The world recycles just 14 per cent of the plastic packaging it uses. Even worse: 8 million tonnes of plastic, much of it packaging, ends up in the oceans each year, where sea life and birds die from eating it or getting entangled in it. Some of the plastics will also bind with industrial chemicals that have polluted oceans for decades, raising concerns that toxins can make their way into our food chain.
Recycling the remaining 86 per cent of used plastics could create $80 billion-$120 billion in revenues, says a recent report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. But those revenues will never be fully achieved without designing new ways to breakdown and reuse 30 per cent (by weight) of the plastic packaging that isn’t recycled because the material is contaminated or too small for easy collection, has very low economic value or contains multiple materials that cannot be easily separated. Think of candy wrappers, take-out containers, single-serving coffee capsules and foil-lined boxes for soup and soy milk.
Large companies such as Coca-Cola have developed plant-based alternatives to conventional, petroleum-based plastic so that they can break down easily without contaminating the soil and water. The market opportunity has also attracted small, young companies that focus on developing recycling technology to tackle that troublesome 30 per cent of plastic packaging that is headed to landfills at best, and, at worst, to our rivers, lakes and oceans.