Analysis: properly disposing of plastic packaging is often a bit of a puzzle because of which plastics can and cannot be recycled
Every year, the EU emits the equivalent of 13.4 million tonnes of CO2 from plastic production alone. Most of these emissions are CO2, but there are also others like methane to take into account. That's the same amount as driving around the world three million times. Plastic production from non-renewable sources has been steadily increasing since the 1950s, and it is projected that the plastics industry will account for 20% of the global oil use by 2050, up from seven percent used today.
Along with the depletion of fossil fuel resources, the negative environmental effects of using fossil fuels in plastic production are significant. One method to overcome the harmful effects of 'virgin’ plastic production is to recycle plastic and use it again.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, EPA's Mary-Frances Rochford on our rising waste volumes and falling recycling rates
In 2019, 29 million tonnes of plastic waste were collected in Europe. In Ireland, 1.1 million tonnes of packaging waste were produced. That’s the same mass as about 110 Eiffel Towers. At the end of its life, plastics are generally disposed of in one of three ways: landfill, incineration or recycling. Of these, recycling is by far the best, but Ireland's rate of plastic packaging recycling in 2019 was just 28%. The problem is that the packaging itself can make it confusing to sort.
We tend to say ‘plastic’ as if it is just one thing, when in fact there are many different types. There are six common types of plastics (and then a seventh which is a mish-mash of all the rest), all of which are linked to one of those triangular symbols with the numbers in them that we see on nearly all packaging.
This, though, is where it gets confusing. While each number is surrounded by what appears to be a ‘recycling’ symbol, this does not mean that the material is in fact recyclable in Ireland. Indeed, in the case of certain types of polystyrene (Number 6), there are very few places that actually do recycle it. That means that styrofoam - the hard packaging commonly used for the transport of delicate large items like washing machines - cannot be thrown in your green bin. Instead, it goes in the black bin and ends up in landfill.
Where things get really confusing is polystyrene can be placed in the green bin if it's used for something like a coffee cup lid. Even worse, that lid might be on a disposable cup that can’t be recycled.
A general rule of thumb is that numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 can be readily recycled in Ireland and placed in your green bin at home. Websites like MyWaste allow you to check how you should correctly dispose of a huge range of items. The main thing to remember when it comes to recycling plastics is that items which can be recycled need to be clean, dry and loose. Loose means they can’t be in paper bags, or made of mixed materials, like a disposable coffee cup’s mix of plastic and paper. Even with a plastic bottle, the lid and the bottle might be made of different plastics and have to be put in the green bin separately.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Pauline McDonogh from MyWaste on how soft plastics can now be placed in Irish household recycling bins
That’s not the only issue with packaging on plastic. If a piece of packaging says that it's compostable, it does not mean in your home compost bin. It needs the special conditions of an industrial compostor, so it has to go in your brown bin. Otherwise, they might as well just be regular plastic, clogging up the environment.
Certain symbols can confuse matters even further. The Green Dot is often used as a mark of greenness on products, but it just means the company who made the item contributes to recycling efforts. While that’s a good thing to do, It does not mean that the particular product is recyclable.
It can be a lot to keep in your head at once. The simplest option is to reduce plastic use. If we all used less plastic, there would be less plastic to fret about disposing of. So if possible, look for alternatives.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's News at One, Joan O'Sullivan travels to Malaysia to see how they are tackling the problems caused by the huge influx of foreign plastic waste into the country
But that’s not always possible, so there are lots of things we can do when we have to buy plastic to help. This includes making sure that they’re disposed of correctly - like putting them into your bin clean, dry and loose - or doing a quick check before dropping something into the wrong bin.
We can also try to take these factors into consideration when we are buying items. Try to avoid buying items that are made of mixed material. If we must buy them, choose products where the different materials can be easily separated.
Another option is to look for products that use bioplastics. These are a new form of plastics which are produced from things like corn, sugar cane or even food waste rather than from fossil fuels . They can be produced far more sustainably than fossil-fuel based plastics and the added benefit is that many of these bioplastics can be disposed of by composting (as long as they go in your brown bin).
Even though trying to figure out how to dispose of plastic correctly can be really confusing and frustrating, it is possible to do so, and in doing so, we can help make things just a little better.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
Dr. Jennifer Gaughran is a co-lead on the Grain-4-Lab project and an Assistant Professor in the School of Physical Sciences at DCU.
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