And where should you be putting yours? Your email address will not be published. For Hong Quan Nguyen, director of the Institute for Circular Economy Development at Ho Chi Minh City National University, incineration is not an ideal solution but could help reduce waste overflow at landfills and contribute to the circular economy with energy output. Picture by Mark Jesser. First up, making new glass requires sand. Id suggest the same to you. Book List. Just to break even, well have to reduce emissions by 18 percent. Here are a few reasons: Last but not least, glass takes one million years to decompose in the environment, perhaps even more in a landfill. The global average is about 15 kilograms a year. The plastic itself causes troubles than the drinks inside them.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'wastefreeculture_com-box-4','ezslot_6',109,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-wastefreeculture_com-box-4-0'); Polyethylene Terephthalate can be recycled to produce carpet, clothing and to manufacture more bottles and containers. Laundry Detergent: The 10 BEST All-Natural, and Eco Friendly Options, How to Celebrate Earth Day at Home | 15 Things You Can Do for the Planet. Its great for storing food you get from the bulk food store, leftovers, and homemade cleaning products! Removing sand from the seabed leaves shore communities open to flooding and erosion. Australias largest plastic bag recycling program is unable to process them. Do you have that rate? In Vietnams southern city and commercial hub, there is no official recycling system. On March 30, 2020, EPA published an inventory report on the supply, use, and trade of mercury in the United States, as required by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Yes! They are found in baby bottles, CDs etc. var vOut = ""; Cover material for landfills are a mix of organic, inorganic and inert components (such as glass). In 2019, Vietnams plastic industry contributed $17.5bn to the national economy, equivalent to nearly 7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). But why is recycling so low? Its because still there is a huge lack of sustainable packaging in the business industry. In the next few months we will go together to submit a letter to the officials, Nguyen said. Glass and plastic both have their pros and cons. To give two examples, in our community, even though the type of plastic is recyclable, our community wont accept clear plastic berry containers, because the facility claims they "explode" in the melting process. Only RFID Journal provides you with the latest insights into whats happening with the technology and standards and inside the operations of leading early adopters across all industries and around the world. However, its important to remember that, unlike glass, plastic leeches toxic chemicals into the environment as time passes. Small scale recycling efforts are under way but most rubbish still ends up in landfills and waste-to-energy plans have stalled. Recycling at Home But if we can try to avoid them, we should, says the chair of Clean Up Australia Pip Kiernan. Plibersek says everyone has a role to come up with viable solutions to allow Australians to continue recycling. Woolworths has directed stores to remove collection bins and put up signs informing customers of the suspension. In the absence of a city-wide approach to managing waste, residents are taking matters into their own hands. It shows a citys most popular restaurants, ratings, menus, booking. Glass or plastic, which one is actually better for our environment? We have to make sure the solution has no environmental impacts we have to do it carefully.. Thanks for this. Thanks for this deep dive! Third, some plastics are not commonly recyclable, as are some types of glass. Hopefully as more of us do this we are sending a message to companies about what we want and conditions will improve. Recycling Bicycles Donating Used Bicycles and Parts, For them to accept the item all of the rubber and plastic will need to be removed. They are highly used in personal hygiene products like cleaners, shampoo and body wash products, milk and juice containers, in cereal box liners and also highly used in the children toys. }); Snacking heavyweight Mondelez Australia believes that soft plastic packaging should not be viewed at as the enemy, but more should instead be done to boost its recyclability of this resource if the nations 2025 targets are to be achieved. If possible, put more than one item out at a time. I see my neighbors recycling bins out every week and on occasion I have had the cheek to talk to a neighbor when I notice they are not recycling (um, true it sounds awful, i know, but we wound up friends! Currently, only 40 percent of glass thrown into single-stream recycling collections actually gets recycled. Small scale recycling efforts are under way but most rubbish still ends up in landfills and waste-to-energy plans have stalled. The glass recycling rate is 33 percent, which isnt fantastic compared to other countries (theres a 90 percent glass recycling rate in Switzerland, Germany and other European countries), but still higher than plastic. Ho Chi Minh City authorities have proposed incineration and the conversion of waste to energy as the best solution to its waste problem. Heres a hint: its not just about biodegradability. The choice is yours!if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'wastefreeculture_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_5',115,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-wastefreeculture_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0'); 10 easy Zero waste swaps you can make today, 5 Eco-Friendly Food Storage Containers & Cookware, What do you do with old plastic? Consumers often use melatonin products to stimulate production of the hormone in cases of disrupted sleep cycles and as such, can be used to treat jetlag as it can reset what many call the body clock. But while some see the potential for controlled waste incineration, others worry about the effect on peoples health. These are really harmful to our health and to our environment.