The announcement that all plastics can now be placed in household recycling bins is a tangible indication of the move towards a circular economy with far-reaching consequences for lifestyles and ways of doing business. The pursuit of systemic sustainability places considerable new demands on householders, businesses and waste operators.
Although it will be many years before we can look forward to 100 per cent recycling of plastics, at least Ireland is building its own plastics recycling infrastructure, while material recovery facilities are investing in better segregation of waste.
This has been helped by Repak, a recycling company, pushing waste operators in the right direction by charging higher fees on difficult-to-recycle plastics and investing €10 million in infrastructure which has improved the quantity and quality of plastics coming through sorting facilities.
The move announced by the Government and Repak of a return to processing soft plastics that can be scrunched in the hand ends confusion for householders. Their side of the bargain is having to place “clean, dry and loose” items in their recycling bins. More importantly, changed market conditions underline how good plastics, notably simple polymers, have durability and can be recycled repeatedly, if infrastructure is right.
It may seem counter-intuitive given the appalling scale of plastic pollution in marine environments but recyclable plastics have an important role to play, especially in ensuring food safety and minimising contamination risk in healthcare.
It is reassuring in that context that four plastics recycling plants are in various stages of development with capacity, for instance, to recycle many millions of plastic PET bottles put into circulation in Ireland every year. It is another illustration that the right kind of plastic is valuable. Yet some 67 per of all plastics are currently used in cement-making kilns – albeit replacing fossil fuels – or mixed with other waste burned by incineration; clearly not the best use. There is much work to be done before the plastics dial is tipped in the right direction.