Today's Editorial

Today's Editorial - 26 February 2024

To solve the plastics crisis, we need to calm down about plastics

Relevance: GS Paper III

Why in News?

The Center for Climate Integrity, a US nonprofit, has accused oil and chemical companies of greenwashing, i.e., perpetuating a decades-long campaign of fraud and deception about the recyclability of plastics. It highlighted the company's attempts to pretend it was more successful than it really was.

Plastics vis-a-vis other pollutants:

  • Enough progress has been made in cutting fossil fuels regarding per-capita carbon emissions and crude oil consumption.
    • This has been largely due to efficiency improvements in renewable power and electrification.
  • However, plastics have gone in the opposite direction, with people using about 29% more plastic per person in 2019 than at the turn of the millennium.
    • This is not because plastics producers have done a more successful lobbying operation than the rest of the fossil fuel industry but because their products are more useful to our lives and harder to substitute with alternatives.
  • The issue of plastic waste is complex, with two approaches to address it: reducing consumption and recycling or declaring the process a scam and hoping the problem will somehow go away.
    • The first approach is hard and requires fixing things. While the latter approach is tempting, it is unlikely to change much.

Strategies for addressing plastic waste:

  • The progress that has been made on the road to net zero comes from three main sources:
    • Efficiency, Substitution, and Lifestyle changes.
      • To tackle the plastics problem, one must consider which combination of those levers to pull.
  • Case for Efficiency:
    • To make the usage of plastics more efficient, there is a need to recycle more and shift consumption toward lightweight, thinner containers. This can show real benefits in reducing emissions.
    • For instance, members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have been consuming less gasoline than ever since the 1980s.
      • That’s largely caused not by the recent rise of electric cars but by fuel-economy regulations that have been slowly tightening for decades.
    • However, efficiency gains can be agonisingly slow.
      • In the US, fuel-economy regulations have led to a 9.3% decrease in gasoline usage since 2000, slipping to 1.7% if diesel is added.

  • Case for Substitution:
    • Replacing one technology with another is far more effective.
      • By switching away from coal-fired power and towards wind and solar (as well as less-polluting natural gas), emissions from America's grid fell by a third over the same period.
    • However, substitution might not work well for plastics, as it depends on the availability of viable alternative technologies.
      • Wind and solar power and electric batteries are cheap, scalable, and superior to fossil fuels, but biodegradable and reusable plastics offer few improvements. At the same time, alternatives like glass and aluminum are often worse in terms of climate and the environment.
  • Case for Lifestyle changes:
    • Lifestyle changes, however, are famously difficult to engineer. Every time one buys a clamshell of strawberries, a bottle of water, or a gallon of milk, they decide to use more plastic rather than less.
    • As long as consumers and producers continue to favour plastic, consumption will tend to rise, and even widespread public aversion (for instance - Americans consider plastic waste a bigger problem than climate change and air and water pollution) doesn't seem strong enough to control it.

Way forward:

  • Efficiency improvements through recycling and light-weighting may be the most effective way to tackle society's excessive use of plastics. In countries like Norway and Japan, it has been proven that when manufacturers are held responsible for disposal costs, significant results can be achieved.
    • This highlights the need for strict regulations that the industry may resist.
  • It is necessary to establish a strong recycling system that can gain public support and discourage people from simply throwing away their plastics.

Conclusion:

Plastic waste is a massive problem that requires a multifaceted approach to address effectively. This approach should include regulation, technological innovation, changes in consumer behaviour, and industry accountability.

Beyond Editorial:

According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)  - Today, we produce more than 430 million tonnes of plastic waste annually.

Prime causes of plastic waste:

  • Plastic is cheap and readily available, and its use is widespread: Since plastic is an affordable and durable material, it can be found in everything from packaging materials to plastic bottles, straws, plastic bags, and much more.
  • The world’s population is growing — and so is urbanisation: The more population there is in the world, the greater the demand for cheap materials and, in turn, the more plastic.
  • Disposable mentality regarding plastic: Plastic items typically have a very short lifespan — think carrier bags, water bottles, straws, and food containers. And because they’re so cheap to make, one doesn’t value them enough to hang on to individual items.
    • Not only that but the disposal of plastic is often mismanaged — so again, it ends up in landfills.
  • Plastic takes over 400 years to decompose: The chemical bonds that make plastic are strong and made to last. The decomposition rate of plastic can vary depending on the type. However, this typically ranges from 50 to 600 years.
    • In other words, according to the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency in the United States), almost every bit of plastic ever made and sent to landfills or dumped in the environment still exists.
    • As new plastic items are manufactured every day, the cycle repeats.
  • Marine shipping and fishing industries: The shipping and fishing industries are also responsible for contributing towards plastic waste and pollution, particularly in oceans.
    • Plastic waste is often washed to shores from ships and nets used for fishing.
    • This plastic pollutes the water, and marine animals can become trapped in nets and/or swallow the toxic particles.

Significance of reducing plastic consumption:

  • Preventing pollution by lessening the amount of new raw materials used.
  • Reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute towards climate change.
  • Reduces the amount of waste that needs to be recycled or, in developing countries, sent to landfills/incinerators.
  • Saves money since reusable items work out cheaper than constantly purchasing more plastic.
  • Saves energy.

 

Related News: Climate impact of plastic pollution

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