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[336,280],'wastefreeculture_com-banner-1','ezslot_2',124,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-wastefreeculture_com-banner-1-0'); Polyvinyl Chlorideis also quite difficult to recycle due to the high presence of chlorine and other hazardous chemical additives. While glass is completely recyclable, unfortunately, there are certain facilities that choose to crush the glass and use it as a landfill cover instead. Instead, can we choose salad ingredients from the loose section and put them straight in the fruit basket or fridge when we get home?. Along with Trans business making bags from used tarpaulin sheets, some stall holders at local markets have set up refill stations to reduce plastic waste while others have begun to use paper packaging for foods, shouldering any additional cost. However, this would only happen assuming at least 50 percent of glass was recycled properly and used to make new glass. Soft plastics such as ice-cream wrappers, pasta packets and plastic bags will now need to be thrown in your rubbish bin. The total fossil fuel energy consumed to make glass in North America, primary energy demand (PED), averaged to 16.6 megajoule (MJ) per 1 kilogram (kg) of container glass produced. You have to keep in mind that the recycling programs differ from city to city. And as for glass a glass artist friend of mine explained that window glass, drinking glass, and bottle glass cant be mixed because of different melting points. I would also say that the demand for single-use plastics arose from our laziness. Ive talked a lot in my post onhow plastics affect us and the environment in unexpected ways. They are also found in disposable cutlery and bowls, packing materials, egg cartons to name a few. Styrofoam has become such an accepted everyday product that people often dont understand how Styrofoam harms the environment. That amount is 35,000 times as heavy as the Empire State Building. } Even though they are safe around food when compared to other plastics some studies shows that it may leach into some chemicals in the exposure of UV light. Plastic bottles and bottle caps rank as the third and fourth most collected plastic trash items in the Ocean Conservancys annual September beach cleanups in more than 100 countries. Unfortunately, even for those of us trying to help the planet, sometimes we dont have a lot of options for buying package-free, or for recycling all items. When you work on this kind of thing you have to stay positive. Sometimes we cannot avoid plastic at all like in the field of electronics. Unfortunately, using glass to cover landfills doesnt help the environment or reduce emissions because its essentially downcycling glass and preventing it from being reused. In fact, in 2007, researchers Peter Gleick and Heather Cooley estimated that satisfying the existing bottle water demand alone required the energy equivalent of between 32 and 54 million barrels of oil. In October, the non-profit led 150 volunteers to collect rubbish in Ho Chi Minh Citys Thu Thiem Ward and collected 100 bags of rubbish within two hours with the support of local authorities. And Ive also mentioned how to avoid them as much as possible to protect our environment. Since the 1950s, we have produced around 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic worldwide. Its really important that we get in the habit of refusing, reducing and reusing before we consider recycling, she says. What is the most common type of plastic waste? A propertys gas usage is measured in megajoules and is recorded using a gas meter. When theyre transformed into products and transported to market, they emit greenhouse gases either directly or via the energy required to accomplish them. Did you know the recycling symbol doesnt mean something is actually recyclable? Raising recyclability: Mondelez Australia pushes recycled soft plastic packaging to help hit 2025 targets . Plastic waste is choking our planet polluting the air, water, and soil both people and wildlife need to survive. Ho Chi Minh City authorities are tasked with controlling waste management and contract private and government-owned companies to collect rubbish and operate landfills where waste is dumped and buried. This masthead has reported that Australias biggest plastic bag recycling program, statement on the organisations website said on Wednesday, commissioned by the Australian government. Of course, there are exceptions, and theres no way were going to completely eradicate single-use, but we can definitely make a HUGE dent in it by being a little more conscious with our purchases. These monomers are then chemically bonded into chains called polymers. I thought choosing glass over plastic was a no brainer so I learned a lot from this read. googletag.cmd.push(function () { Two other companies, Tam Sinh Nghia and Tasco, also began building waste-to-energy plants in 2019, with each of their facilities designed to process 6,000 tonnes of waste a day. Its a bit tricky to avoid soft plastics, given how much we use. Which is truly the eco-friendliest choice when you get down to it, glass or plastic? Humans have created 8.5 billion metric tons of plastics since large-scale production began in the 1950s, and most of it is in a landfill or our environment. Despite changes in global recycling markets that have resulted in an oversupply of recycling material, with fewer markets where some materials can be sold, the City