Extending responsibility for plastic waste

Reducing plastic waste is an urgent task. But given the sheer volume and the broad application of plastics as a key resource as synthetic resin in many industries, a more practical and sustainable way to solve the mounting plastics problem is to create mechanisms to recycle, reuse and repurpose them.

According to the New Plastics Economy report by the Ellen Mac-Arthur Foundation, only 14 percent of plastics used around the world are recycled. And that dwindles to merely 5 percent when losses in the recycling process are taken into account.

China is the world's biggest producer and consumer of plastics. In 2016, China produced 30 percent of the world's plastics, and used approximately 69.51 million tons.

But it has also been proactive in tackling plastic waste and promoting recycling. The country banned imported solid waste in July 2017, and adopted a decision to enhance the management of plastic pollution in September 2019.

Up until it banned imports of waste plastics in 2017, China was processing 65 percent of the exported global plastic waste and had become the world's biggest processor of municipal plastic waste, playing an outsized role in reducing global plastic waste.

But the plastics recycling industry in China has found itself faced with challenges, as waste plastics are the subject of all kinds of new regulations not just at home, but also abroad.

Factories in China were the first ones to feel the squeeze, as they saw the supply of their raw materials dwindle. In the past, Chinese plastic processors relied on low-cost, high-quality municipal plastic waste they had imported in abundance from sorted waste developed economies such as the United States, European countries, and Japan. These companies saw their raw materials plummet as imports of plastic waste decreased rapidly as a result of the ban.

Another development worth mentioning is the amendment to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal in May 2019. Since then, waste plastics have been considered hazardous and therefore subject to the Convention. This marks the end of the plastic waste trade, a change that is already reshaping the global supply chain of plastic recycling. As such, countries are left on their own when it comes to managing plastic waste.

To tackle the new issues and promote the sustainable development of industries that use plastic waste as resource material, the Chinese government has been taking steps to encourage resource recycling. In 2017, the government proposed putting in place a system to recycle and reuse plastic waste to promote the diversified and value-added use of plastic waste of different qualities and to reduce the amount of plastics that end up in a landfill. The government also set a numerical target: by 2020, out of all the plastic waste produced domestically, 23 million tons must be recycled.

In light of all these new developments, the transformation and upgrading of China's plastic waste recycling industry is imperative. Key to a successful transition is improving the re-utilization rate with more effective recycling systems.

Currently, plastic waste is recycled primarily by trash collectors and shipped to municipal treatment plants before it is recycled and reused. This arrangement, however, has fallen short of meeting modern environmental standards and the demands of a circular economy.

The problem with recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, the most commonly used containers for bottled water in China, is a case in point. Even though most of the PET bottles used are recovered, small amount are high-quality recycled as they come in different colors, designs, use different materials in the bottle caps, and the labeling is difficult to remove. As a result, recycled PET from these sources can only be used for low value-added purposes such as textile production, instead of more lucrative applications such as food-contact material packaging. At the heart of the problems with recycling PET bottles is the lack of a well-functioning recycling system with designated personnel in charge of key processes.

Therefore, the top priority now is to establish extended producer responsibility (EPR) as a policy tool within the framework of government regulations. It is necessary to clearly define producers' responsibilities in the whole recycling system, including prevention at the source, information disclosure, and recycling and treatment. With that, the entire process from production to recycling can be turned into a closed loop. For example, producers can increase the recycling rate by 30 percent if they factor in recyclability at the product design stage. Producers can also choose raw materials that are easier to recycle so they can be part of the solution.

In countries such as Germany and Japan, circularity for single-use plastics is already a reality thanks to EPR. China must put in place an EPR scheme for plastics if we want to make plastic recycling and reutilization work.

Additionally, well-known companies can leverage their brand power to encourage more people to use products made from recycled materials. Many big brands are making recycling pledges and setting goals, which range from expanding processing capacity for recycled plastics, reducing the use of virgin plastics and increasing the use of recycled plastics as a share of total input.

Encouraging brand names to join the cause can help educate the public about environmentally friendly consumption. It is important to involve consumers as they also have a part to play in trash sorting and recycling, and they have a stake in knowing where recycled trash ends up and how to go about recycling the right way.

At the same time, the plastic recycling industry also has to participate in creating a domestic recycling system, through measures such as establishing well-run, large-scale hubs to collect and consolidate plastic waste from nearby cities to keep costs low and ensure quality. Recent innovations such as door-to-door collection are steps to increase the quality of recycled materials, which would otherwise end up as trash. Such developments should be encouraged and scaled up.

Jiang Nanqing, is secretary-general of the China Plastics Reuse and Recycling Association.