News round-up

SUSTAINABILITY NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Plastic levy increase – who will it benefit?

Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni annouced during his 2020 Budget Speech in March that there will be an increase in the plastic bag levy from R0.12 to R0.25 at the beginning of April. Moreover, the Budget Review revealed that National Treasury will also be consulting on extending the current levy on plastic bags to all single-use plastics used for retail consumption, including plastic straws, utensils and packaging in 2021.

According to Anton Hanekom, executive director, Plastics|SA, Mboweni’s increase announcement conveyed the impression that the funds raised will be used to mitigate climate change. He asserts that if the expected R250 million generated from raised levies will be used to boost recycling and grow a circular economy, they would welcome and support the minister’s announcement. However, past experiences have proven otherwise.

“Past experiences (such as the Buyisa e-Bag initiative) have shown that government views the plastic bag levy as an easy way to raise funds to pay for other projects that have nothing to do with the environment,” Hanekom said. The Buyisa e-Bag initiative was established to administer the funds by promoting waste minimisation and awareness initiatives in the plastics industry, expanding collector networks, creating jobs, as well as kick-starting rural collection.

Study reveals food waste may be worse than previously estimated

Experts have identified food waste as one of the top sustainability problems globally and the UN Environment Programme has a goal of eliminating half of all food waste by 2030.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that about a third of all food produced goes to waste.

The FAO came to this conclusion by looking at how much food is lost during production and how much is lost in the kitchen. By looking at these sources of waste, the UN proposed that the average person tosses out roughly 214 calories’ worth of food per day.

However, researchers from Wageningen University & Research found that consumers are wasting twice as much food as initially estimated.

They also found a link between affluence and food waste; meaning, the more money a person makes, the more food they tend

However, according to Hanekom, the project quickly failed and less than half of the money raised went towards recycling projects. The rest was channelled into the National Revenue Fund and allocated to government departments.

Hanekom asserts that the plastics and packaging industries continue to work at addressing the issue of plastic bags polluting the environment and, despite the lack of government funding, the South African plastics recycling industry continued to record year-onyear growth.

The industry hopes that the money raised through the new plastic bag levy will be ringfenced for the recycling industry.

to waste. They discovered that people in poorer nations begin wasting more food as they earn more money.

“Globally, if food waste could be represented as its own country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind China and the US,” the agency said on its website.

The new study focused solely on what happens to food when it reaches the consumer. Waste that’s created through the production process wasn’t analysed.

The researchers found that it’s far worse than the FAO thought – they believe people are actually wasting 527 calories’ worth of food a day.

Coca-Cola SA launches 2 ℓ bottles that can be reused up to 14 times

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) has introduced a 2 ℓ returnable bottle made of PET plastic, which can be reused up to 14 times.

The recommended retail price for the 2 ℓ Coca-Cola Original Taste – Less Sugar beverage is R15. Other brands, like Coca-Cola No Sugar, Sprite and Fanta, are also be available in the new 2 ℓ returnable

This not only offer consumers value for money but, it’s also good for the environment because this returnable bottle can be recycled and made into new bottles.

The project is being piloted in the Mandela Bay and Border-Kei districts in the Eastern Cape and, if successful, is expected to be rolled out to the rest of the country.

The returnable bottles are made of PET plastic and are labelled with a new paper label, with ‘Returnable’ appearing in green on the front of the bottle.

“Through innovation and our infrastructure investment in this packaging line, we are providing consumers with greater value for money, while introducing a PET plastic bottle that can be reused,” says Velaphi Ratshefola, managing director of CCBSA.

PET plastic bottle at a recommended retail price of R12.

Once a bottle is returned to CCBSA, it will go on a journey to be cleaned to Coca-Cola’s stringent measures and requirements, then refilled and start its next life cycle.

When the bottle reaches the end of its 14 usable life cycles, it will be recycled and turned into another PET plastic bottle.

“We’re committed to increasing recycled material in our packaging and ensuring more packaging is collected and recycled,” adds Ratshefola. “The launch of the Returnable PET plastic bottle is another way we can use innovation to unlock the value in waste and support a circular economy in South Africa.”

Scientists on the verge of creating 100% recyclable plastic

One of the biggest problems with plastics is that even ‘recyclable plastics’ aren’t always able to be fully broken down and reused again. In truth, less than a third of recyclable plastic is repurposed after the recycling process.

The rest is either tossed along with other nonrecyclable waste or incinerated.

However, new research efforts by the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory may offer a solution in the form of plastics material that is designed to be fully recyclable.

Peter Christensen, lead author of the study published in Nature Chemistry, says that even though most plastics were never made to be recycled, they have discovered a “new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective.”

New type of plastic material

Chemicals added to many plastics such as fillers that make the materials tough or plasticisers that make plastics flexible often stay in the plastic even after it has been processed at a recycling plant.

Thus, the biggest challenge for the research team has been finding a way to separate the polymers of the plastic from the various additives often used to give the finished product specific qualities.

The scientists developed a new type of plastic material called poly (diketoenamine), or PDK for short.

PDK differs from traditional plastics in the way additives bond to it and, unlike plastics that pile up at recycling plants today, the bonds the PDK plastic forms with other chemicals are reversible via an acid bath.

This means that recycling PDK plastic allows for the base material to be fully separated from any additional chemicals that were added later, thus enabling it to be 100% reusable. PDK plastic can be broken down at molecular levels and can be repeatedly reassembled into another object with a different shape, colour and texture without the material losing its quality.

Researchers plan on testing the new plastic with a variety of additives to demonstrate its potential while ensuring that it can always be broken back down into its most basic form and turned into something new.

If that goes well, this breakthrough could play an important role in the efforts to save the world from plastic pollution.