The Environmental Toll of Plastics
Plastics damage the environment and human health. They are inexpensive and durable products that could potentially have service over decades. The product attributes of plastics have led to its widespread use since the early 20th century. However, our main use of these long-lived products is mostly as single-use items that will end up in the waste bins, where they’ll persist for centuries. Plastic pollution involves the accumulation of plastic products in the environment that has potential to threaten the survival of wildlife, especially marine life and human health.
How plastics damage the environment and human health
Food containers and packaging are the largest components of the municipal solid waste stream (80 million ton). These items also represent the largest component of marine debris. The marine plastic pollution has caused a severe impact on marine life because plastic debris injures and kills fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.
Plastic products are also harmful to human health. If people are exposed to chemicals during manufacturing of plastics or by using plastic packages, some of the toxic chemicals might migrate from the plastics packaging to the food they contain. The plastic contamination could lead to human health effects such as endocrine disruption, which can cause cancers, birth defects, immune system suppression, or even developmental problem in children.
The reason plastic usage became widespread
Over the last century, humans have developed the skills of making synthetic polymers, which recently named ‘plastics’. The first synthetic polymers were derived from cellulose, a substance found in plants and trees. But nowadays plastics are much more often made from hydrocarbons that are available in natural gas, oil, and coal. Synthetic polymers are made up of long chains of atoms arranged in repeating units. Such chemical properties are the main reason that made polymers strong, lightweight, and flexible. They can be moulded, extruded, cast and blown into numerous shapes or even drawn into fibres. Since plastics offer so many advantages over other traditional materials, they have become the most widely used material in modern life.
The issue arises when using of plastics
While so many plastic products are disposable, most of them are non-biodegradable and will last in the environment for centuries. Recent studies have shown that plastics decompose faster in the ocean because of exposure to the sun, rain, and other environmental condition, resulting in the release of toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA). Such chemicals affect the growth, reproduction, and development in aquatic organisms.
Apart from their adverse effect on the environment, plastics are much more difficult to recycle than materials like glass, aluminium or paper. Despite the recent promotion of plastic recycling, plastic production has outpaced recycling by five times over the past decade. While recycling plastic products has only limited potential to reduce the considerable amount of plastic wastes, a more revolutionary change in the business cycle and consumer behaviour of plastic products is necessary.
Examples of Actors Dedicated to Reduce the Usage of Plastics
Private sector
On the large corporate segment, Unilever represents one of the most active companies to promote sustainability through less plastic packaging usage. In an urge to promote the circular economy in the plastic value-chain, Unilever committed to utilise 100% of recyclable plastic in packaging by 2025. According to company estimates, nowadays, only 14% of plastic used globally is recycled. By 2050, the volume of plastic in the oceans will be higher than that of fish, says the company.
On the SME segment, start-ups have been developing innovative products that promote usage of biodegradable materials over plastics. For instance, Leaf Republic uses leafs and waterproof paper to sell package food. Also, Bakeys has been promoting innovative cutleries, made of edible material as a mix of sorghum, flour and wheat. These are alternatives also as healthier choices, as research indicates that polymers contained in the plastic material may be a cause of cancer.
Non-profit Sector
Arguably, the most prominent voice promoting alternatives to plastic usage comes from the Elle MacArthur Foundation (EMF). The foundation is ahead of the New Plastics Economy Initiatives, a multi-industry mobilisation to apply the Circular Economy principles. EMF believes in three fronts to revert the impact of plastics on the environment, namely (1) fundamental redesign & innovation (30%); (2) reuse (20%) and; (3) recycling with radically improved quality (50%).
Government
According to Intelliroi, the global bioplastics market was US$19.54 billion in 2016 and is estimated to reach US$ 65.58 billion in 2022 (estimated CAGR of 22.36%). North America and Europe will present the biggest markets for such products, given the high demand among environmentally conscious consumers. Therefore, governments in these markets play a key role to promote adoption of biodegradable plastics. Overall, around the world, governments have not truly enforced plastic reduction programs. Recent discussions include free plastic bag ban on retail chains and European Union Commission to rule waste disposal. Also, there are ongoing discussions on Plastic Protocol adoption.
