Is production pollution?
As highlighted by recent research, fewer than 60 multinational companies are responsible for more than half of the world's plastic pollution, with six companies alone accounting for a quarter of this waste.
An international team of volunteers collected and surveyed nearly 1.9m pieces of plastic waste across 84 countries over five years. The team found that the bulk of the rubbish collected was single-use packaging for food, beverage and tobacco products.
This is backed up by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who claim that the most common types of plastic waste found in the environment are cigarette butts, followed by food wrappers, and bottles and bottle caps.
Concerningly, the researchers also revealed a troubling trend. For every percentage increase in plastic production, there is an equivalent rise in plastic pollution in the environment.
However, without a system in place to track plastic waste, much of the pollution remains unaccountable.
Blockchain traceability
The same study found that less than half of the collected plastic waste had recognisable branding that could be traced back to specific companies, meaning that plastic waste cannot consistently be linked to the companies responsible for producing it.
The lack of traceability hinders efforts to hold companies accountable for their environmental impact. By identifying which companies produce specific products, it becomes easier to hold them responsible for their contributions to plastic pollution.
Thankfully, blockchain-based tracking — a secure digital method of recording transactions across a computer network — can provide accurate ways to trace plastic waste back to its source.
For example, Circulor, in partnership with TotalEnergies and Recycling Technologies, launched project TRACKCYCLE to enhance traceability in hard-to-recycle plastics (HTRP).
Supported by Innovate UK, the project uses blockchain technology to create a fully transparent recycling value chain, tracking materials from waste sourcing to the production of recycled polymers.
The result? Stakeholders in the polymers industry are provided with detailed records of material quality and origin.
AI sorting
These efforts help to not only pinpoint exactly which companies are contributing to the pollution, but also encourage them to take more responsibility for reducing plastic waste.
The implementation of effective recycling systems is a good way to start this process while meeting both environmental and regulatory demands.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), scientists believe just nine per cent of the world’s plastic is recycled. The remaining 91 per cent of plastic waste is discarded, ending in incineration, landfill or polluting the environment.
Companies are required to comply with legislation like the plastic packaging tax, imposed on plastic packaging components that fail to meet a minimum threshold of 30 per cent recycled content.
Initially set at £200 per tonne for imported or domestically produced plastic packaging, the tax was increased to £210 per tonne in spring 2023 and further adjusted to £217.85 per tonne more recently.
To recover valuable materials from waste streams, AI-powered waste-sorting robots use advanced computer vision and robotics to identify and sort waste materials into specific streams, improving efficiency and accuracy.
For instance, Recycleye’s robotic pickers can process up to 55 items per minute with less than one per cent contamination, increasing the output volume of the target material by up to 12 per cent.
These advanced sorting processes allow for more precise separation, like extracting high-quality recyclates, such as food-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET), from residual waste lines. It’s also been claimed that this reduces the cost of waste sorting and boosts profit margins from higher purity material bales.
Another example is EverestLabs' AI-driven platform, RecycleOS, which sorts waste with over 95 per cent accuracy. By training its algorithms on a proprietary dataset of over five billion recyclable objects, the system can identify waste by shape, size, material and even brand.
This technology has significantly reduced labour costs, as demonstrated by Alameda County Industries. The company has seen a 59 per cent reduction in costs over three yearsâ thanks to EverestLabs’ robots, which have picked up approximately 30 million objects.
Production means pollution
Plastic production is undeniably a major contributor to global pollution. As the volume of plastic produced rises, so does the environmental impact.
Yet, with innovations like AI-driven waste sorting and blockchain traceability, we now have the tools to tackle this issue head-on, with much-needed transparency and accountability becoming more commonplace within the sector.
At Foxmere, we’re committed to helping businesses reduce their environmental impact by implementing these advanced technologies.
If you’re ready to enhance your company's green credentials, contact us today for a no-obligation quote or learn how we serve the waste industry. Together, we can create a cleaner, more sustainable future.
