Is there a solution to the plastic pollution problem?
Humans have been using plastic for centuries now. The world has become addicted to single-use or disposable plastic using it in almost every sector. However, excess use of plastic is polluting our planet as our world is drowning in the pollution that plastic brings with it. There is a crucial need to control this pollution now or to come up with a more efficient use of plastic associated with its recycling.
What is plastic?
The name plastic is given due to its property of plasticity and the ability to deform without breaking. Plastic is a polymeric material that has the ability to be moulded or shaped typically after applying heat or pressure. Plastic is also known as a synthetic or semisynthetic polymer that always includes carbon and hydrogen along with other elements (source). Plastic materials have properties like low density, transparency, low electrical conductivity, and toughness. Plastic is used to make a variety of disposable or concentrated products. Most of the plastic materials are made by petrochemicals prepared by industries. Common plastic materials are lightweight beverage bottles that are made of polyethylene terephthalate, insulating food containers made of foamed polystyrene, flexible garden hoses made of polyvinyl chloride, and shatterproof windows made of polymethyl methacrylate. Several additives, colourants, fillers, and stabilizers are also added during the production of plastic to determine its quality and cost as well.
There are two common types of plastics.
Thermoplastic
Thermoplastic refers to that type of plastic that can be deformed using heat and can be bent without the need for chemical processes. They are soft, change their properties upon heating, and can be reshaped and resized. Linear polymers like PVC, nylon, polythene, etc. come under thermoplastics.
Thermosetting
Thermosetting plastics are those types of plastic that become rigid when heated. Once they are moulded they cannot be moulded again without heat. Most cross-linked polymers are thermosetting plastics including bakelite and melamine. Melamine is used in the making of tiles and bakelite is used to make switches in the electrical industry.
A brief history of plastic
The word plastic means pliable or shaped easily due to its property of plasticity. Recently, polymers, a new category of plastics, were introduced into the world. The word polymer means “of many parts” as they are made from different elements forming long chains of molecules. One of the common natural polymers is Cellulose which is present in the cell walls of plants so polymers are found naturally and are present in abundance.
The very first synthetic polymer was invented by John Wesley Hyatt in 1869 (source) when he was determined to win the prize of $10,000 by founding a suitable material that can replace ivory. The reason is that natural ivory was obtained by the slaughtering of wild animals so the supply of ivory was stained at that time. He treated Cellulose, obtained from the cotton fibre, mixed with camphor to produce a plastic-type material that could be deformed into several shapes that had the potential to replace natural substances which included tortoiseshell, horn, linen, and ivory. He discovered a revolutionary material, later which was not constrained by the limits of nature or have no animals harmed anymore. He proposed a potential material that can be prepared by humans and can replace several natural substances like wood, metal, stone, bone, tusk, and horn. At that time, many advertisements praised plastic as a saviour of wild animals and nature.
In what ways is plastic bad for the environment?
Since its invention, plastic is produced in such abundance that it becomes difficult to handle after use.
As plastic is now prepared from several thermochemical processes so most of them are very harmful to our environment. On the contrary, plastics do have benefits if they are handled properly, they can serve greatly in various beneficial ways.
The following are the common ways of how plastics are harming the environment including humans, birds, and wildlife.
Plastic is Everywhere
Due to its excessive use and production, plastic debris can be found everywhere in the world. It can be stuck in the city drains and it can cover the major land areas after landfilling or littering. The main problem linked with plastic pollution is that it is everywhere. In addition to that, plastics are dumped into the rivers and lakes directly and become a common substance in the world’s oceans. At the current rate, it is predicted that plastics will take more mass than the mass of all the fish that live in the oceans.
Fracking results in harmful plastics
As we know, the fracking process is harmful to the environment. It is the reason for the polluted water, soil, and air. In the fracking process of fossil fuels that are removed rock formations and shale are turned into resin pellets. The resin pellets are used to manufacture plastics. The plastics produced from this process can be easily discarded, these are the plastics that usually are manufactured for single-use. This type of manufacturing of plastic can be harmful and dangerous for the environment and wildlife. These plastics usually result in a record of fires, explosions, and chemical leaks in the forests.
Endangered Wildlife
In recent years, the incidents of animals dying because of eating or becoming entangled in plastic debris have been reported more often than ever before. The situation raises a serious concern regarding wildlife. Not just that, plastic trash is also found in the guts of several marine animals and birds becoming the reason why they choke to death. It is also found that plastics play a role in rising rates of species extinctions. According to the reports, there are an estimated 270,000 tons of plastic floating over the world’s oceans where it can harm more than 700 marine species (source).
Recycling Difficulties
There is a clear difference between breaking down and biodegradable. Breaking down plastic simply means that a larger piece of plastic is reduced down into many smaller pieces. Breaking down plastics poses more threats to animals as the smaller pieces can be consumed by animals and are indigestible.
Biodegradable or compostable plastics can be reduced down to their chemical components. It is often confused with the term breaking down. Biodegradable plastics are less harmful but the main challenge is to set up an entire industry dedicated to the biodegradation of plastics after being separated from non-biodegradable plastics.
Some plastics last forever
As hinted above, some plastics have non-biodegradable elements meaning that they cannot be reduced down to their sub-components. These plastics are usually dumped into the land or some faraway areas resulting in land pollution. Such plastics will most probably outlast humans and can last almost forever like petroleum-based plastics.
What will happen if we do not do anything to address this problem?
According to industry experts, it is expected that the world will be producing 3 times more plastics by 2050 as it does today. As mentioned above, there will be more plastic than all the fish in the world’s seas on a volume basis. It will cause more severe plastic pollution endangering the environment and life on the planet.
The plastic production of the world rose from 1.5 Mt annually in 1950 to an estimated 275 Mt by 2010, according to the trade association PlasticsEurope. They also reported that by 2018, the world is producing nearly 359 Mt of plastics, and between 4.8 and 12.7 Mt are discarded into the oceans every year in countries with coastlines (source).
Moreover, some plastics are considered toxic due to their production from chemical reactions, these plastics can be dangerous for both humankind and wildlife. The toxic plastics can cause various diseases among humans and can attract other pollutants that can cause more severe side effects. Plastic pollution is not just limited to physical pollution, it can also contaminate the air we breathe every day. Processes like biodegradation or discarding plastics involve dumping the waste into the sewage system and then dumping it into the sea. In dried form, the particles can be picked up by the wind and can spread through the air.
The need to focus on preventing improper disposal or even on limiting the use of certain plastic items in the first place can be the possible solution for this increasing problem. Also, the awareness of plastic pollution is increasing among people and media, several new solutions are emerging day by day like Low-Temperature Conversion, with the increased use of biodegradable plastics. The government and the public are attentive to following the ‘zero-waste” policy.
Why is Low-Temperature Conversion one of the best solutions?
Low-Temperature Conversion is a pyrolytic process also known as tertiary recycling that can harness energy from plastic wastes. It is a thermochemical process in which cracking takes place at relatively increasing temperature to extract elements in the form of hydrocarbons from it which is further processed to extract pure hydrogen that can be a possible energy source in various sectors.
The reason why LTC is praised as one of the best solutions to plastic pollution is its property to degrade plastics into usable energy and make plastic waste less harmful reducing the overall pollution.
White Hydrogen Coalition - Working for a cleaner future
White Hydrogen Coalition is a group of technology enthusiasts set on a mission to adopt cleaner solutions to reduce pollution and promote white hydrogen as a source of green energy. They are working to normalize the Low-Temperature Conversion process to convert plastic waste into more eco-friendly white hydrogen that can also be used as fuel in the maritime and aviation industry.
