YES, a 100% sustainable plastic industry is possible
Source: https://www.futurity.org/sustainable-plastics-industry-recycling-biomass-2894422/
Lots of recycling, combined with the use of CO2 from the air and biomass, could make a completely sustainable plastics industry a reality, according to a new study. In the study, the researchers point out that plastic products must be better aligned with the circular economy in future. To this end, manufacturers should work more closely with recyclers. According to the study’s authors, it would be desirable if plastics manufacturers had a wider understanding of the responsibility they hold: Today, responsibility often ends where the product leaves the factory gates. The scientists therefore call for product stewardship to encompass the entire life cycle—including disposal and recycling—as the basis for optimizing the design of sustainable processes. In any case, pushing recycling is the right way to go: given that it has no serious disadvantages, it should be treated as a special case in the transformation of the economy toward sustainability. In many other areas, conflicting goals arise. Take, for example, the production of synthetic fuels, which is extremely energy-intensive, or the use of biomass, which competes with food production. Recycling plastic, on the other hand, does not lead to such a conflict of goals. “Recycling efforts should be intensified wherever possible,” Bardow says. “As a good rule of thumb: More recycling of plastic always leads to more sustainability.”