Background and Sustainability Strategies of The Plastic Collective
The plastic collective is an excellent example of a sustainable and ethical industry that turns waste into income. It is evaluated that 8 million loads of plastic waste per year flow into the world’s oceans. The huge majority of which emerge within 50 km of the seashore. Over half of this waste submerges to the bottom of the deep-sea and breaks down slowly. Present estimates say the ocean floors include an average of 70kg of plastic in every square kilometer. They should encourage and protect more industries that turn trash into wealth. They should work together to bring the circular economy and appreciation of plastic as a recyclable material continues to develop in Australia and overseas. As a society, they should tighten their belts on recycling operations and increasing efficiency and lowering operation cost, which gives benefits to financial performance. Sustainable plastics are managed within a sustainable material management system to avoid the creation of toxins, plastic waste, and pollution. Collecting sustainable plastics must be a part of a principle and holistic-based approach to sustainable material flows (Rigamonti et al., 2014). In the following, an effort has been made to discuss the background, sustainability associated strategies, theories, practices, & issues, and lastly recommend the same.
The plastic collective is established by Louise Hardman is an Australian innovative social enterprise that offers solutions to distant and small communities to convert plastic waste into valuable resources. Their mission is to protect plastics, which is leaking into the environment (Michelot et al., 2017).
Louise still recalls the autopsy and the moment they saw the huge amount of plastics in the ocean. A few decades ago, they watched a little girl is throwing plastic waste into the ocean, which seems that everyone is disposed of waste in it. They are polluting it and believe that the ocean magically drains the waste away. Therefore, they took an initiative to educate the next generation, which took down the path of teaching. Louis established an idea for a start-up business named as The Pacific Collective, which later renamed as The Plastic Collective. They invented the machine known as the Shruder, for extruding and shredding plastic waste. It is light enough too conveyed to permit access to multiple waste collection. It can also be driven by either single-phase power or through a renewable solar energy. Their initial goal was to reduce plastic waste in remote areas in remote societies in the Pacific Ocean, empowering to clean the polluted ocean. They concentrate on a place with limited job opportunities in Australia and options for waste management. They initiated with the training program, which involves educating the societies and motivated to work as a team and form micro businesses in the sector. The recycled plastic can be used for building household materials, materials, and other items (Huysman et al., 2017).
The Shruder: An Innovative Machine for Plastic Waste Management
In June 2017, Louise joined forces with COO of Emalte International, Mark Wolf to scale the company, build a strong association with customers, and reach wider audiences to unite & generate leads. They are also creating a partnership with innovative businesses such as NevHouse to convert plastic waste into affordable items. They have developed Plastic Neutral as a philosophy, which can be valued as a resource, not regarded as waste. Single-use plastic should be recycled and minimized to reduce the virgin plastics. By following these goals and objectives individuals and societies can attain plastic waste-free status and maintain a healthy environment (Cimpan et al., 2015).
Plastic Collective is useful material for landfills and motivates businesses to build & develop new and innovative products. It helps to reduce fossil fuels consumption. In addition, to reduce the need for plastic recycling and oil, this saves the energy needed to generate materials. It is designed specifically for remote locations to safeguard reliability, the simplicity of maintenance, durability, and long life. Louise is constantly refining the design to safeguard it is resilient and durable while staying transportable (Wong et al., 2015).
- MinimizingWaste- It has been identified from the research that millions of tons of plastic waste are produced from both building construction and households; most of the part ends up in landfills with a small percentage being reused. Thus, it has been analyzed that there is a great need for waste minimization as this will create a huge environmental impact and eliminate the production of harmful and persistent wasters, which effectively promote the society. It will give economic as well social benefits and contributes to enhance product quality. Incineration can also be another strategy to eliminate plastic waste disposal from society (Song, Li and Zeng, 2015).
- Food Service- Research has proven that food waste can harm human life as it can cause hazardous diseases. In 2010, more than 34 million tons of waste was produced with a less than 3 percent of which was recycled and recovered. It has been analyzed that foodservice is essential to reduce the waste and should conduct a waste audit, which reduces fuel waste. They should produce organic food, vegetarian dishes, and seasonal foods. To avoid packaging waste, they should choose bulk service for meals and snacks over single wrapping. They can use table coverings, cloth napkins, and reusable centerpieces at mealtime (Dahiya et al., 2018).
