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Potential Solutions to Regular Plastic - Coggle Diagram
Potential Solutions to Regular Plastic
Recyclable
Extracting materials from existing products
Verdict:
Recycling is the best alternative among these solutions, but it is not the most ideal one.
Pros
1) Reduces raw material extraction (Crunden, 2021)
2) Reduces carbon dioxide (Crunden, 2021)
3) Comparatively well implemented in people’s mindset
4) A way to make people feel less bad for their consumption (Crunden, 2021)
5) Limited recycling is still better than material extraction (Crunden, 2021)
Cons
1) Actual recycled rates are extremely low (Cruden, 2021)
2) Takes energy to recycle plastic
3) If thrown into a landfill, it will take 1000 years to decompose (Masterclass, 2021)
4) There is a limit to what recycling can do (Crunden, 2021)
5) Requires rinsing, inconvenient for the consumer (unlikely to do)
6) Hong Kong manually sorts out recycled products, most don't get recycled
7) If products are dirty or enclosed in a plastic bag, they go to the landfill
8) Companies use recycling as a pledge to not do any real sustainable action
9) Draws attention away from reduce and reuse
Types: Type 1 (PET), Type 2 (HDPE), Type 5 (PP)
Waste to Energy
Bioplastics
A category of plastics made from natural materials. It may not be biodegradable.
Verdict:
Not a sustainable alternative
(too large of a plastic group to make a verdict)
Pros
1) Made up of at least of 20% renewable resources (Robinson, 2021)
2) Produce more pollution in terms of fertilizers, land use, etc. (Robinson, 2021)
Cons
1) Most requires a composting machine to decompose (Robinson, 2021)
2) Decomposing in landfills likely to produce methane (Robinson, 2021)
3) Problematic if placed in a recycling bin (Robinson, 2021)
4) Hong Kong does not have the necessary machines to fully decompose bioplastics
5) Relatively expensive to produce
Biodegradable
Organisms decompose the plastic over time into CO2, water and biomass
Verdict:
Overall not a sustainable alternative, since it is unlikely to biodegrade
Pros
1) Releases less harmful chemicals
2) In light or in O2, it takes 3~6 months to decompose (Masterclass, 2021)
3) Takes less energy to manufacture (Masterclass, 2021)
Cons
1) Companies often hide behind its vague time limit (Foodee, 2019)
2) The necessary oxygen is too low in landfills to decompose (Foodee, 2019)
3) Degrade quality of plastic if it is recycled (Foodee, 2019)
4) May only break down partially, and cause even more harm (Masterclass, 2021)
5) Expensive to produce (Masterclass, 2021)
6) Reinforces single use mindset
Types: (PBS), (PCL), (PBAT), (PHAs), (PLAs), plant starch blends, and cellulose-based plastics
Compostable
A subset of biodegradable plastic: needs industrial facilities to break down (Masterclass, 2021)
Verdict:
Can be a sustainable alternative, but not in Hong Kong
due to the lack of systems in place and it is unlikely for compostable plastics to be composted.
Pros
1) Can degrade in 90 days (Foodee, 2019)
2) Does not leave toxic residue
3) Does not take new energy
Cons
1) It is unlikely to actually be composted
2) Requires a composting machine
3) Composting is not a common practice in Hong Kong
4) “60% of labelled compostable products do not fully break down in home compost” (Ramirez, 2022)
5) Unregulated plastics, difficult to trust and teach users
6) Resource and energy intensive to produce (Ramirez, 2022)