of Torontos Blue Bin recycling program remains strong. The interest in cleaner and better-for-you snacks shown by big food and beverage brands, including Mondelez, Nestle and Vitasoy, is paving the way for a new specialised area of plant-based proteins to enter the market, namely the RuBisCo leaf protein. To be fair though, factories that produce glass also create emissions and run on fossil fuels for the most part. Australians generate more single-use plastic waste per capita than any other country in the world about 60 kilograms a year followed closely by the United States, according to research from the Minderoo Foundation. My account, By Pearly Neo Australia uses about 70 billion pieces of soft scrunchable plastics, including food wrappers, each year. Researchers only expect this number to grow. Solid municipal waste often goes unsorted or treated, and plastic is piled or buried along with food waste and other types of rubbish. And state and commonwealth environment ministers agreed in October to work with the private sector to phase out waste and pollution such as soft plastic ice-cream wrappers and pasta bags by 2030. October 14 SpaceX ferries astronauts back to Earth after half-year away So, make sure to put the plastics at the right recycle bin to avoid the mistake. The United Nationss first intergovernmental negotiations to agree on a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution are currently under way. Its population of more than 10 million produces about 9,500 tonnes of domestic rubbish every day, and if Tran did not repurpose the tarps once used for shop awnings and as truck covers, they too would be headed to the dump. The kilonova recorded a burst of similar luminosity, duration and colour to that which accompanies previously described gravitational wave. We have answered many questions like can glass be recycled, is glass biodegradable, and is plastic a natural resource? but feel free to let us know if you have other questions. Sign out Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) granted the firm a 15-month exclusivity for its non-GMO 2-FL fermented using lactose as a substrate. Explore our free curriculum-linked resources for students aged 14+ Students: Our resources have been designed to give you a wide understanding of what it takes to run an internationally successful business, whilst helping to develop core employability skills and explore work opportunities beyond the school gates.. Teachers: Introduce your students to curriculum-linked Is it really so much better for the environment than plastic? Please avoid these kinds of plastics as much as you can because it is not only bad for your health but also for the environment due to its low recycling rate. However, its important to note plastic releases toxic chemicals into their surrounding environment as they break down, unlike glass. BPA is produced on an industrial scale by the condensation of phenol and acetone, and has a global production scale which is expected to reach 10 million tonnes in 2022. Once the final product is created, its transported so it can be washed and sterilized, then transported again to stores for sale or use. If instead it is lack of recycling programs (or adequate ones) in many communities, or perhaps in institutions (schools, businesses, restaurants), then we need a different approach. Lacto-N-tetraose (LNT), 3-fucosyllactose (3-FL), 3-Sialyllactose (3-SL), and 6-Sialyllactose (6-SL) are some of the other HMOs that the firm is focusing on. Fascinating answers to perplexing questions delivered to your inbox every week. Thank you and keep up the great work, sincerely an 8th grader. Recycling plastic is a bad idea and, until we can be sure of where its going, we should stop doing it. This is cheaper than actually recycling the glass, or finding another cover material for landfills. So avoid Polypropylene as much as possible. Example: Accepting the plastic bags at the grocery store instead of taking our own bag. dataLayer.push(dataLayerNews); And thats just bottled water! So, with the information in this post, choose your plastics wisely and avoid them in the unwanted areas. Even though we should choose more sustainable options, sometimes its quite difficult to find them. Ho Chi Minh City Kieu Anh Tran heads down a small alley to her workshop in Ho Chi Minh Citys Binh Thanh District. The Beyond Granite pilot initiative, co-curated by Pulitzer Prize-winner Salamishah Tillet, will address history, experiences and stories not currently represented in Washington, D.C.'s commemorative landscape. When you say 33% of household glass is not recycled is any portion of the total, again glass which is not accepted in recycling programs? DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no additional cost to you. if (i!=(aTags.length-1)) Coles will work with government, industry and its sustainability partners to find a long-term solution to support soft-plastic recycling, she says. The glass cullet we produce 95% goes into fiberglass insulation manufacture.This type of cullet allows for use of different types of glass to be mixed. Its recycling rate is also very low. The hormone melatonin, produced naturally in the pineal gland, helps to regulate the circadian rhythm or natural sleep cycles through its release when the body is exposed to a dim or dark environment. By this, youll know which kind of plastic is it and youll also know whether it can be recycled or not. Practical solutions include reusable shopping bags, buying in bulk where possible and avoiding pre-packed or pre-weighed fruits and veggies. Even more, processing leads to various other monomers, such as styrene, ethylene glycol, terephthalic acid, vinyl chloride, and several others. First, how big is the area researched is it just the U.S.? Put small electronic items, such as cell phones, in a clear plastic bag or in an open cardboard box. Get her free e-book 10 Ways to Reduce Trash by signing up to her newsletter and learn how to reduce your waste today. Learn more about the mercury inventory reporting rule. Plastic Forests managing director David Hodge says products like the recycled PLUSposts pickets are ideal for council and government large-scale projects. