New Delhi, A European Commission-funded project supported by the UN is calling for consumers to demand electronic and electrical products made with recycled plastic, and for manufacturers to redesign products to both improve recyclability and integrate recycled plastics in new products.
The call is made by PolyCE (for Post-Consumer High-tech Recycled Polymers for a Circular Economy), a multinational consortium led by Fraunhofer IZM and universities– UN University, Bonn; University of Ghent, Belgium; Technical University Berlin; and University of Northampton, Britain, civil society organisations (European Environmental Bureau), and numerous companies — including Philips and Whirlpool.
The 20 partners launching the two-year campaign are based or operate in nine countries: Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, Finland, the US and Britain.
According to the Nordic Council of Ministers, plastics account for about 20 per cent of all materials in electronic and electrical equipment, most of it not designed for recovery and reuse.
The PolyCE consortium is launching a two-year campaign to raise awareness among consumers and manufacturers in order to change their attitudes towards recycled plastics and improve their market uptake.
Says project partner Kim Ragaret, University of Gent: “Plastics are a valuable resource with a great potential for circularity. Plastics themselves aren’t the problem; our so-called plastics problems relate to attitudes and waste management.
Plastics are essential for making many different components of electronic and electrical products, including phones, computers, TVs, vacuum cleaners, hairdryers and household appliances.
According to PolyCE consortium experts, products can be designed in ways that make material recovery of plastic components easier.
Of the more than 12 million tonnes of e-waste expected next year in Europe (EU, Norway and Switzerland), an estimated 2.5 million tonne (23 per cent) will be plastics.
That’s the weight equivalent of 62,500 fully-loaded 40-tonne trucks — enough to form a line from Rome to Frankfurt — and 2.5 times the 1 million tonne of plastic landfilled as e-waste components in the year 2000.
The PolyCE consortium noted a report from Sweden that, globally, just 10 per cent of higher grade plastics from durable goods is recovered and recycled worldwide today, which compares poorly with average 50 to 90 per cent recovery and recycling rates for metals and glass.
The project illustrates through a number of demonstrators that making electronic and electrical equipment containing high-quality recycled plastics is economically feasible for manufacturers, and the products are just as long-lasting and durable as those containing virgin plastics.
In addition, buying electronic and electrical equipment containing recycled plastics offers many other benefits for the environment.
Recycling plastic would not only take pressure off waste systems (in Europe, some 31 per cent of plastic waste still enters landfills while 39 per cent is incinerated) every tonne recycled would also help avoid up to 3 tonne of CO2 emissions created making new plastic.
A recent consumer survey carried out by the PolyCE project found that half of respondents did not know if they had ever bought a tech product that included recycled plastic.
Of the 25 per cent who said yes to the question, 86 per cent noticed no difference in quality, appearance or performance.
Informed about the health and environmental benefits of recycled plastic components in electronic and electrical equipment, 95 per cent of those surveyed confirmed that they would buy products with that feature.
According to the survey, consumers show high willingness to act in line with the circular economy, but actual engagement is still pretty low, unfortunately. But communication is key.
“The consumer has absolutely vital role in a sustainable, circular economy and manufacturing system,” says UN University e-waste expert Ruediger Kuehr.
Manufacturers, meanwhile, need to improve designs so that a product’s plastic components are more easily recovered for recycling, use recycled plastic in their products, and advertise that feature to consumers.
