmentalists, ocean plastic has moved to the mainstage. Straw bans trend, plastic bags make headlines and families discuss ocean health at dinner. Plastic talk is everywhere.
In reaction, hundreds of government entities around the world have banned bags, straws or other single use items. It’s incredible to witness the global awakening to this critical issue.
Capturing this momentum is a critical opportunity. This is the right time to explore what actions are necessary beyond bans. Because eventually the news cycle will move on, public attention will shift, and while some damage will have been abated, the ocean plastic issue will be largely unresolved. There are longer term solutions being developed right now.
For example, in the wake of a plastic bag ban, shoppers leave grocery stores with smartly responsible reusable shopping bags. But what is inside those bags? Chips in multilayer laminate plastic film? Produce and meat encased in plastic? Beverages in plastic bottles? The bag is just the tip of iceberg.
Unfortunately, no individual plastic item or narrowly scoped ban can define the issue. The issue to solve is the larger subject of disposability. Disposable plastic items may be designed for just a moment of use, but the material lasts forever. They’re designed to be thrown away and without special effort, they won’t be recycled.
If plastic had a happy end-of-life story then this wouldn’t be a problem. But plastic doesn’t actually recycle very well and recycling rates aren’t as high as many people believe. Critically, massive amounts of plastic escape collection altogether.
Only 14% of all plastic packaging is collected for recycling after use .
Real solutions for plastic pollution will need to address three things:
- The Material Itself — Plastic as a material is mismatched to its job. It is used for a very short time but it lasts forever. It doesn’t recycle well. We need better alternatives to plastic.
- The Design of Disposability — Disposability itself is a design flaw that we have collectively decided is OK. This planet has finite resources, so designing an object that is intended to be discarded is a flawed economic and environmental decision. We need better design.
- The Waste Handling System — Waste handling is a complex and low margin business. The effects are most pronounced in developing nations, where the customer base can’t cover the cost of waste infrastructure. This is why developing countries are the overwhelming source of ocean plastic. We need profitable waste handling technology.
Unfortunately, bans don’t move us any closer to new materials, designs or waste systems. A comprehensive solution will require investment and innovation. The rubric that follows is useful for organizing the areas ripe for innovation. Eight distinct and investable areas that, together, form a real ocean plastic solution: bio-benign materials produced at low cost, utilized at high rates, with well designed and effective end-of-life systems.
There are many innovators moving in this direction and I’ve highlighted a few here.
- Waste Handling & Sorting — The waste industry primarily makes money by putting garbage into holes in the ground. Doing other things generally isn’t profitable and that’s why recycling rates are so low. The industry needs to be more profitable and we do that by reinventing how we sort and process waste into primary sources of raw materials or feedstocks. To do a better job of handling plastics, you also need to do a better job with organics, construction materials, fabrics, etc. and vice versa.
Innovation example: polytential.eu — Hyperspectral imaging and Machine Learning algorithms to cost effectively sort waste plastics for recycling.
- Feedstocks — Our economy runs on oil and other materials that we dig out of the ground. We can keep those things in the ground if we focus on what we have already, Recycling — sure. But we also need new technology to utilize the carbon in the atmosphere and to convert our organic wastes into new chemicals and materials.
Innovation example: www.opus-12.com — Transforming greenhouse gas emissions into high value chemicals and fuels.
- Materials — The average American will generate about 60 tons of landfill over a lifetime, because the materials we use are designed to be thrown away. Improved materials could be endlessly upcycled or returned to the soil.
Innovation example: www.fullcyclebioplastics.com — Transforming organic waste streams into a compostable replacement for traditional plastics.(disclosure: my firm is an investor here and I’m highly involved.)
- Chemicals — Our plastics aren’t just plastic. They contain things as benign as chalk to dangerous chemicals that mimic hormones and fundamentally change our health. The offensive substances are used because they have a functional value in the manufacturing of convenience. Benign replacements can be created.
Innovation example: www.toxnot.com — Streamlining product transparency by automating the materials reporting and analysis.
- Design — The level of convenience we enjoy today is incredible. The design challenge of the future is to maintain convenience while being mindful of a product’s end of life.
Innovation example: www.checkerspot.com — Biobased chemical and material design.
- Manufacturing — The introduction of new materials, chemicals and designs has always been the challenge that pushes manufacturing technology forward. To displace traditional plastics the new tech will need to leapfrog one hundred years of institutional knowledge and expertise.
Innovation example: threadinternational.com — Sourcing fabrics produced from recycled PET and polyester for apparel manufacturing.
- Logistics — The magnitude and velocity of the flow of materials in the global economy is staggering. The coordination of flows from raw material, through the consumer, to the landfill is currently done by default. A shift to extended manufacturer responsibility, packaging free goods or circularity will require logistical solutions of new proportions.
Innovation example: www.miwa.eu — Enabling package free shopping at the grocery store with redesign of product delivery to the end-user.
- Sharing — Many of the items we own are rarely used. Sharing, rather than owning, maximizes the utility of goods and critically reduces the demand for resources, leading to a reduction of waste.
Innovation example: cupclub.com — Replacing disposable cups with a service to provide clean reusable cups to the foodservice industry via subscription.
The real “War on Straws” will be fought with technology. The “War on Straws” is a silly term I recently saw flashed on a cable news screen. That chyron was hyperbolic, but it did prove just how brightly the spotlight shines on ocean plastic right now. This is the moment to take advantage of the hype and gather support for the next level of solutions. Before this news cycle moves on, let’s celebrate the bans, but more critically, let’s take concrete steps toward innovation and investments in the future.
For more information about bringing the Circular Economy to plastics, please take a few minutes to read the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s The New Plastics Economy: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/the-new-plastics-economy-rethinking-the-future-of-plastics-catalysing-action
