The Circular Economy and the Complex World of Waste
We finish the contents of containers, pop them in the appropriate bins, and we’re off to the next thing. And can you blame us with our evergrowing lists of obligations?
But our waste system is just too fundamental for us to not know a bit more about it. So we sat down with a plastics recycling professional to gain some insider perspective.
In this post we’re going to provide a brief overview of some of the basic processes, challenges, and needs in the waste system. Let’s begin by meeting .
Meet Nick Doyle: Sales Manager, North America West at TOMRA Sorting
Nick was kind enough to sit down with us and chat about his experience at , the world leader in sensor-based optical sorters.
TOMRA has pioneered the automation of waste sorting. Its flexible systems are capable of both preparing and sorting various types of metals and waste for either material recycling or energy recovery.
Nick said this is the first company he’s worked for that he’s been genuinely inspired by the culture, which is centered around advancing the circular economy — an economic system aimed at minimizing waste and making the most of resources.
Here’s what we learned from Nick.
Plastic Recycling Process Overview
Once the different types of papers, plastics, glass, and metals are sorted, plastics are sent to a plastic reclamation facility and the process goes roughly like this:
- Plastic bottles are sorted by color, washed, and grinded into flake form when they’re sorted again
- The color coordinated flakes are then turned into pellets and sent as a resin to someone that does injection or blow molding
- Finally, the bottles are refilled with contents, labeled, and sent back to market
Nick’s Insights on Advancing the Circular Economy
1) We need to focus on investing more into recovery and reuse.
Nick believes efforts like banning polystyrene and single use plastics are a short term fix to a long term problem. He believes the better approach is the alternative of finding better ways to recover and reuse these materials.
2) Resource recovery absolutely depends on educated consumers.
There are two main reasons for this. One is that we need to know how to handle our own waste by rinsing when necessary and putting things in the appropriate bins. Two is that we need to use our voices to put pressure on the big companies who have the power and money to actually change this system through investment and action.
3) Private stewardship will be essential for systemic change.
People and companies with resources, power, and influence are needed to push the needle forward. Companies with holistic visions instilled into their culture, where everyone from shareholders, to staff, to customers know they’re focused on being a part of the circular economy will lead the movement.
4) The key will be to get the price of recycled materials to be equal to or cheaper than virgin materials.
Critical investment is needed to increase our waste processing capacity so we can ensure the highest degree of purity and recovery of these resources from our waste stream. Greater investment will result in the economies of scale necessary for the price of recycled materials to come down sufficiently.
Originally published at https://cleantechrising.com on July 11, 2019.
