Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
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Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of productionSecond, even when <strong>the</strong> grades are compatible, <strong>the</strong> structure of <strong>the</strong> polymer is degradedby recycling through <strong>the</strong> production process. For practical purposes, new packagingsuch as PET bottles cannot contain more than 15 to 25% of recycled material.Moreover, bottles with recycled content cannot be recycled a second time to producea third bottle. This compounds <strong>the</strong> problem of sorting for recycling. Most plasticrecycling is <strong>the</strong>refore ‘down-cycling’ into products such as plastic pallets where <strong>the</strong>purity of <strong>the</strong> polymer is less of an issue. This saves on o<strong>the</strong>r materials, such as wood forpallets, and it delays dumping for <strong>the</strong> life time of <strong>the</strong> new product but it has no effecton <strong>the</strong> use of ‘virgin’ resins in packaging.Finally, industry recycling programmes in fact served a different purpose. Coupledwith PR, <strong>the</strong>y gave <strong>the</strong> impression that <strong>the</strong> production of virgin plastic and <strong>the</strong> amountof waste going to <strong>the</strong> overflowing dumps was being reduced. The intention was toovercome consumer and regulatory resistance and <strong>the</strong> outcome was an increase inproduction, consumption and dumping.The South African industry is mimicking <strong>the</strong> message, saying that “where <strong>the</strong> polymerlogo is not present, it is much more likely in South Africa that <strong>the</strong> spent / waste item,will end up in landfill and that’s just not an acceptable option anymore”. 83 To <strong>the</strong>contrary, it is highly likely that <strong>the</strong> item will end up in <strong>the</strong> dump irrespective of <strong>the</strong>polymer logo and even in <strong>the</strong> unlikely event that <strong>the</strong> consumer finds a recycler. Theintention of expanding waste is evident in <strong>the</strong> next sentence: “We need to recoveras much as we can for recycling or energy recover” [sic]. The packaging and plasticsindustries are explicit in <strong>the</strong>ir promotion of incineration and, as is shown elsewhere,incineration demands <strong>the</strong> waste that feeds it.In <strong>the</strong> energy sector, plastic and paper are known as ‘non-energy’ because <strong>the</strong>y areproduced from energy resources. Plastic has a much higher energy content than paperand, in <strong>the</strong> view of eThekwini waste managers [IWMP 2004], <strong>the</strong> South African wastestream does not have a high enough proportion of plastic to make energy productionfrom waste incineration viable. The reason given is that most South Africans are poor.It may also be hoped that <strong>the</strong> plastic bag regulations, in so far as <strong>the</strong>y have beensuccessful, have fur<strong>the</strong>r reduced plastics in <strong>the</strong> waste stream.83 PFSA website at www.plasfed.co.za<strong>Wasting</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nation</strong> - groundWork - 117 -