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Even after you dispose of plastic, be it through dumping, incinerating, recycling and composting (for certain bio-plastics), all release carbon dioxide. Great article. plastic, Another issue with plastic is that most plastics cannot be recycled and I think thats an extremely important to mention. They contain the hormone-disrupting agent BPA and they make severe damage to the reproductive systems in both male and female. Their customers want to do the right thing, Coles and Woolworths should too.. Read theupdated compliance guide for the mercury inventory reporting rule. Consumers participating in wish-cycling where they toss non-recyclables into the recycling bin and contaminate the entire bin. googletag.display('text-ad1'); He said that despite claims from the companys CEO that waste would be treated and sorted with advanced technology, the lack of proper management has led to the pollution that plagues residents. They project the global demand for plastics will increase by some 22 percent over the next five years. According to the EPA, every piece of plastic ever manufactured still exists (except the ones which are incinerated only 12%) somewhere in this world. { In closing, refer to this post as often as you need to! Recycling helps to conserve natural resources, keep waste out of landfill and reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. It should also be noted that plastic takes a very long time to disintegrate and break down. But in order to avoid the plastics, weve to know how these different types of plastic are being used in the market. When were talking about circular economy solutions [waste-to-energy] is just better than the landfill you can collect some energy for Ho Chi Minh City, he said. Also, the amount of transporting the glass has to go through adds up, too, creating more emissions in the long run. Nguyen and other residents affected by Da Phuoc congregate in Facebook groups to discuss the issues they face due to the waste site. This polystyrene could leach into our food and cause severe damage to our brain, lungs, liver and nervous system. One-third of toddlers in Australia are consuming excess sodium in their daily diets, with experts stating the situation is so bad that simply reducing snack or discretionary foods intakes is insufficient. It is commonly known as HDPE and its resin identification code is 2. And this is the reason we are moving towards package-free shopping. How to make the Homemade Milk cream & Butter. wastefreeculture.com participates in amazon affiliate program and various other affiliate programs. In total, thats about four major problems with glass that impact the environment. Learn more about the mercury inventory reporting rule, Read theupdated compliance guide for the mercury inventory reporting rule, Learn more about the 2020 Mercury Inventory Report, Guidelines for eating fish that contain mercury, EPA-FDA advice about eating fish and shellfish, Find fish advisories specific to your state, territory or tribe. Paper | Aluminum | Glass | E-Waste | Plastic | Textile | Food | C+D | Steel. Remove stains from any coloured clothes naturally! Your email address will not be published. Transparency is an issue when youre dealing with private companies.. Maybe this is something that more hair salons could offer ? Supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles have each begun to respond to the suspension of the recycling program. Australian Council of Recycling chief executive officer Suzanne Toumbourou says it is vital that people do not put soft plastics in their recycling bins, as they can damage the machinery at recycling facilities. Lets look at plastics life cycle a little bit closer. From Nguyens perspective, corruption has played a role in the landfill being able to continue operations despite poor management. In fact, its technically downcycled into a lesser quality item, meaning it can never be the same thing more than once. Snacking heavyweight Mondelez Australia believes that soft plastic packaging should not be viewed at as the enemy, but more should instead be done to boost its recyclability of this resource if the nations 2025 targets are to be achieved. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Oops typo, I think that maybe you can use almost any type of sand (eg desert sand) to make glass. I am very, very sad and disappointed about the government.. Guest Post: Ariana Palmieri is the founder of Greenify-Me.com, a blog dedicated to zero waste living and sustainability. for persons who import pre-assembled products that contain a mercury-added component. vOut = vOut.toLowerCase(); Well, perhaps the answer isnt as clear cut as you may think. Here are some more concerning issues: Since we need sand to create new glass, you can see where this would be an issue. Yet another thing to consider is most glass isnt actually recycled. Is glass or plastic more environmentally friendly? How To Reduce Plastic Waste - What We've Learnt. for (var i=0; i < aTags.length; i++) Were happy to work with them to achieve this. