What Happens to All That Plastic?

Editor'south Note (11/27/2017): This postal service was updated with new statistics on plastic waste product generation and recycling, as well every bit new information on methods of reuse.

What would modern life exist like without plastic?  According to The World Economic Forum, plastic product has exploded over the last half-century, growing from 16.five 1000000 tons in 1964 to 343 one thousand thousand tons in 2014; information technology is projected to double by 2036. Where does all of it go when we're done with information technology?

In 2014, Americans discarded about 33.vi million tons of plastic, just simply nine.5 percent of it was recycled and 15 pct was combusted to create electricity or heat.

Near of the rest ends up in landfills where it may take up to 500 years to decompose, and potentially leak pollutants into the soil and water. Information technology's estimated that there are already 165 million tons of plastic debris floating around in the oceans threatening the health and prophylactic of marine life. And an average of 8.eight 1000000 more tons enter the oceans each year, including microplastics, tiny particles less than 5 millimeters long from cosmetics, fabrics or the breakdown of larger pieces, which may be ingested by marine wildlife.

Relatively little of our plastic waste is recycled because there are diverse types of plastic with unlike chemical compositions, and recycled plastics can be contaminated by the mixing of types. Plastic waste is also contaminated past materials such as paper and ink. Separating plastics from other recyclables, and different types of plastic from each other, is labor-intensive and so far there has been no easy solution.

Most cities only recycle plastics printed with a number 1 or 2 symbol. However, more and more places are accepting low-density polyethylene (LDPE; found in bags and plastic wraps), represented by the number 4. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Most cities simply recycle plastics printed with a number 1 or 2 symbol. All the same, more than and more than places are accepting low-density polyethylene (LDPE; plant in bags and plastic wraps), represented by the number 4. Image: Wikimedia Eatables

Although the Society of Plastic Industries developed seven codes to distinguish types of plastic for recycling, in reality, just two—polyethylene terephthalate (PET, used for synthetic fibers and water bottles) and high density polyethylene (HDPE, used for jugs, bottle caps, water pipes)—are routinely recycled. But in more and more than cities like New York and Chicago, depression-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic bags are at present beingness recycled too. And increasingly, the recycling manufacture'due south use of about‐infrared spectroscopy, which can identify the chemic limerick of plastics, is improving the efficiency and speed of recycling.

Plastics that can be recycled are starting time sorted, shredded and rid of impurities like paper. The shreds are then melted and formed into pellets, which can be made into other products.

MoistureShield in Arkansas, and Virginia-based Trex recycle polyethylene into outdoor decking fabric, fencing, and doors and windows. Coca Cola is increasing the amount of recycled plastic in its bottles to fifty percentage.

Plastic is made from petroleum or natural gas in a chemical process that combines smaller molecules into a large chainlike molecule, frequently with other substances added to give it particular qualities. (Some, similar phthalates and bisphenol A, can have harmful wellness furnishings.) Plastic production is estimated to apply four percent of global oil product—both every bit the raw fabric and for energy in the manufacturing process. Because these polymers embody energy from fossil fuels (and actually take a college free energy value than coal and wood), leaving so much of it in landfills is not only an environmental take chances, it is a huge waste of a valuable resource that could be used to produce electricity, estrus, or fuel.

The Plastics Division of the American Chemic Council asked the Earth Institute'due southEarth Applied science Center to explore ways of recovering the energy inherent in non-recycled plastics. The 2011 report, which was updated in 2014, determined that the amount of energy contained in the millions of tons of plastic in U.S. landfills is equivalent to 48 million tons of coal, 180 meg barrels of oil, or one trillion cubic feet of natural gas. If all this plastic were converted into liquid fuel, it could produce 5.vii billion gallons of gasoline, plenty to power eight.9 1000000 cars per year. And the fact is, there are now technologies that tin can put all this waste to good use.

The study examined iii ways of utilizing not-recycled plastic for energy production: converting it directly into liquid fuel, using separated plastics every bit fuel in special types of ability plants, and increasing the amount of garbage burned in waste-to-energy facilities.

Plastics can be converted into crude oil or other types of products through pyrolysis, a high heat process that does non use oxygen. Agilyx, an Oregon-based company, has developed a arrangement that heats polystyrene from foam cups, packaging materials, and Styrofoam to create a styrene monomer, a building block of the plastic manufacture. The concluding liquid product can be sold to other refiners to produce oil  or to make more polystyrene.

Plastic2Oil in Niagara Falls, NY, uses unwashed, unsorted waste material plastic to produce ultra-low sulfur fuels that practice not crave further refining. The visitor maintains that its process is "highly greenish, clean and scalable."

A number of other companies in the U.S., Africa, Asia and Europe are investing in engineering that produces liquid fuel from plastic wastes.

According to the updated Earth Engineering Center report, power plants specially designed to use non-recycled plastics as fuel could theoretically produce 61.9 million MWh of electricity, enough to power 5.7 million homes.

A waste-to-energy plant in Baltimore. Photo credit: Spike55151

A waste-to-free energy plant in Baltimore. Photo credit: Spike55151

Burning more garbage inwaste-to-free energy facilities would recover the energy inherent in plastics and reduce greenhouse gas emissions since landfills emit methane (a greenhouse gas 20 times more than potent than carbon dioxide) as garbage decomposes. Unlike incinerators of the past, mod waste-to-free energy facilities produce electricity and estrus in boilers designed for complete combustion. The U.Southward. Environmental Protection Bureau has said they produce electricity "with less environmental touch than most any other source of electricity."

If the amount of garbage sitting in U.South. landfills in 2011 was burned in waste material-to-free energy facilities, it could theoretically yield enough electricity to power thirteen.8 million households and reduce coal use past 100 one thousand thousand tons a twelvemonth. In 2015, 71 waste-to-free energy facilities and four other ability plants in the United States burned 29 million tons of garbage, generating most 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

A 2009 United Nations Environmental Programme study on converting plastic waste into a resources described the product of gaseous fuels, using high heat to decompose plastic waste product, and solid fuel derived from a mixture of waste plastic, newspaper, and wood. The materials are first shredded, sorted and then made into pellets. A number of companies in Japan are producing both solid and gaseous fuels. The Showa Denko visitor, headquartered in Tokyo, uses heat gasification to recycle plastic waste product into ammonia, used to industry many products, and CO2 for carbonization.

Liter of Light, a grassroots movement with partnerships around the earth, has found another way to recycle plastic bottles. It helps energy-poor communities convert discarded soda bottles intosolar bottle bulbs to illuminate homes and streets. The organization has installed over 350,000 bottle lights in more than 15 countries.

The best solutions for our plastic problem are nonetheless to reduce our employ of them, and to reuse and recycle whenever possible. More than policies that ban plastic bag use, crave bottle deposits and expand recycling would help. But millions of tons of plastic waste product notwithstanding sit in landfills around the land; technologies that are able to tap this waste as a resources tin can offer multiple benefits, helping to clean up the environment, lessen our dependence on strange oil, decrease our use of non-renewable virgin resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and generate energy.