Page 48 - Plastics News October 2018
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intErnAtionAL nEwS
New Study Shows Value U.S. Recyclers in 'Mounting
of Foodservice Packaging as Crisis' After China's Plastic
Feedstock in Compost Production Waste Ban
new study funded by the Foodservice Packaging fter China's crackdown on foreign waste earlier this
A Institute and the Biodegradable Products Institute Ayear, the United States has turned to poorer countries
confirmed that compostable foodservice packaging can be mostly in Southeast Asia to send its used plastics,
effectively used as a feedstock in commercial composting according to a new report. This research, authored
facilities. Results of a new six-phase study confirmed that by Greenpeace's investigative team Unearthed, is the
compostable foodservice packaging can be effectively first comprehensive analysis of where U.S. recyclers
used as a feedstock in commercial composting facilities. are sending its trash since China introduced the ban,
The testing, funded by the Foodservice Packaging Institute which took effect on Jan. 1. Citing data from the U.S.
and the Biodegradable Products Institute, showed that Census Bureau, the researchers found a year-on-year
foodservice packaging performed as well as wood and drop of 92 percent in the amount of plastic sent to
other traditional feedstocks. "While the compostable China and Hong Kong. That corresponded to a dramatic
increase of scraps being sent instead to Thailand (1,985
percent), Malaysia (273 percent) and Vietnam (46
percent). "It is an embarrassment that the government
of one of the most powerful countries in the world feels
it must depend on others to take out our trash," said
Greenpeace Oceans campaign director John Hocevar in
a press release emailed to EcoWatch. "This is a wake up
call for corporations, and the governments that allow
this practice, to stop producing packaging and products
that no one
is willing to
packaging industry believed that these items had value pr o per ly
to composting operations beyond diversion of food waste, dispose of. It
there was little data to support this," said Rhodes Yepsen, makes no sense
executive director of BPI. "The goal of this study was to to keep making
determine the impact a large volume of compostable products that
foodservice items would have on the composting process, we use once
when compared to traditional compost inputs like yard and throw away out of material that lasts forever." In
trimmings, straw, wood shavings and grass." The study's the first six months of this year, 81% of plastic waste
six phases included foodservice selection and analysis; exports from the US went to Asia, a 7% drop on 2017."—
feedstock preparation; pre-process sampling and analysis; Unearthed
active composting and monitoring; post-process sampling Due to this massive influx of trash, the governments
and analysis; and reporting and peer review. The Compost of Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam have recently
Manufacturing Alliance conducted operational field tests implemented their own policies to restrict the world's
at two commercial composting facilities. Each test waste. As China and Southeast Asian countries focus on
included two control samples using the facilities' standard their own pollution problems, exporting countries are
composting mix and two samples using compostable scrambling for solutions for their growing stockpiles of
foodservice packaging in place of the facilities' customary trash."With these Southeast Asian countries moving to
bulking agents and carbon sources An independent impose import restrictions and plastic scrap piling up
laboratory tested and analyzed the samples throughout from California to Florida, the U.S. recycling industry
the active composting process using Test Method for the is talking about a mounting crisis in the country," the
Examination of Composting and Compost procedures.
Unearthed report says.
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