This article shows important facts about plastic waste. The current handling of this problem is discussed. Finally, a possible solution of a part of this problem with Deposy, the deposit system, is described.

Facts about plastic waste

Between 1950 and 2017 a total of 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic were produced. That is more than one tonne for each person now living on Earth. The biggest share consists of single-use products and packaging. Less than ten percent of all plastic ever produced has been recycled.

In 2015, 407 million tonnes of plastics were produced worldwide.

Source: Plastikatlas [2]

In 2018, over 1.13 trillion items of packaging — most of them plastic — were used for food and drinks in the EU alone.

Plastic fuels climate change. If current trends continue, plastics will have caused around 56 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions by 2050. In other words: making plastic could cost 10 to13 percent of the remaining carbon budget to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Source: Plastikatlas [2]

The innovative deposit system Deposy could be a solution for a part of this plastic waste issue. A very large number of plastic products could equipped with a QR code and collected in an innovative deposit system based on IOTA. Assuming a weight of 50 g per package, this is about 20,000 packages per tonne of plastic. If Deposy prevails, many trillion plastic products can be equipped with a QR code that contains both data and IOTA as a payment.

Waste Incineration

Most of the plastic waste is not sorted in the first place, but ends up directly in the waste incineration plants. Because there is untiring competition for plastic between the disposers and recyclers. This waste is delivered to where it makes the most money. And today it is usually cheaper to incinerate the waste than to recycle it. This is because recycling is more expensive.

Shipping to Asia

Until January 2018, China was the main destination for plastic waste. The exporting countries, mainly G7 countries, disposed its waste there. Since 1988, around half of the world’s plastic waste has gone to China. There, it was melted and processed into pellets for recycling. This changed fundamentally when China announced that it would only accept plastic waste packages with less than 0.5 percent contamination by non-recyclable materials. Asia’s bans and restrictions and increasing plastic waste have prompted some countries to propose reforms. In May 2019, 187 countries agreed to amend the Basel Convention, which regulates trade in hazardous waste. The disposal of plastic waste is therefore subject to stricter controls. The amendment is expected to enter into force in 2021 and will increase accountability. However, its success depends on rigorous controls. [2]

Recycling

Recycling tries to stop this overexploitation of nature by using used packaging as a source of raw materials. This is becauseour packaging waste contains large quantities of high-quality plastics that can be reused using innovative technologies and serve as the basis for new packaging. The dual systems in Germany are responsible for recycling packaging waste. These are recycling companies that specializein collecting, sorting and processing recyclable waste. The best known of these is the Green Dot. In addition to glass, paper and metal, therecycling companies mainly collect old plastic from the yellow bags. Sorting plants then group the packaging and bottles according to type of material. This is important because the various types of plastic such as PET, PE and PP cannot be recycled together.

This sorting step is very time-consuming and expensive, and it is at this point that it is often decided whether plastic waste will be recycled or whether it will be sent for thermal recycling. After sorting, the individual types of plastic are shredded into flakes, cleaned, finely sorted again and finally melted intogranulate. The resulting recycled material is a secondary raw material from which new bottles, trays and other types of packaging can be produced without the need to re-produce new plastic from fossil raw materials. Without good waste separation and sorting, no recycling. Because everything that ends up in household waste is burned in waste incineration plants. However, if packaging waste ends up in the Yellow Sack or Yellow Bin in a slightly different way than packaging waste, this makes sorting and thus the entire recycling process more difficult. The sorting plants specializein packaging, everything else is sorted out and incinerated. Unfortunately, this all too often leads to considerable loss of easily recyclable plastic [3].

Example Takeaway Food and Drinks

More and more suppliers of takeaway food and drink are offering their customers a rebate if they bring their own reusable containers. But the throwaway mentality is still dominant, because it makes certain aspects of life that little bit easier. The costs that are incurred by waste are not included in the price of the product. The specific mechanisms differ from one country to another. In many developing countries, a decisive factor was that consumer-products giants supply their products in sachets: to gain market share, shampoo, detergent and ketchup are sold in small, sealed plastic envelopes. The suppliers argue that this makes it possible for low-income consumers to afford such products. But the result is yet more trash. The disastrous aspect is that such mini-portions embody a drastic mismatch between the amount of packaging needed per unit of product, while at the same time boosting consumption. That is a catastrophe in places where drinking water supplies are inadequate and people resort to buying plastic bottles of water. Without a functioning waste disposal system, they drown in a flood of plastic trash. The producers offer no solutions for disposing of or recycling the packaging. Litter from convenience items has grown to be a massive problem in many cities in the developing world. For there is no incentive to collect them, and no way to dispose of them in an environmentally responsible way. For many of these things, an incentive system like Deposy could be the solution.

The Deposy Solution: Motivation for Recycling

Deposy is a deposit system with an innovative approach to waste management. Cutting-edge technology enables a better protection of our climate and environment. Deposy is a system with a positive social impact in communities as well as in global use.

Deposy offers an incentive to hand over the used packaging. An additional deposit is levied on the purchase of a product equipped with a special QR code. After use, it can be returned to a deposit machine. Whoever returns it receives the deposit e.g. as IOTA payment on his wallet (digital wallet). The amount can also be paid to his account in local currency via cooperation partners. Deposy is carried out by the BIOTA association.

If you become curious then take a look at the Deposy website: https://www.deposy.org

Support Desposy

I’m a part of the Deposy Team. We rely on your support and look forward to everyone who donates. If you want to support us, you have several options. You can donate via the following platforms:

[1] https://www.dguht.de/plastikmuell-risiko-fuer-mensch-und-umwelt/

[2]https://www.boell.de/sites/default/files/plastikatlas_2019_3._auflage.pdf?dimension1=ds_plastikatlas

[3] https://initiative-frosch.de/recycling-eine-erfolgsgeschichte/