- Recycling-Research has proven that recycling plays a major factor in preserving the resources used by the society. It can save resources, energy, as well as provide jobs to citizens. It is analyzed that to live a prosperous & sustainable life and maintain the values of sustainability, recycling must be a step performed in daily life. Recycling is a promising step to take in reducing these problems and permitting for the strong and healthy environment. It is more significant to the survivability of humanity and makes a huge difference to society. They should set up a separate bin for each wet and dry waste so that it can be recycled in the future (Hottle et al., 2015).
- Collection and Infrastructure- It has been stated from the research that in small and remote societies, the collection of plastic waste material is often non-existent, because of expensive transport costs, and an absence of waste management infrastructure. The increasing scarcity of energy and waste in the developing world along with rapid population increase in urban areas is a major concern and the need for suitable water and energy management practices. Therefore, it has been analyzed that there is a growing awareness of the impact of waste and wastewater contamination on lakes and rivers. The developing worlds with over 3 billion individuals are attempting to duplicate those unsustainable waste and waste disposal practices (Kivilä, Martinsuo and Vuorinen, 2017).
- Community health and safety issues- Research has stated the fact that the common practice of burning of plastics has critical health problems. Therefore, dumping of plastic waste increases the risk of human consumption and promotes unsanitary conditions. It has been analyzed that risk occurs at every step in the process from the point where individuals handle waste in the home for recycling. People working and living in the area of disposal facilities and solid waste processing are also exposed to health and safety risks (Com?ni?? et al., 2016).
- Negative effects of Tourism- From research, it has been stated that the visual effects from plastic pollution on seashores and in waterways are harmful to tourism. It negatively affects wildlife, wildlife habitats, and humans by affecting the ocean, land, and waterways. It has been analyzed by dumping plastics in beaches portray a very bad picture and represent environmental insensitivity. Therefore, it leads to loss of revenue and income level. It has been seen that millions of rare marine creatures such as the sea turtles are lost on an annual basis for consuming pieces of plastic (Cari? and Mackelworth, 2014).
- Economic Impact-Research has been proven that the total cost of plastic waste has been evaluated at $13 billion including wildlife, habitats, tourism, health issues, and other issues, which are critical for humans. It has been analyzed that 95% of plastic packaging material is lost to the economy, which seems not good for them in the coming future (Bing et al., 2016).
Plastic Waste is becoming prevalent all over the world and 11 million tonnes of plastic waste is polluting and harming the environment. It can cause severe diseases, which can affect humans as well as wildlife. They should conserve natural resources and protect the environment to achieve sustainability for plastics. They should reduce energy to produce new materials and greenhouse gas emissions. They can plant more and more trees to generate products using recycled materials. They should address environmental issues such as the renewable source of energy and produces healthy food. Their main goal is to protect resources and reduces the company’s environmental footprint. They should assess the overall environmental burdens and financial costs of the system. They can use a range of collection and treatment methods, which concentrate on generating less waste and efficiently managing waste (Bing et al., 2015).
They should handle hazardous materials in an appropriate manner and focuses on producing new products. They should reduce environmental impacts such as emissions to water, air, and land. They should integrate waste management being economically reasonable through adopting a market-oriented approach and drive cost down with plastic waste materials to create income. They can increase social acceptability by integrating social participation and ensuring individuals to understand their role in the plastic collection. These practices will often generate additional costs leading to greater environmental burdens even if the plastic waste materials are being handled in a more environmentally friendly way (Brunner and Rechberger, 2015).
Plastic Collective’s Mission and Initiatives for Environmental Protection
The plastic collection includes the practice of collecting, conveying, processing, and disposing of, managing, and evaluating several plastic waste materials. It is significant to identify sustainability so that it can be handled in an effective and efficient manner despite dumping it in landfills. By reducing, recycling, and reusing plastic waste can decrease the amount of waste that is dumped to seas and ocean. The resources that are vanished from the environment can be protected by reducing pollution, emission of gas, and contamination. It can save money by selling saved resources and hence contributes to waste reduction for the society. Sustainable practices of plastic collective reduce fuel use in transit due to their lightweight and decrease food and consumer goods wastage (Davies, 2016).
