Recycling
or degradation?
We consciously wash plastic containers
and take out the bags for recycling. But is this beneficial? Can
the option of an additive that breaks down the plastic be just as
good?
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Photoillustration: Raymond Nilsson,
SINTEF Media
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Two research teams are working side by side
at SINTEF on totally different solutions about what we should do
with our plastic waste. While one team is trying to come up with
the best possible recycling processes for the used plastic, the
other is working to make the plastic disappear without any form
of recycling.
LONG LIFE – SHORT PROCESS
”If handled correctly, polymers can have a long life,” says senior
adviser Line Telje Høydal, who represents one of the research teams.
She is working with material recycling and believes this is a socially
correct way to take care of the materials. “The materials are slightly
reduced each time round, but recycling each item five or six times
is possible,” she says, adding: “The greater the amount of material
recycling, the better the accounts will be.”
Senior research scientist Fredrik Männle
represents the other team. He came in contact with a company in
Sunnmøre a few years ago while working on general additives. They
have collaborated on the development of a method degrading plastics,
which is sold and marketed by the firm Nor-X Industry AS. By adding
the substance Nor-X degradable in the plastic materials during production,
the materials will then decompose in a short time when exposed to
sun, air and humidity. As an additive in a plastic carrier bag,
it will break down quicker than a fallen apple. After two weeks
in the sunlight, the bags will still have 90 percent of their strength,
but after five weeks only traces will remain.
ENVIRONMENTAL
ADVANTAGE
Line Telje Høydal says that Norwegian industry quickly realised
that recycling industrial plastic waste was of economical benefit,
but the plastic fraction of municipal solid waste has so far not
been marketable.
“It has, therefore, been an important task
for SINTEF to improve the recycling process to achieve a better
quality and find the optimal use for the plastic materials that
are collected,” she says.
“We now have many studies and data on recycling.
Unless you use a lot of energy on the recycling process, it will
often be environmentally better to recycle than utilise another
form of processing the waste.”
The researchers have assisted companies with
sorting and identifying different types of plastic. They have also
carried out quality controls, mechanical testing and aging tests.
One of the companies SINTEF has assisted is Folldal Produksjon,
which incorporates recycled plastic in the manufacture of its hawser.
These hawsers are used in the North Sea and so we can say that the
process has gone full circle.
| FACTS |
- Annual consumption of plastic
packaging in Norway is 130,000 tonnes, and the amount is
increasing on an annual basis by four percent.
- 24% is recycled as materials or chemicals,
57% is incinerated and 19% ends up in landfills or in the
countryside.
- In 1996, Norwegian authorities established
Plastretur AS, (now called Emballasjeretur) to handle recycling
and try to achieve the authorities’ requirements of 30%
material recycling by 2008.
- The EU Landfill Directive targets
to reduce land-filling of degradable or recyclable waste
from 2009. Norway will follow this and has introduced similar
targets from 2009.
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NICHES
But what about all the plastics littering the countryside?
Wouldn’t it be great if this could just disappear? Can inbuilt decomposition
simply be the answer to the world’s significant littering problem?
Germans, French and, in particular, Hungarians
are interested in the Norwegian additive product. Hungarian authorities
have endorsed the additive in some plastic products to control the
country’s plastic problem. German farmers are testing out degradable
agricultural films in vegetable production. Mulch films are difficult
to collect and recycle once used. A much simpler solution is that
the plastics decompose after four to eight weeks.
Nor-X would also like the additive to be
used in the packaging of fast foods and other consumer items. Everyone
knows how ugly it is when the snow disappears in spring and large
quantities of sodden rubbish are visible.
A SOFT OPTION?
The conflict between the two solutions is if the additive
is used in ordinary plastic carrier bags and these are later recycled,
then products made from these recycled plastics can degrade after
a given time.
”I believe the degradation solution is the
wrong way to solve the littering problem,” says Høydal. ”After all,
we have a political resolution in Norway to recycle plastic. Introducing
additives will damage the established recycling process.”
However, Nor-X is trying to produce evidence
to show that the additive won’t damage the recycling of plastic
products. ”Trials show that this type of plastic can probably also
be recycled. The answer is to add a substance that neutralises and
stops the degradation,” says Männle.
Nor-X’s aim now is to provide evidence that
the two solutions (recycling and degradation) complement each other
and collectively provide the best solution for protecting the environment.
PROFITABLE?
In order to be able to utilise the plastic, it is necessary
to have a saleable product. For many years industry has been recycling
plastic – basically because it is economically profitable. Nor-X
also believes its product will be profitable in the future.
What will be socially profitable?
“There are many types of accounts,” says
researcher Hanne Lerche Raadal from the Stiftelsen Østfoldforskning.
“We basically do environmental calculations on different recycling
and treatment systems. We look, for example, at CO2 emissions
and the pollution of water and NOX by waste disposal
plants. Such accounting processes clearly show that it is environmentally
profitable to recycle.”
For its part, Nor-X has had meetings with
the State-run recycling company, Emballasjeretur, to start a joint
project to determine what happens when plastic containing the additive
is recycled. The company believes that there will be sufficient
plastic in the world to accommodate both recycling and decomposition.
In the end, it is the ultimate solution for
the environment that must count.
By Jan Helstad/Åse Dragland
Contact: Line Telje Høydal, SINTEF
Materials and Chemistry
Tel: +47 982 83 933, email: line.t.hoydal@sintef.no
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