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. In a world that simply has too much waste, recycling is an important practice to reduce landfill disposal. (Source), Cigarette butts whose filters contain tiny plastic fibres were the most common type of plastic waste found in the environment in a recent global survey. The company has suggested that people cut back on unnecessary plastic and store soft plastic at home if possible. There, she saw children sitting on the beach making sandcastles out of a mixture of sand and plastic waste. The biggest problem faced by plastic recycling is the sorting of plastic into recyclable and non-recyclable types. Which types of plastics are mostly recycled? High-Density Polyethylene or HDPE can be recycled into toys, piping, Recycle bins etc. If they are recycled, Polystyrene is recycled into school supplies, park benches and insulation. A plastic bottle, for example, takes 450+ years to disintegrate, and a thousand years if its in a landfill. Polyvinyl Chloride is recycled to make more new pipes, flooring etc. That means that no matter what beach you stand on, or which city block you stroll, you are most likely to find Coke-branded plastic posing a threat to both our waterways and communities. What we CAN do, however, is to do what we CAN do, and to keep educating our friends, neighbors, family, and community; to keep asking for better options of stores, companies, and cities. Make sure you look into your local recycling laws before you recycle glass, just to double check itll actually be recycled. Trash or Recycling? This is a difficult conundrum for food and beverage manufacturers as this packaging is still needed in order to ensure food freshness, safety and extend shelf life so many firms such as Mondelez believe that the recycling and use of recycled soft plastic packaging is crucial to ensure sustainability can be achieved within the sector. When we order plastic bags, the postman brings the box, which is much smaller, and much less heavy. The vast majority79 percentis accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter. Please try again later. Colored glass can only be recycled and melted down with like-colors. A revised draft of PDP8 released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on November 11 outlined an increase in the use of coal power until 2030 and a decrease in renewable energy targets. Polypropylene is abbreviated as PP and is found in Tupperware, medicine bottles and they are also found in disposable sanitary pads and diaper liners. Da Phuoc was opened in 2007 in Binh Chanh District, approximately a 45-minute drive from the centre of Ho Chi Minh City. But is it really as bad as they say? What are the different types of plastic waste? They are usually used in beverage bottles and other food packagings due to their ability to keep the product from spoiling. Statistics Explained, your guide to European statistics. Like many Australians, I feel bad when I am forced to put soft plastics in landfill and I do my bit to take them down to my local supermarket to be recycled, she says. In other words, it takes less than a liter of gasoline to make 1 kg of glass. Like Quach, Yobel Novian Putra at the Global Initiative for Incinerator Alternatives worries about the potential harms of burning waste. I plan to ask city authorities to stop burying garbage and use new technology to handle it properly.. Sign up to get our new Explainer newsletter here. There is no credibility, Putra told Al Jazeera. But the younger generation nowadays, they have to bear the burden of our habit of destroying the environment., Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. Make sure the items can be seen by the collections crews. Compared to glass, which takes 1 million years to break down, these numbers may seem kind of low. Then you may ask me, why are we learning about plastics and its recycling in the first place? Plastic water bottles may be useful and cheap but have environmental consequences. Landfills are notoriously bad, for both us and the environment, releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses such as methane into the atmosphere. Vietnam Waste Solutions (VWS), the owner and operator of Da Phuoc, criticised residents for spreading rumours and scaring their workers. In fact, the emissions from plastic in 2015 were equivalent to nearly 1.8 billion metric tons of CO2. Jeff Angel, the director of sustainability organisations at the Boomerang Alliance and Total Environment Centre, says consumers should continue taking their soft plastics to the major supermarkets to place pressure on them and other producers to introduce a soft plastic stewardship scheme. Check out my post where you can find the decay period of all the materials from aluminium to plastic. Basic information about mercury, how it gets in the air, how people are exposed to it and health effects associated with exposure; what EPA and other organizations are doing to limit exposures; and information about products that contain mercury We are going to break it down for you and answer your questions like can glass be recycled, is glass biodegradable, and is plastic a natural resource. In 2017, residents claimed the landfill was polluting waterways after people living nearby noticed a foamy and foul-smelling layer on the surface of a nearby river. Want to know more about it? We really have to focus on the treatment of plastic Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Resources from Other Federal Government Agencies, final rule to amend the mercury inventory reporting requirements. Plastics #1 and #2 (PETE & HDPE) are the types of plastic are mostly recycled.