Opinion: Creating a sustainable future for plastics with a circular economy
Today we produce almost 400 million tonnes of plastics every year. Global population growth and a growing middle class means that, in just a few decades, the demand for goods and packaging made from plastics is set to rise three-fold.
Plastics are everywhere and yet we take them for granted. They keep us safe through medical devices, they keep food fresh and hygienic through packaging, and they are an essential part of making aeroplanes fly.
Yet there are also growing concerns about the impacts that plastics are having on our environment. The very features that make plastics so useful — its low cost, its versatility, and the fact it is relatively inert — also make it ubiquitous and persistent in the environment. Moreover, it is unsustainable to continue using finite resources like crude oil to create new plastics.
It’s clear that we need to adopt a more sustainable approach to plastics. Yet while governments have been quick to ban common single-use plastic products like straws and carrier bags, this does not address the fundamental problem: we can’t simply ban all plastics.
This is part of the reason why Pöyry has set up its PlasticsToBio initiative, which aims to make all the world’s plastics bio-based and renew our focus on recycling and re-use. We believe this approach could reduce CO2 emissions by 1Gt a year — every year. It is based on the…
