translated from Spanish: How much it cost to actually stop using plastic

more than 78 million tonnes.
That is the number of plastic containers that occur around the world each year in an industry that is worth nearly $198,000 million.
Only a part of that is recycled and disposed of the majority.
Plastic waste currently is in every part of our planet, from remote Antarctica up to the depths of the ocean.
5 graphics to understand why plastic is a threat to our planet “There are so many waste plastic in the world that could cover a country like Argentina”: warning of a scientific group on pollution that threatens our planet several campaigns and TV programs, as Blue Planet II BBC, deepened the already existing public concern about the issue.
In response, Governments, manufacturers, and retailers began to take measures to cope with the tide of plastic waste.
More than 60 countries are implementing laws aimed at reducing the use of plastic bags and other similar materials for single use only.
Since this July, Vanuatu, a small island in the South Pacific, it became the first nation in the world to ban plastic bags of single use, sorbets and styrofoam food containers.
But how much it can cost to change the way in which we buy our products?
The cost of the change around 8 million metric tons of plastic are thrown to the ocean each year, according to the data of Earth Day Network.Varias supermarket chains, including the multinational Tesco and Walmart, they promised to reduce the amount of plastic containers in which they sold their products.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi drinks manufacturers, the multinational food and cleaning Unilever, Nestle food producer and the L’ Oréal cosmetics company also committed to ensure that all their containers are reusable, recyclable or that is they can decompose to 2025.
But despite these commitments, much of the food and beverage industry is still trying to determine how to achieve those goals.
The shocking images of the tide of tons of garbage that covered the beaches of the Dominican Republic, some experts fear that, without the right approach, this urgency to banish plastics make products we consume more expensive.
“It is not as simple to say ‘plastic is bad,’ so let’s use something else,” warns Eliot Whittington, director of the policy programme of the Institute for leadership in sustainability at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, who advises beverage manufacturers on the reduction of waste.
“You need a complete change in the way in which we use the packing of the products. Most of the packaging now used only once and are thrown away. We need to leave that and requires some form of leadership of the Government.”
Only in the European Union, more than a third of the food which is sold comes in packs of plastic. And each of its 510 million of residents produces approx. 31kg of plastic packaging waste per year.
One reason why plastic is so dominant in the market is its ability to do more for less: less material is required to make a bottle of drink one glass of plastic.
“Plastics are cheap, lightweight and adaptable in many ways,” says Susan Selke, Director of the school of packaging at the State University of Michigan, United States.
For 50 years, until the plastics revolution accelerated, most of drinks sold in glass bottles.
Currently, almost all are made of a resistant plastic material called PET or polyethylene terephthalate.
The “worrying” finding of plastic particles in water bottles from 11 different brands even though production costs may vary according to the prices of raw materials and energy, is usually not much more expensive to produce a glass one of PET bottle : one US$ 0.01 more, according to some studies.
However, when manufacturers start to transport products in glass bottles, costs begin to rise.
A 330ml plastic soda bottle weighs about 18 grams, while a glass bottle can weigh between 190 g and 250 g.
The transport of beverages in heavier containers requires 40% more energy, producing more polluting carbon dioxide and increasing transportation costs up to 5 times per bottle.
“In many cases, plastics are better for the environment than the alternatives,” Selke says.
More than 60 countries are implementing legislation to reduce the use of plastic bags and other plastic materials for single use only. A report of the American Chemistry Council and Trucost environmental accounting firm estimated that environmental costs would be 5 times higher if the soft drink industry used alternative such as glass, Tin or aluminum instead of containers plastic.
Meanwhile, Governments seek to penalise polluting companies with taxes and levies on carbon and these costs can end up paying consumers.
“The cost of food will increase, there is no doubt about,” says Dick Searle, Chief Executive of the British Federation of packing, which represents the industry in the United Kingdom.
The worrying speed which is growing the large island of trash in the Pacific that already has three times France life size there are those who warn even that leave plastic, after almost 70 years of use it for packaging food, may have other much more costly and unintended consequences.
What may seem like just a plastic bag wrapped around a plant is actually a sophisticated tool to increase its useful life.
“I think that people underestimate the benefits of plastics to reduce the waste of food,” said Anthony Ryan, Professor of chemistry and director of the Grantham Centre for sustainable futures, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.