Impact Investing / Social Enterprises
There are a number of isolated initiatives coming from the social and financial sector. As an example, Think Beyond Plastic Accelerator incubates promising social enterprises. Moreover, most recently, with the emergence of green bonds, more resources shall be channelled to lower carbon emissions, and, consequently, lower plastic usage (i.e.: Unilever’s impact bonds to consider plastic reduction among baseline indicators).
Source: VerTerra Dinnerware
The Business Model Innovation
Biodegradable material closes the loop
Our idea is to reduce non-biodegradable plastic products as much as possible along the current consumer lifecycle. The primary approach would be to partner with supermarkets, restaurants, and coffee shops and replace plastic products used by those shops as containers and packages with our biodegradable products. Several businesses with similar goals do exist at the moment, however, there is no similar business that provides an integrated solution to our potential partners. Our products and service will encourage both businesses and consumers to move towards the same goal which is reducing plastic pollution.
Plastics replaced by biodegradable material
Containers and packages, especially disposable ones, are mainly made of plastics or combination of plastics with other material such as paper or metal. Paper cups, for example, are made of paper with an inner plastic coating. Aluminium packages are made of the combination of several layers of aluminium and plastics. These combinating materials are worse than pure plastics in that they cannot be separated into individual materials, which is a necessary step before being reused.
Plastics can be replaced by biodegradable materials, such as bamboo, wood, leaf, and straw. The biodegradable materials do not release toxic chemical as plastics does. There is an increasing amount of inventions that turn natural substance into applicable materials.
- Bamboo has been used in architecture for sustainable reasons. It has a great potential to be used in containers and cups. Bamboo grows fast and easily. Cutting bamboo leads to more bamboo to grow. To make bamboo cups, we only need to cut the bamboo along the bamboo nodes. A bamboo cup can be used for around 200 times.
- Straw is considered farming waste and is used to be burned after the crops are harvested, which emits carbon dioxide that causes global warming. Straw can be used to made biodegradable plates. The plates along with leftover food can be gathered together.
Biodegradable material can be reused
Biodegradable material is not necessarily disposable. Bamboo-made cups, for example, can last for three years. Reusable biodegradable tableware can be widely used in sit-down restaurants. For takeaway containers, a collecting-cleaning-returning service will incentivize the restaurants and cafeteria and customers to adopt reusable biodegradable food containers.
Customers take away food and drinks from restaurants with reusable biodegradable containers -> Customers drop the used containers in designated recycle bins near their home or offices -> Service companies collect the used containers, clean them, and return them to restaurants -> The restaurants reuse the containers for takeaway customers
This model can be adopted in not only restaurants but also night markets and catering service in schools and offices.
Biodegradable material turns into compost – cradle to cradle
When the reusable biodegradable containers and packages can no longer be reused, they can be buried in soil to be naturally dissolved by the microbe in the soil. An innovative way of dealing with them is to turn them into organic compost. Under certain temperature and humidity, the material will transform into compost within a short period of time. Since no extra chemical or non-natural substance needs to be added during the process, the compost is natural and healthy. The compost can be used to grow crops or plants. The process of waste becoming resource is the implementation of the idea of cradle to cradle.
Achieving financial sustainability
Organic compost can generate financial revenue. The price of organic compost is higher than chemical compost since the food grew with organic compost is higher than that with chemical compost. Given consumers gradually become more aware of the way their food is grown, more and more food suppliers are providing organic food, which leads more farmers to adopt organic farming and to purchase organic compost. Besides farmers, citizens are potential organic compost purchasers. With city farming and urban gardening prevailing, more and more residents are planting their own food on balcony and roof. They are incentivized to buy organic compost.
Reducing environmental cost
Processing plastic waste is costly. Burying cost is becoming higher due to the scarcity of land, and it risks the soil and ocean damage. Burning plastics releases toxic gas that causes residents sick and therefore raises health expenditure. Using products made of biodegradable material will reduce the cost of processing plastic waste. Biodegradable material dissolves naturally in the environment and therefore costs almost nothing to process.
