The Innovations That Can Help the World Curb Plastic Waste

Following decades of denial by the fossil fuel and feedstock industry, people around the world are seeing the horrific impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on our climate and the impacts of the changing climate on our communities. But unlike the brutal impacts of increasingly severe storms and continuously high temperatures, which can include hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars of damage, the impacts of plastic waste are more insidious.

The visible fallout from plastic pollution are litter along our roads, parks and beaches. Indeed, almost everywhere. More recently, we’ve seen videos and pictures of wildlife harmed by ingesting plastic bottle caps or becoming entangled in plastic fishing nets or plastic six-pack rings. But the real harms of plastic waste are less visible. 

The plastic waste in our environment degrades to form tiny particles called microplastics, and even smaller particles called nanoplastics, that can then enter our food chain and contaminate all living creatures, including us. The harms of these microplastics and nanoplastics are not yet known. What is certain is that it will take centuries, if not millennia, to remove them from the environment. 

To reduce the influx of plastics into our environment, innovations in plastics, packaging, and plastics after-use management are being introduced at an ever-increasing pace. Yet we cannot be complacent. None of these innovations will solve the plastics waste crisis alone. Nor will any one player in the value chain save the day. Instead, our plastic waste crisis can only be managed through a combination of efforts, like new materials development, better design and new packaging paradigms, changes in consumer behavior, new after-use management techniques (there should be no waste!), and new policies and rules of commerce that drive businesses to create a circular economy. 

Here are some of the innovations that will lead to reduced use of plastics, less plastic waste and a more circular economy.

Reducing harmful substances

How plastics are designed and used needs to change. To achieve a circular economy — an economy with no waste — products must be designed to be reused by businesses and consumers, and materials must be able to be recovered and recycled. If products or materials contain ingredients that are harmful to the environment or human health, reusing or recycling them will only expose people and other life on our planet to the same harmful ingredients over and over again. This is not a sustainable model for human or ecosystem health on a finite planet.

Fortunately, this has already been recognized by green chemists and sustainable packaging companies, and packaging materials are already being made without the class of chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which have been linked to cancer and other health problems, and ingredients like phthalates that have been shown to disrupt the endocrine system. When purchasing products, look for certifications such as GreenScreen Certified, Cradle-to-Cradle, or Safer Choice. 

Readily recyclable plastics

How plastics are used also needs to change. The concept of “cheap enough to throw away” can no longer be tolerated. In a circular economy, nothing should be thrown away. Convenience is still possible using plastics that are designed for recovery, reuse and recycling, not disposal. Just because the recycle logo is present does not mean a plastic package or item can be recycled. Look for the How2Recycle logo on the package and follow the recycling instructions. If a package is not reusable or recyclable, find a similar product with packaging that is.

Packaging with less plastic

Another innovation in packaging materials is the use of coated paperboard to replace plastic bottles. This approach uses less plastic, and, importantly, the coated paperboard industry is working to develop the infrastructure to ensure this packaging is readily recyclable. However, care must be taken to ensure we are not using regrettable substitutes, like PFAS, as a coating to line them.

Packaging with no plastic

Paper and paperboard are effective packaging materials as long as moisture is not an issue. A series of recent innovations incorporate plastic into the product so the packaging can be made from readily recyclable paper or paperboard instead. Recent examples of this are laundry and automatic dishwasher detergent packets and laundry detergent sheets. These detergents use a water-soluble and biodegradable plastic (a form of polyvinyl alcohol) to contain the detergent, and the packets or sheets are then packaged in a paperboard box or envelope.

There are some concerns, however, as some consumers may think these products are plastic-free, when in fact, the plastic has only been reduced or moved from package to product. Furthermore, there are several peer-reviewed studies that have detected PVA in drinking water and even human breast milk, although it is not clear if these come from detergents as opposed to other more direct sources such as foods (PVA is often used as a thickener) or medications (PVA is often used as an encapsulant). 

Bio-based and compostable packaging

Composting bio-based materials is another alternative in the circular economy. Paper and well-designed, bio-based plastics can rapidly decompose in industrial or home composters. The carbon dioxide and biomass created during composting can then be absorbed into new plant materials from which paper and bio-based plastics can be created.  

Two things to be aware of are the availability of composting where you live (very few municipalities or states currently have routine collection and processing of compost) and the presence of toxic chemicals in the materials you send for composting.  Composting paper or bio-based plastics containing potentially harmful ingredients disperses those chemicals in the environment, from which they are near impossible (or at least very expensive) to remove.

Effective recycling communication

Our existing recycling systems were designed to fail.  First, there is no clear messaging to consumers as to what can be recycled and what cannot be. Chemists are clever enough to create dozens of plastics with unique properties, yet we have a resin identification code — those little numbers inside the chasing arrows recycling symbol — with only seven numbers. And only two or three (plastic resins numbered 1, 2 and sometimes 5) are readily recyclable. Worse still, the materials that are actually recycled vary from municipality to municipality. Even if you know what can be recycled where you live (and most people, including me, don’t), when you visit a different town, what can be recycled is likely different.  Separating trash from recyclables is a major expense for material recovery facilities (MRFs), and “wish-cycling” — or tossing something in the blue bin and hoping for the best — creates a rich source of trash.

The How2Recycle (H2R) label from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition aims to address the problem. The label identifies packaging as readily recyclable (facilities to recycle the material are available to at least 60 percent of the population), check locally (facilities to recycle the material are available to at least 20 percent of the population), and not recyclable (facilities to recycle the material are available to less than 20 percent of the population). The H2R label also provides instructions such as, “Remove cap before recycling.” Having a uniform way to communicate recycling best practices to consumers is an essential step in creating an effective recycling infrastructure.

Innovative legislation

A circular economy is not created simply by using less plastics or different plastics or through improved communication with consumers. The system of commerce must be designed to support and incentivize materials free of additives that could be harmful, incorporate reusable and recyclable products and materials, and include efficient and effective after-use materials management. This system requires a legislative framework that discourages environmentally destructive extraction and pollution-generating manufacturing.

Instead, the system must include the costs of waste disposal in the total cost of a product and its packaging to reveal the true costs of ecosystem destruction, pollution and after-use materials management in products.