In this blog I will talk about why most of the organisations who are trying to solve plastic pollution can not tackle plastic waste pollution.
I recently realised that most of the organisations are copying each other via one strategy to tackle plastic pollution and that is recycling. They encourage individuals to start-up and create a new solution to apply recycling. They are investing fortunes to make their strategy and new ideas viable whereas the plastic waste is increasing rapidly and radically.
The water and land surface temperature is increasing, negatively affecting our environment, water, wildlife and life under water and causing climate change as well as the economy. For instance, taxpayers are paying £800M for plastic recycling in the UK but why is plastic pollution getting worse. Well, the answer to this question is simple, because they are applying the same strategy “recycling” instead of reducing plastic use strategy.
The problem is that their new recycling products are not viable and they are all time and cost consuming. Most of these techs lack of a sustainable infrastructure and most of them are in their early stages and already facing issues in the process. Also not all the plastic wastes get to the landfills. There’s a shortage in landfills capacity and most developed countries shipp their plastic wastes to poor countries which causes unethical and safe workplaces for unskilled and educated employees with low salaries. I have included some of their chosen start-ups which aim to tackle plastic pollution and why they are not viable.
Most these awarding organisation chasing start-up who all follow recycling strategy for example,
Scrapp LTD, their mobile application guides you through your local recycling rules by simply scanning the barcode of any item. Will every individual use the app or have the time for it?Therefore, there is quantitative and qualitative research needed to measure if the solution is viable. Another example, Green Business has created a software so the industries can track and manage their wastes. I believe the giant global plastic polluters like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle have the same strategy in place. For example, Coke developed a new strategy in 2019 to track and manage their plastic waste but the scores show that they have not been able to tackle the problem.
Or the other solution is replacing plastic packaging with other virgin resources which unknown problems will arise soon or later despite the technological, costs and time factors.
For instance, Enzymity is a start-up and via biotechnological process using enzymes to turn plastic waste into virgin-grade plastic but there are challenges to this process. According to Khan Academy in (2022) 1), PH 2), temperature and 3), concentration are three factors that affect the process.
Therefore, I would like to gather data to give in-depth insights to the recycling strategy and use new resources to replace plastic. Please take part in my experiment which is a questionnaire to analyse the viability of these new ideas/start-ups and to stress their strategical problem.
Please follow me on LinkedIn where I will be sharing the questionnaire. https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeabbassi/
References:
Khan Academy (2022) Enzyme structure and function. Available at: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/cellular-energetics/environmental-impacts-on-enzyme-function/a/hs-enzymes-review (Accessed: 25th January 2022).
Scrapp Ltd
Simplifying waste sorting: Our mobile application guides you through your local recycling rules by simply scanning the barcode of any item.
Country: UK
URL: www.scrapprecycling.com
Green Business: Our environmental compliance software helps various industries to track, log and manage their environmental assets.
Country: Ireland
URL: www.edac.ie
Enzymity
Closing the plastics loop: Our biotechnological process using enzymes turns plastic waste into new virgin-grade plastic.
Country: Latvia
URL: www.enzymity.com
MBA Blogger 