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'wastefreeculture_com-leader-1','ezslot_7',120,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-wastefreeculture_com-leader-1-0'); As we mentioned earlier, plastics #3, #4, #5, #6 and #7 are the hardest types of plastic to recycle. From its name low density, you can understand that they are found in grocery bags, beverage cups, plastic wraps, food containers and its lids, squeezable bottles like ketchup bottles and the plastic coating that youll find in the milk cartons. Years ago, we lived in an environment where we could live freely and play without any plastic, she told Al Jazeera. When the liquid is stored longer in the plastic bottles, there is a high chance of releasing antimony to the liquid which we are about to drink. These can take decades, if not centuries, to decompose. EPA helped design a low-cost mercury capture system that is simple to build and install, uses locally available materials, and reduces mercury emissions by at least 80%. Glass takes a very, very long time to break down. After a revision to Vietnams Law on Environmental Protection went into effect this January, the countrys municipalities were made responsible for sorting and recycling waste. FrieslandCampina said its 2-fucosyllactose trademarked Aequival has been approved by Australias and New Zealands authorities for use in infant milk formula, and that it is on track in expanding its human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) portfolio. Do you know that it takes more than 400 years to decay that single plastic bag which youve used just for a few minutes? We cant consider recycling a magic bullet solution. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Im very impressed with your research, and that you went into this in such depth. When you consider 10 million metric tons of glass is disposed of every year in America, thats not a very high recycling rate. vOut += aTags[i].trim().replace(reg, '-').substring(0,40); It makes our environment cleaner and helps to reduce bad smells in the neighbourhood. To put the carbon footprint measurements I gave into perspective a little better, 1 liter of gasoline is equal to 34.8 megajoules, High Heating Value (HHV). Polypropylene is seldom recycled. In other words, theres really no room for increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Plastic takes 450+ years to decompose in the environment, and 1000 years in a landfill. 06-Dec-2022 at 02:43 GMT. Although Ho Chi Minh Citys waste-to-energy plans are at a standstill, other parts of Vietnam are embracing incineration as an energy source. Never ever use the plastics around food. Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has said she expects the supermarkets to step up and indicate how they will deal with the recycling. Why Plastic Keeps Us Guessing. Plastic is a valuable resource in many ways, but plastic pollution is an unnecessary and unsustainable waste of that resource. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Cu Chi District for the construction of a $400m waste-to-energy plant in August 2019, one of three planned projects. A US study published in 2020 found women who lived 10km (6.2 miles) from any solid municipal waste incinerators had increased breast cancer risks. But without enforcement or implementation, there continues to be no official recycling mechanism. You may familiar with the word Styrofoam when you come across the beverage cups. I'm focused on keeping things simple, easy, and most importantly positive! Copyright - Unless otherwise stated all contents of this web site are 2022 - William Reed Ltd - All Rights Reserved - Full details for the use of materials on this site can be found in the Terms & Conditions, Related topics: When we understand the basics we can able to choose our plastics wisely in our day to day life without harming the environment. And its resin identification code is 5. You can imagine how this impacts carbon emissions. It can drag you down to think you cant help much, she said of her business making bags out of used tarps. It has listings for Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. Tuan Nguyen lives about 10km (6 miles) from Ho Chi Minh Citys largest dump, Da Phuoc. Do you still think of using plastics unwantedly in your life? | Zero waste living, Homemade Mayonnaise Recipe With & Without egg, Hot Chocolate Recipe Homemade & Zero Waste, Chocolate chip cookies recipe Vegan | No Oven, Zero waste Christmas A sustainability guide, Homemade Moisturizers for dry skin in winter, DIY Air Fresheners Zero Waste & Homemade, E-waste: Reuse, Repair, Recycle towards zero waste, Orange peel powder DIY, Skin & Hair Benefits. When it is recycled, plastic can only be downcycled, meaning it becomes an item of lesser quality. When you look up zero waste, youre bound to notice tons and tons of pictures of glass jars everywhere. Glass recycling is a closed-loop system, so it doesnt create any additional waste or by-products. (Also let us know how you found this site.) Australia, New zealand From production to the end of life, plastics have a surprisingly carbon-intense life cycle. The moment this seemingly harmless trash is set on fire, it releases a toxic gas known as dioxin. An official website of the United States government. This article is so amazing Glass or plastic: Which is Better For The Environment? }); This is according to The Leaf Protein Co Co-Founder and CEO Fern Ho, who toldFoodNavigator-Asiain the most recent episode of our F&B Trailblazers podcast that this rising interest from various big brands has served as a major catalyst for the firms rapid growth. First, oil and natural gas are the major raw materials used to manufacture plastics. 50 packaging units of plastic fit into a package the size of a book, 50 glass jars with the same capacity volume are much, much bigger and heavier. When we order packaging for our food (we produce fermented foods), the glass is brought by a truck, and the box is big and heavy. And there will be a number inside the recycling symbol, from that you can say whether they are easy to recyclable or not. I hope Ive covered all your queries regarding the different types of plastic but Id like to add a few. Of the 8.3 billion metric tons that have been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Second, how much is because of lack of local recycling programs and how much of it is because of households not being compliant? Im a hairdresser and Im now encouraging my clients to bring their shampoo bottles back to me for refills instead of buying new ones each time. 