Companies using sustainable plastic could deliver a $3.5 billion environmental savings, according to a discussion paper published by environmental data company聽Trucost. To achieve these benefits, business and policymakers have to massively scale up initiatives such as plastic recycling and bioplastics.
The Trucost paper,聽鈥淪caling Sustainable Plastics: Solutions to Drive Plastics towards a Circular Economy,鈥澛爄dentifies the actions needed by companies, governments, environmentalists, and researchers to achieve industry-wide scaling up of sustainable plastics. The paper draws on interviews with plastics and recycling experts, as well as case studies of companies that have worked with Trucost to measure the environmental benefits of initiatives, including U.S. computer giant Dell and green technology company聽Algix.
Says Trucost, plastic has many benefits, ranging from reducing food waste by providing packaging to cutting transport pollution due to its light weight. However, around 8% of current fossil fuel dependency is attributed to plastic production, and much of the plastic produced is used just once and then thrown away. The environmental cost to society of plastic use by the consumer goods sector alone is estimated at $75 billion, largely due to climate change and pollution impacts, in particular marine pollution.
Innovations to achieve a more circular economy such as closed loop recycling, plant-based plastic, and biodegradable polymers offer ways to reduce the environmental cost of conventional, fossil fuel-based plastic, according to Trucost. But so far, few companies are pioneering these new processes and technologies.
The paper outlines how Dell鈥檚 OptiPlex 3030 computer is being produced using recycled plastic recovered from electronic equipment from Dell鈥檚 own take-back scheme. Trucost鈥檚 environmental benefit analysis identifies environmental cost savings to society of $700 million per year if the entire computer manufacturing industry switched to closed-loop recycled plastic.
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