- Zero Waste Theory- It is a new direction and a critical step towards achieving sustainability. It is a fundamental principle that reduces efficiency and prevents waste to address sustainability and other environmental detriments associated to waste such as pollution and climate change. Its main goal is to support economically, visionary, ethically, and efficiently to guide individuals in changing their lifestyle to maintain sustainability. This theory is designed and managed systematically to eliminate and avoid the volume and harmfulness of plastic waste materials and preserve & conserve natural resources despite burn or bury them. By implementing this theory, it will remove all discharges to water, air, & land as well as a threat to human, plant, and animal health (Ghisellini, Cialani and Ulgiati, 2016).
- Balance Theory- This theory is designed to reduce demolition of plastic waste in finding a way to make it valuable. The balance of the supply of plastic waste and the demand of the recycled waste material is essential to eradicate plastics from the environment. The waste, which is sent to seas and oceans, can be too idealistic, so reduction of waste could be appreciated if balance theory is enforced. Appropriate actions taken by the government are essential to inspire the execution of theory to enhance green working culture (Zorpas et al., 2015).
Planning is required at every stage as by employing strategic planning, it aims to avoid landfills. It gives the opportunity to provide sustainable improvements to local waste management practices and eradicate plastic waste material to maintain an eco-friendly environment. Planning is required to evaluate the unnecessary use of Greenhouse gas, to address climate change, and to conserve renewable energy. It focuses on reducing and preventing impacts related to operational activities (Singh et al., 2017).
Recycling of plastic waste material should be organized in a manner to reduce pollution through the process to conserve energy and enhance efficiency. Plastic waste should be well organized to remain free from the unhygienic environment. It can be used to recycle those plastic wastes into useful things to save the environment (Sharma and Bansal, 2016).
Plastic waste management is a severe problem. Local bodies, municipalities, and society have generated regulations leading to reduce the waste disposed on landfills through incineration, reuse, recycle, and recovery of plastic waste material (Juenger and Siddique, 2015).
It can be controlled by separating plastic waste at home and use them for the purpose of recycling, which can reduce the impact of environmental pollution. Incinerators eliminate huge volumes of plastic waste material and improve technology to reduce air pollution in the future (Kumar and Baskar, 2015).
- For a longer perspective, innovation enables a shift towards more environmentally sustainable energy, design for recycling strategies, and packaging application to decrease the environmental costs.
- Recycling is the most efficient and effective strategy to deal with plastic waste material as its effectiveness depends upon economic feasibility, awareness, and public infrastructure to make it recycling more effective. They can take help of specialized plastic waste collecting trucks and recycling bins to make the best use of waste.
- Minimizing waste is another strategy to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic waste material. It can be done by optimum utilization of renewable resources and conserve energy. Exchanging of waste and composting is a method of reducing waste disposal volumes, which cannot be removed.
- Incineration tends to reduce negative effects, which are released in the atmosphere. It recovers the energy, which reduces CO2emissions and necessary volumes for disposal.
- There is a step change, which enhances the recycling of individuals’ plastic waste; along with the recovery of energy can have a major impact on the environmental cost of plastic waste disposal.
- They should make an investment in technology that is more effective which use less plastic to satisfy consumer needs, which can help to decrease plastic waste material and environmental footprint and enable environmental gains.
- They should make an investment in enhancing waste management practices and capturing mismanaged waste on land. They can prevent plastic waste by restricting the use of harmful plastic additives that can be thrown into the ocean (Gu et al., 2017).
Conclusion
Plastic Collective is becoming an epidemic globally with individuals lacking safe waste management. It is based on empowering individuals with knowledge, modernize new designs, and generate with practical understanding & suitable tools and machinery, such as the Shruder Machine. It delivers societies an end-to-end plastic recycling methods to produce valued plastic output in the part of the shredded raw material. This allows companies to contribute positively to social responsibility and sustainability. It provides a feasible and sustainable solution for the management of plastic waste. It should be considered that single-use plastics will take more time to decompose, as recycling options are very limited. In the future, it will bring opportunities for competitiveness, innovation, and job creation.
Benefits and Importance of Sustainable Plastic Management
In the future, they should focus on maintaining renewable sources and recycle dumped waste to be used further. They should collect more waste and increase the scale up recycling facilities. A better and standardized system for the collection and arranging of plastic waste will improve the economies of scale. It will lead to growth and reconcile plastics and sustainable development from plastic waste generation.
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