The shrink wrap used in cucumbers, for example, can duplicate the time of duration of the vegetable, which allows you to stay up to 15 days in the fridge and reduce food waste by half. A cucumber unwrapped would last only 2 days at room temperature and 9 days if refrigerated.
Furthermore, the meat bought in polystyrene trays covered with plastic film usually lasts between 3 and 7 days.
Plastic soda container represents around 20% of the total food and beverage containers in the market, according to data from Coca Cola.Sin however, if it is packaged to vacuum plastic multilayer, maybe kept for up to 45 days without damage.
Fruits and delicate vegetables also keep safe with plastic containers. It was discovered that put grapes into individual plastic boxes reduces waste by 75%.
The plastic wrap can also keep fruits and vegetables in their own small microclimates, known in the industry as packaging in modified atmosphere, which can help prevent that they ripen fast.
Put sweet peppers in a bag with a modified atmosphere can extend its useful life of 4 days to 20, according to the Association of flexible packaging.
A planetary crisis: the terrible consequences of the “plague of plastic” in the oceans of the world extend the shelf life of foods can greatly reduce the cost of the waste of food that globally is estimated at almost US$ 1,000 billion per year , and that to a large extent is provided by manufacturers and retailers.
While some believe that single-use plastic packaging resulted in an increase in the amount of food that we dropped to foster a culture of waste, many in the plastics industry argue that without the plastic packaging, the cost of food waste It could increase.
Bioplastics then, might not make sense banning plastics completely, and a solution could be to improve them.
“Are increasingly more companies that reinvent plastics with additives that help to decompose or fabricate plastics that are biodegradable”, says Eliot Whittington.
Refers to the growing industry of bioplastics, which uses starch or protein from plants such as sugar cane to generate the basic materials of hydrocarbons to create plastics.
Some of these bioplastics are not biodegradable, but others, such as polylactic acid (PLA), can break down over time and some are converted into compost, which means that they disintegrate completely instead of becoming “microplasticos” more small.
Although the production of bioplastics is more expensive.
A box of burgers made from sugar cane is nearly two times more expensive than a styrofoam.
A biodegradable disposable fork made of starch costs 3.5 times more than one basic white plastic.
“Clothes, plastics, dead animals, and even human bodies”: the giant “sea of garbage” that tense relations between Honduras and Guatemala however, there is some resistance to the widespread use of biodegradable materials.
“As the PLA bioplastics are a great polluting traditional recycling,” says Dick Searle.
Surprisingly, due to the increase of oil prices, the recycled plastic is actually cheaper than fresh Virgin plastic made from petroleum.
A ton of Virgin PET costs about US$ 1,300, while the recycled PET costs only US$ 208 per tonne.
The PET with PLA plastic pollution, however, can leave the weaker resulting bottle and unfit for use, which means that the entire batch must be ruled out.
As manufacturers try to replace with more ecological and biodegradable plastics, mixed with conventional plastics only risk will increase, which could raise the cost of materials recycled.
It is a problem that will require new ways to identify, classify and deal with plastics when disposed to ensure that biodegradable materials are kept separate from those that can be recycled.
Use more plastic Anthony Ryan sees other problems with the widespread use of biodegradable containers.
“The symptoms and not the disease are treated,” he said.
“If the disease is our disposable society, making containers biodegradable only encourages people to generate more garbage”.
On the other hand, suggests another solution: use more plastic.
Packaging the food “you can starting from one piece of polyethylene thicker”.
Plastic films and protective trays keep fresh meat in an oxygen-free environment, which helps prevent spoilage to lose. He believes that make plastics more durable could help solve the current problem of waste that is ruining our planet.
Instead of abolishing the plastic completely, it proposes to reuse the packaging that we currently throw away.
Deposit and reuse such schemes that are returned in Exchange for a deposit plastic bottles in cash and then they become to fill, are in use in Finland, Germany, Denmark and parts of Australia.
However, according to the research of the European Commission, these programs can be up to 5 times more expensive that using the container once and then throw away it.
But the world economic forum found that innovative reuse and recharge action would actually reduce the costs of packaging by at least US$ 8,000 million a year.
And as many countries seek to introduce laws that impose new levies on plastic bags and prohibit certain types of single-use packaging, reusable and refillable options may become more attractive.
For the British Antarctic Research ecologist, Claire Waluda, whose team is monitoring the levels of plastic waste in South Georgia, worth paying the price of making these changes.
“We are seeing parents of albatross feeding with plastic to her chicks,” he says. “Anything that can reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment is a step in the right direction”.
Read this article in English

Original source in Spanish

Related Posts