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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