(362c) Single-Use Plastic Wastes: Challenges and Sustainable Alternatives

Plastic is an essential part of our daily lives, from everyday products to medical and transportation applications. Today, plastics is also a world’s paramount environmental problem. Our inability to properly manage plastic disposal has resulted in persistent plastic waste with negative impact on the environment. Currently, the world produces around 450 million tons of plastics per year that is expected to double to around 1 billion tons per year, by 2050. Today, 50% of the plastic produced is for single-use only. The major share of plastics is used in packaging. Packaging, including single-use plastic, has a short life time; from limited days to fewer than six months. Thus managing its disposal is critical. When left in the environment, plastic does not biodegrade and instead breaks down to smaller parts including micro-plastics and has a devastating impact on ecosystems. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastic Economy Initiative has set actionable targets to reach “100% reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic packaging by 2025”. This presentation will focus on three categories of packaging structures that are most challenging to manage and therefore need new solutions. First, packaging with mixed materials, that combine plastic, paper and metals. Second, multi-layer protective films that recycling facilities cannot separate easily and therefore do not get recycled in general. Third, and most important, are items that are impractical to recycle even though they are mono-materials, like disposable cutlery, straws, and takeout containers. Many provinces and cities around the globe are banning single-use plastic products. Such a ban as a solution needs to be coupled with viable alternatives. Biodegradable plastics show promise as an alternative to certain types of single-use plastic. Innovative technologies are needed to enable a wider adoption of these new promising materials. In addition, the “end-of-use” for such new biodegradable and compostable plastic products should be adequately addressed. An integrated approach with regulatory policies, incentives, options for proper disposal, and other creative paths can address the complex journey of developing and implementing sustainable materials. These new materials can be used as an effective tool to alleviate environmental pollution caused by plastic wastes more importantly the single-use plastics.

Acknowledgements: (i) The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) – University of Guelph, the Bioeconomy Industrial Uses Research Program Theme (Project Nos. 030361, 030486 and 030578); (ii) OMAFRA-University of Guelph Gryphon’s Leading to the Accelerated Adoption of Innovative Research (LAAIR) Program (Project No. 030416); (iii) the Ontario Research Fund, Research Excellence Program; Round-9 (ORF-RE09) from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Canada (Project No. 053970); and (iv) the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Discovery Grants (Project No. 401111).