8. Plastic recovery and end destinations

As a first step, plastic recovery requires plastic waste to be collected. This is a huge challenge. At least 2 billion people worldwide don’t have access to waste collection services. Without collection services, people have limited options to dispose of waste. Typically waste is openly burned, dumped in waterways or other unused patches of land, and plastics and toxins end up accumulating in the natural environment.

Plastic recovery also means that waste is effectively sorted. There are hundreds of different plastics, used in innumerable combinations. Segregated waste, and taking collected waste to a sorting facility, means that plastic can be sorted effectively into categories. This increases its chances of being aggregated and recycled, or having some material value recovered.

Along with this, there needs to be the infrastructure to recycle or recover plastics. With many governments and local authorities juggling priorities, the unglamorous spend on waste management infrastructure is often neglected. Even in the world’s wealthiest countries, very little plastic - even when collected - is actually recycled. In the USA it’s estimated that just 5% of plastic is recycled and turned into new things. Though this is ‘managed’ waste, with little is directly leaking into the environment, the vast majority of plastic is incinerated, left to sit in sanitary landfills, or exported to other countries for recycling.

Investment in plastic recovery infrastructure and systems - around the globe - is therefore at the heart of the solutions to the plastic crisis.

The investment represents not only a crucial component of the global solution to the plastic crisis but also presents significant economic opportunities. With regulatory pressures , consumer demand for sustainability, and more companies prioritizing environmental responsibility  there is a substantial demand for post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic. In fact prices for some PCR plastics have risen as demand continues to outstrip supply.

Failure to invest in recovery infrastructure and systems for plastic waste will see the accumulation of plastic waste in nature more than double in the next 20 years. This is an urgent need. With no sign of plastic production or waste slowing down, and current infrastructure already lacking, both reduction and recovery measures are needed to prevent the acceleration of an environmental catastrophe.