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Im taking the trouble now to collect the "plastic film" that we have not been able to avoid and take it to a recycling drop off, and I am trying to spend one morning a week making things from scratch to avoid more packaging and, well, prepared food is usually not of the quality of what we can make from scratch (think crackers, cookies, bread, sauces). Australias Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has proposed changes to the scheduling of melatonin and green tea extract, with new dosage indications for the former and a completely new entry into the Poisons Standard for the latter. So, what now for these soft plastics? contact, 06-Dec-2022 We accept all kinds of glass.I believe your information is based on all the glass being recycled ending its life at a bottle manufacturer. Yes!, and it doesnt help that only 9 percent of plastic is actually recycled, either. The rest is landfilled, leaked into the environment, or incinerated. Our movement has inspired 100+ million participants in 190 countries. Please avoid these kinds of plastics as much as you can because it is not only bad for your health but also for the environment due to its low recycling rate. Well, for example, you can find the recycle symbol at the bottom of the plastic bottles, in which youll find the numbers (refer to the picture below). A lock (LockA locked padlock) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. As you can imagine, creating all those plastics takes a lot of energy and resources. And while Ho Chi Minh Citys waste-to-energy plants promise advanced technologies to minimise toxic emissions in the burning process, Putra worries about a lack of oversight. So lets try to use PET screen protectors rather than buy tempered glass screen protectors. Business. "Recycling is not the answer" certainly holds true. They make a meagre income by collecting plastic bottles, cardboard, and metal and then selling the goods to informal recycling centres. That said, theres so much more to think about in terms of what goes into manufacturing and recycling both glass and plastic, not to mention its afterlife. I work for Ripple Glass a Kansas City, Missouri based glass recycling company. The federal government has set aside $60 million to increase soft plastic recycling. I hope that through this, more residents will pick up the good habit of recycling. Increased consumer pressure could see state and federal governments set targets and bring in regulations that would allow for a mandatory collection system of soft plastics, trials of which are already being run in Australia. Or are you going to be a solution by leading the zero waste lifestyle with the aid of sustainable products? This budget basically estimates the max amount of greenhouse gasses we can safely emit without making global temperatures rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. We also should evaluate whether we must entirely avoid plastics or not. And this disturbs our hormones in the body. Worldwide, we go through 50 billion tons of sand every year. The year before however, the company had been fined $66,100 for illegally discharging waste. However, on the current course, emissions from plastics will reach 17 percent of the global carbon budget by 2050. Its really helpful. It never loses its quality and purity, no matter how many times its recycled. how plastics affect us and the environment in unexpected ways. Meaning: at some point, much of it ends up in the oceans, the final sink. If youre wondering, a megajoule (MJ) is a unit of energy equivalent to one million joules. I have used this website numerous times to educate others on the benefits of going zero waste, but wanted to point out that your section on the creation of glass might be incorrect According to https://www.quora.com/Can-glass-be-made-from-desert-sand and other sites, I think that maybe you can Can you please elaborate and maybe update this article? http://www.gpi.org/sites/default/files/N-American_Glass_Container_LCA.pdf, https://www.businessinsider.com/world-running-out-sand-resources-concrete-2018-6, https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/column/because-you-asked/what-kinds-of-glass-can-i-recycle, https://www.wm.com/thinkgreen/what-can-i-recycle.jsp, https://cen.acs.org/materials/inorganic-chemistry/glass-recycling-US-broken/97/i6, https://trashcansunlimited.com/blog/understanding-landfill-cover-materials/, https://www.ecori.org/composting/2010/2/1/broken-glass-provides-cheap-cover-at-state-landfill.html, https://education.seattlepi.com/long-glass-bottle-degrade-landfill-5235.html, https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/column/the-list/7-truths-about-glass-recycling, https://plastics.americanchemistry.com/Lifecycle-of-a-Plastic-Product, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170719140939.htm, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/4/1/014009/fulltext/, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190415144004.htm, https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=oil_environment, http://www.getwaste.info/garbage-decomposition-time/. Although there is no official recycling mechanism in Ho Chi Minh City, waste pickers, or ve chai, are the driving force of recycling. Read more explainers here. PP is known for its heat resistant and so they are also found in thermal vests and car parts. Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a3173ea95f37eeedb0857a7506c6624b" );document.getElementById("abf4843e2e").