1. Plastic: Resource and Pollution Source
Human civilization has progressed from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, to the Glass Age, Light Metal Age, and now to the Plastic Age, profoundly influencing human life. Plastic, an essential resource, has become an indispensable part of our lives due to its lightweight, durability, sealing, and waterproofing properties. Its lightweight nature has made transportation and daily use convenient; durability extends its lifespan, and its excellent sealing and waterproofing properties make it crucial in various fields such as packaging, healthcare, industry, and construction.
However, plastic waste management poses a global environmental challenge. Massive amounts of plastic products become waste after use, leading to serious environmental problems. Plastic waste is difficult to degrade, polluting the environment and threatening biodiversity. According to United Nations research, approximately 430 million metric tons of plastic waste are generated globally each year, expected to nearly triple by 2060, with half ending up in landfills and less than one-fifth entering the recycling system. Improper handling may negatively impact the environment, including:
- Ocean Pollution: Plastic waste entering the oceans can cause death and injury to marine life and threaten marine ecosystems.
- Soil Pollution: Plastic waste buried underground can lead to soil and groundwater pollution.
- Air Pollution: Burning plastic garbage emits toxic gases, polluting the air.
- Microplastic Pollution: Decomposed plastic waste forms tiny plastic particles in the environment, entering water sources and the food chain, posing risks to human health.
The dual role of plastic highlights a significant issue: how to balance its contributions to human life with its severe environmental impacts. This is a global challenge that requires collective efforts in innovation, policy, and social awareness to address.
2. Driving the Plastic Recycling Loop
Plastic recycling enables the reuse of plastic resources, reducing the consumption of petroleum resources and environmental pollution. Plastic recycling is a crucial way to reduce plastic waste. The Society of the Plastics Industry in the United States has developed a triangular number plastic recycling symbol composed of clockwise arrows, which is universally recognized and numbered from 1 to 7, representing seven different types of plastic materials:
- PET (e.g., beverage bottles)
- HDPE (e.g., detergent bottles)
- PVC (e.g., salad oil bottles, dishwashing liquid, egg cartons, raincoats, pipes)
- LDPE (e.g., plastic bags, squeezable containers like ketchup bottles)
- PP (e.g., disposable tableware, soy milk bottles, buckets, trash cans)
- PS (e.g., yogurt bottles, Styrofoam, cup noodle bowls, disposable drink cups)
- Others: such as acrylics, PLA biodegradable plastics, ABS, and other recyclable plastics outside the six major categories
Various methods are used for plastic waste disposal, including landfilling, incineration, and recycling. Recycling methods include mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, etc., implemented through waste sorting and recycling facilities, as well as promoting a circular economy model.
Since 1997, Taiwan has effectively managed plastic waste through strategies such as source separation and recycling. The Environmental Protection Administration has promoted a four-in-one recycling system, integrating the efforts of communities, local authorities, recycling processors, and recycling funds to implement resource recovery and reuse. By 2019, the household plastic recycling rate had reached 51%. In the same year, the government launched the "5+2 Industrial Innovation Plan," including the "Circular Economy" section, to further update and strengthen strategies for plastic waste management, demonstrating Taiwan's ongoing progress in plastic waste management.
3. Another Chapter of the Plastic Recycling Loop
Plastic recycling, from source to end, ensures the effective recycling and reuse of plastic waste, with each aspect being an indispensable part of the entire system. We advocate the concept of the plastic recycling loop, including industrial, household, and an intermediate level yet to be established, forming three major circulation dimensions—large, medium, and small—to drive innovation in plastic recycling and enhance the overall plastic recycling framework:
1. Large Loop: Primarily targeting the industrial level, this aspect focuses on the recycling of edge materials and defective products generated by plastic product factories, handled by professional industrial waste handlers. This level emphasizes waste treatment and reuse in the industrial production process.
2. Small Loop: Involving the household and community level, it mainly deals with plastic waste generated in residents' daily lives. Although the government encourages sorting and recycling through recycling policies, the actual implementation often faces challenges such as ambiguity about the destination after collection, mixed resources, and low recycling efficiency. These issues point out bottlenecks in the small loop, requiring further improvement and innovation to ensure effective reuse of recycled resources.
3. Medium Loop: Through newly developed small-scale recycling smart devices, environmentally conscious individuals are encouraged to bring cleaned plastic bottles to designated collection points for recycling. This not only serves as the center for plastic recycling but also becomes an important hub for promoting community exchange, environmental education, and experience sharing.
In professional experience centers or cooperative stores, smart devices can preliminarily classify and crush recycled materials on-site for storage and transportation convenience. These recycled plastic pellets can then enter the large loop through fee-based methods or be creatively transformed into local or corporate distinctive artworks and souvenirs, integrating recycling activities with cultural characteristics or corporate identity. This dimension can develop into a system with operational models.
Meanwhile, KING's Solution Corp. is collaborating with the social enterprise Taiwanderful to assist in establishing a recycling education system that combines enterprise and community development, promoting plastic-free education and establishing this system across Taiwan. This will not only achieve achievements in plastic recycling and environmental education but also provide feasible solutions to the plastic problems faced by the next generation, promote a plastic-free lifestyle in communities, and achieve a sustainable future.
4. Envisioning a New Era of Plastics: Sustainable Action
Sustainability and environmental protection have become global issues, and we have the opportunity to achieve the sustainable use of plastic resources to protect the environment and the quality of life for future generations. To do this, we need to collectively find solutions in innovative ways, starting from education at the source, understanding the characteristics of various plastics, and appropriate disposal methods, which is everyone's responsibility. Enhancing environmental awareness, such as reducing the use of single-use plastic products, minimizing plastic waste, increasing recycling rates, and actively adopting eco-friendly plastic alternatives. Through joint efforts, we can call on businesses and communities to work together to address this challenge in life.
If you are a key figure in business operations and interested in ESG sustainability issues, welcome to join the Taiwanderful Alliance .
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