The World in 2030

The World in 2030 153
Clean Sweep 296 is an American-led initiative to clean up the
oceans. Endorsed by environmentalists such as Jean-Michel
Cousteau, Operation Clean Sweep provides information
and tools to help plastics companies eliminate any transfer
of plastic feedstock pellets to the outside environment.
The larger-scale solutions to the problems of waste plastic
include wider plastics re-use, recycling and energy recovery,
the use of new forms of fully biodegradable plastics, reeducation
about the benefits and the disposal of packaging
(both within the retail industry and to the consumer) and
the encouragement of new patterns of consumer behaviour.
By 2030 we must be able to live a lifestyle that is close to
‘zero waste’; it will help if we start to see waste as simply a
design flaw.
Recycling of plastics is an excellent place to start on our
way towards a cleaned up environment. Recycling plastics
produces new products which, in some cases, require 70 per
cent less energy than making them from scratch (the figure
for aluminium is 95 per cent, for glass 30 per cent and paper
re-making requires 40 per cent less energy). 297 Recycling also
reduces emissions of pollutants than can cause smog, acid
rain and the contamination of waterways.
One of the unique things about plastic is that the energy
in the fuel source from which polymers are derived (usually
a fossil fuel) still remains present to a large extent in the
finished product. Thus a plastic chair, electronic casing or
carrier bag will still retain much of the component energy that
belonged to the original source material. The considerable
‘value added’ by the plastics industry to the price of crude