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Indeed. Well, we are going to explain glass vs plastic so you can make an informed decision on which one to use. You gave a MJ rate for glass but not for plastic. The team organises rubbish collection drives in many locations across the country. From the moment raw materials are made into plastic to their disposal, plastic emits carbon dioxide. High-Density Polyethylene is highly recyclable. weve seen that the acidic nature of the tomatoes makes the plastic to leach into our tomato ketchup, Tortilla chips recipe Fried & Baked version from Tortilla, Thinx Period Underwear Review | Period Underwear Guide. Were working to restore it. I expect Coles and Woolworths to step up and indicate how they will deal with soft plastic recycling. This means producing plastic bottles each year releases more greenhouse gas emissions than over a million cars on the road. After all, plastic can only be recycled so many times. dataLayerNews.related_tags = sanitize_gpt_value2("Australia, New zealand"); Good article in a very complex area.You have compared glass and plastic but you are not clear which is better. Learn more about the 2020 Mercury Inventory Report.. This masthead has reported that Australias biggest plastic bag recycling program, REDcycle, has collapsed amid revelations that hundreds of millions of bags and other soft plastic items dropped off by customers at Coles and Woolworths supermarkets are being secretly stockpiled in warehouses. Plastic doesnt truly break down either, but instead becomes microplastics that pollute our waterways and even contaminate our very soil and the air we breathe. For decades, Coca-Cola and other consumer goods companies have relied on the myth of recycling to avoid responsibility for this pollution. Part of the problem is the countrys national power development plan, the still to be finalised PDP8, which will specify the countrys energy mix from 2021 until 2030, and lay out a vision towards 2045. I'm so glad you're here! It has antimony trioxide which is a cancer-causing agent. I had a couple of thoughts reading your numbers that perhaps you can answer. Yes, you can find which kind of plastic it is by its recycling symbol on it. You may have seen it at the bottom of the plastic bottle. It has a low risk of leaching into the foods. Another problem with glass? Yes, when something goes wrong while recycling, the end product of it will completely lead to the landfills because they cannot be used for anything. When we know how these types of plastics are being used we can dramatically decrease the plastic consumption in our daily life. We use sand more than we use oil, and only a specific kind of sand can be used to get the job done (no, desert sand cant be used). In July, the countrys largest incineration plant began operating in the capital, Hanoi. Already theres a significant investment from governments to address the issue as well. Considering weve made 8.5 billion metric tons of it since large scale production began, thats a very small recycle rate. When the wind shifts in his direction, the stench from the decaying rubbish fills his home. Mostly, sand is harvested from riverbeds and seabeds. Plastic pollutes lands and water, degrades the fertility of the soil, and harms animals disrupting the entire ecosystem. The company claimed the foamy and bad-smelling water was the result of sand used for construction at the landfill mixing with the water after a heavy rain. numbers, and everything in between. This puts a huge responsibility on the recycling facilities to process and sort the waste. However, recent revelations about some of the toxic chemicals found in Lexan (plastic #7) bottles are enough to prevent even the most committed environmentalists from reusing themor buying them in the first place. If you use it once and then place it in the recycling bin, try to find another solution. This is another problem!? Once it comes to its end of life, its (hopefully) collected and recycled. In some way, the making of glass is far more polluted than that of plastics. Not only that, but PVC also contains other chemical additives like lead, dioxins, mercury and cadmium. The carbon footprint of plastic is pretty hard to ignore. Because its life cycle is so long, and because glass doesnt leach any chemicals, its better to repurpose and reuse it over and over again before recycling it. but is it actually being recycled? While its a bit idealistic, transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy would reduce emissions from plastic by a whopping 51 percent. JavaScript appears to be disabled on this computer. If present trends continue, by 2050, there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills. Plastic production often begins by treating components of crude oil or natural gas in a cracking process where these components are converted into hydrocarbon monomers, such as ethylene and propylene. Weve all been horrified by the sight of cling-wrapped bananas, Kiernan says, but we also need to consider whether we need to buy a pre-packaged salad in a plastic bag. Soft plastics such as ice-cream wrappers, pasta packets and plastic bags will now need to be thrown in your rubbish bin. Sparklers went off as men dressed in business clothes and wearing hard hats shovelled sand. She says while this incident may temporarily dent Australians confidence in the recycling system, there is a lot of investment and research going into the recycling system more broadly. On the recycling end, advances in technology could lead to new sorting machines and more sustainable polymers. The landfill covers 138 hectares (341 acres), but with about two-thirds of the citys waste trucked to Da Phuoc, space is running out. 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