Mahon said: "The hydrocarbon element of the feedstock will be converted into new, stable hydrocarbon products for use in the manufacture of new plastics and other chemicals. Mura's Teesside plant, due for completion in , aims to process 80, tonnes of previously unrecyclable plastic waste every year, as a blueprint for a global rollout, with sites planned in Germany and the US.
By , the company plans to provide one million tonnes of recycling capacity in operation or development globally. Scientists such as Sharon George, senior lecturer in environmental science at Keele University, have welcomed Mura's development.
The plant that is being constructed at Teesside in the UK aims to process 80, tonnes of plastic waste every year Credit: Mura. Yet in the past 30 years, chemical recycling has shown serious limits. It is energy-intensive, has faced technical challenges and proved difficult to scale up to industrial levels. In , a report by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives Gaia , a group of organisations and individuals who promote social movements to reduce waste and pollution, concluded that chemical recycling is polluting, energy intensive and prone to technical failures.
The report concluded that chemical recycling was not a viable solution to the plastic problem, especially at the pace and scale needed. Additionally, if the end product of chemical recycling is an oil used for fuel then the process does not reduce the need for virgin plastic, and burning such fuels would release greenhouse gases just as ordinary fossil fuels do.
We should focus on increasing resource efficiency as a way to minimise waste through greater reuse, refill and repair systems — not relying on recycling to be the saviour. But Mura argues that their plant will fill a much-needed niche. Mura's process aims to complement existing mechanical processes and infrastructure, not compete with them, recycling materials that would otherwise go to landfill, incineration or into the environment.
All the waste plastic they process will be made new plastics or other materials, none will be burnt for fuel. Many chemical recycling plants in the past have gone bust, but Mura believes the supercritical water technique it uses will make it economically viable Credit: Mura. Mura hopes its use of supercritical water for efficient heat transfer will allow them to scale-up to industrial levels, lowering energy use and costs.
It could be a crucial factor for success where others have failed. One of the main reasons chemical recycling has failed to take off so far has been financial collapse. Financial difficulty is something that has held back not just chemical recycling but all kinds of plastic recycling. Wingstrand says the only path to "dedicated, ongoing and sufficient funding at scale" for recycling is through mandatory, fee-based Extended Producer Responsibility schemes.
These would see all industries that introduce plastic contributing funding to collect and process their packaging after its use.
But Mahon believes a system like Mura's is another way to shift the balance sheets in favour of plastic recycling by producing an oil that can be sold at a profit. Even with the ability to unmake all types of plastic so they can be reused again, it is unlikely to make all of the problems with plastic pollution go away. With so much ending up in landfill and the environment, plastic will continue doing what it was made to do — endure. The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2.
The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1. Find out more about how we calculated this figure here. Join one million Future fans by liking us on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter or Instagram. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Future Planet. Future Planet Pollution. The world's first 'infinite' plastic.
Half of all plastic manufactured becomes trash in less than a year, the study found. Much of the growth in plastic production has been the increased use of plastic packaging, which accounts for more than 40 percent of non-fiber plastic. The same team, led by Jambeck, produced the first study that assessed the amount of plastic trash that flows into the oceans annually. That research, published in , estimated that 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year.
That is the equivalent to five grocery bags of plastic trash for every foot of coastline around the globe. Gaining control of plastic waste is now such a large task that it calls for a comprehensive, global approach, Jambeck says, that involves rethinking plastic chemistry, product design, recycling strategies, and consumer use.
The United States ranks behind Europe 30 percent and China 25 percent in recycling, the study found. Recycling in the U. Or phasing them out. All rights reserved. This article was created in partnership with the National Geographic Society. In December , Great Britain's Royal Statistical Society named the core fact in this story—that only about nine percent of all plastic ever made has likely been recycled— its statistic of the year.
This story was first published on July 19, and updated on December 20, with the news of the Royal Statistical Society's recognition. National Geographic is committed to reducing plastics pollution. Learn more about our non-profit activities at natgeo. This story is part of Planet or Plastic? Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics , and take your pledge. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London Love them or hate them, there's no denying their growing numbers have added an explosion of color to the city's streets.
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Epic floods leave South Sudanese to face disease and starvation. Of the 8. Academics and NGOs doubt those numbers, due to the uncertain fate of our waste exports. R ecycling is as old as thrift. The Japanese were recycling paper in the 11th century; medieval blacksmiths made armour from scrap metal. This was contaminated with all sorts of undesirables: non-recyclable materials, food waste, oils and liquids that rot and spoil the bales.
At the same time, the packaging industry flooded our homes with cheap plastic: tubs, films, bottles, individually shrink-wrapped vegetables. Plastic is where recycling gets most controversial. But with plastic, it is not that simple. The carbon-reduction benefits are also less clear.
Household recycling requires sorting at a vast scale. This is why most developed countries have colour-coded bins: to keep the end product as pure as possible. In the UK, Recycle Now lists 28 different recycling labels that can appear on packaging. There is the mobius loop three twisted arrows , which indicates a product can technically be recycled; sometimes that symbol contains a number between one and seven, indicating the plastic resin from which the object is made.
There is the green dot two green arrows embracing , which indicates that the producer has contributed to a European recycling scheme. Since National Sword, sorting has become even more crucial, as overseas markets demand higher-quality material. About halfway, four women in hi-vis and caps pull out large chunks of cardboard and plastic films, which machines struggle with. There is a low rumble in the air and a thick layer of dust on the gangway. Green Recycling is a commercial MRF: it takes waste from schools, colleges and local businesses.
That means lower volume, but better margins, as the company can charge clients directly and maintain control over what it collects. Towards the end of the line is the machine that Smith hopes will change that. Inside a large clear box over the conveyor, a robotic suction arm marked FlexPickerTM is zipping back and forth over the belt, picking tirelessly.
Humans will pick between 20 and 40, on a good day. The machine is intended not to replace humans, but to augment them. The benefits of automation, Smith says, are twofold: more material to sell and less waste that the company needs to pay to have burned afterwards. S mith is not alone in putting his faith in technology.
With consumers and the government outraged at the plastics crisis, the waste industry is scrambling to solve the problem. One great hope is chemical recycling: turning problem plastics into oil or gas through industrial processes. The idea found its way to Griffiths, a former management consultant, by accident, after a mistake in a Warwick University press release.
Intrigued, Griffiths got in touch. He ended up partnering with the researchers to launch a company that could do this. While the global mood has turned against plastic, Griffiths is a rare defender of it.
If you use more glass, more metal, those materials have a much higher carbon footprint. Eventually, Griffiths hopes to sell the machines to recycling facilities worldwide. There is cause for optimism: in December , the UK government published a comprehensive new waste strategy , partly in response to National Sword. They hope to force the industry to invest in recycling infrastructure at home.
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