Beyond financial return
The compost can not only generate financial returns but also serve as an educational tool. The compost can be sold to schools or enterprises that are willing to build their own garden in the balcony or on the roof. Through using biodegradable material and compost that is transformed from the biodegradable material, students and employees deeply understand the concept of sustainability and how it is implemented. Nowadays, schools and nonprofits are putting a significant amount of effort in environmental education but see little changes. Alternatively, turning the cradle-to-cradle idea into daily action is more likely to change people’s behaviour.
A feedback loop between financial growth and environmental impact forms
The more products are made of biodegradable material, the higher price competitive they are. Since cost is the main factor of suppliers and consumers’ decision, lower cost led by increasing quantity will accelerate the usage of biodegradable material. Increasing usage of biodegradable material will attract more talents to the industry and thus develop handier and lower cost biodegradable material.
Why this innovation could be game-changing
According to a recently released report by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 9.5% of plastic material generated in the U.S. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) stream was recycled in 2014. Another 15% was combusted for energy, while 75.5% was sent to landfills. These results underline the importance of finding eco-friendly substitutes for plastics as the longer plastics stay as the dominant material in our daily life, the more damage they will cause to the environment.
First of all, the main focus of our business model is on changing consumer behaviours through providing options other than plastic products. Our products that are made by eco-friendly materials will be presented in the stores that people go for their daily grocery shopping (e.g. supermarkets, coffee shops, and takeaway restaurants). By providing a ‘greener’ option at a slightly higher price, consumers will be more willing to choose our products rather than plastic ones. Furthermore, since some of our products made of wood or bamboo are reusable, they can actually save more cost for both the consumers and the shops. By changing consumer behaviour and including them into the game-changing service chain, the restaurants and supermarkets have more incentives to switch from plastics products to other eco-friendly options.
Furthermore, by recording information about customer behaviours, restaurants and shops are able to identify patterns and trends which help to enhance future service quality and efficiency by better forecasting the demand for these containers and packaging materials. Take coffee shops for instance, by recording the number of coffee they sell and the number of reusable non-plastic cups people choose to buy every day, they will be able to estimate the probable amount of cups they need for the next few weeks and the amount of plastic wastes they can reduce. This business model could lead to significant improvements in sustainability and also enhance social responsibility.
Lastly, by using materials that are originally natural resources and turning them into compost when those products past their useful life, we could potentially carry out a closed-loop production system. Especially for materials such as wheat straw and leaf, they were agricultural waste that used to be burned in preparation for the next planting season. But through our business model, we could turn these wastes into useful products meanwhile reduce CO2 and other toxic contaminants generated while burning these wastes.
Government needs to involve in overcoming the initial cost for the business model
The initial cost of replacing plastics with biodegradable materials is high. The unit cost of biodegradable material is approximately 4 times that of plastics because demand is not yet large enough to reach quantity economics. Government involvement is crucial in helping the manufacturers survive the initial high-cost stage. A subsidy can be distributed to biodegradable material manufacturers. Higher environmental tax should be enforced on plastics producers. More importantly, a gradual ban on the usage of plastics should be realised. A long-term blueprint for reducing plastics is needed to signal the opportunities of the alternative material industry and attract talents to devote for the ecosystem.
Ensuring the sanitary of biodegradable food containers is crucial
Different from bags, food containers, cups, and plates are exposed to food and therefore needs a higher level of safety control. For end users, sanitary often weighs more than price and other reasons. For suppliers, gaining trust from customers’ needs time and crashes immediately once food poisoning happens. The tricky thing is that customers usually do not question the definite but invisible toxic substance coming from plastic food packaging because plastics look clean and new. Instead, they are more picking on biodegradable materials because they are not brand new in their mind. Therefore, customer education is important when launching the business model.
Conclusion – Connecting the Dots
There has not been such a business model existing in the world. However, various initiatives emerging around the world suggests that the elements of the business model are gradually maturing for the loop to form. The initiative which connects the dots and closes the loop will play the role of a cornerstone and lead the ecosystem to make a huge impact on the environment.
Written by Clare TAO, Allison CHEN, Tulio TAKEDA, Huiting ZHENG
References:
https://www.chemheritage.org/the-history-and-future-of-plastics