There’s a possibility that plastic packaging waste will soon be used on a large scale for highway construction in The Philippines. The plastic is added to a top layer for the asphalt, and is also used as fuel in the cement factories. These applications offer foodstuffs multinationals like Nestlé and Unilever a new route to dispose of their plastic rubbish.
It’s been claimed for some time that plastic could improve
roads: the asphalt is stronger after the addition of plastic, cracks and holes
develop more slowly, and both construction and maintenance of the roads would
be cheaper. The use of plastic waste as fuel in the cement factories would lead
to a 10% reduction in coal usage and lower CO2 emissions.
After experiments in a number of countries, the first
“Plastic Road” was constructed last November in The Philippines. 9000 kilos of
plastic waste were used to produce 1500 square meters of asphalt.
The Philippines is struggling with an enormous plastic problem
The country, which is made up of more than 7000 islands and
has more than one hundred million inhabitants, is flooded with plastic, much of
which ends up in the sea. Single-use packaging from (western) multinationals,
together with the inefficient waste collection, are among the main causes of
the deluge. Analysis of single-use plastic packaging waste in The Philippines
shows that multinationals are the biggest polluters. Many of their products are
sold in mini-packages, for example a sachet with just enough shampoo to wash
your hair one single time. Even if these mini-packages were to be collected and
returned, their re-cycling would be impractical.
Initiatives from the Multinationals
The multinationals recognize the problem and promise that
their packaging will be fully recyclable by 2025. They encourage people to
return plastic waste: they are rewarded with money or with products like
shampoo (which in turn are also packaged…). Unclear is how much plastic is
recovered in this manner (probably only a small percentage), and – especially – what is done with the plastic.
Is it used again for the production of (food)packaging, or are there
alternative uses?
Plastic Roads are Not Recycling
Companies in The Philippines who are involved in the construction of Plastic Roads, such as San Miguel Corporation and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., purchase the plastic waste. According to an article on Bloomberg.com, the director of Aboitiz cement factory stated that the company buys plastic from Nestlé Philippines and Unilever Philippines Inc. and that they need at least 25.000 tons per year. This clarifies what multinationals really do with returned plastic packaging: they don’t recycle, they use the waste for a – for them – very lucrative quick fix.
Objections
An important question that arises with this use of waste
plastic is related to future pollution of the environment by microplastics as
the asphalt wears down. But there are even greater issues in the background:
this application of waste offers no guarantee of a reduction of plastic waste
in the environment, and in no way stimulates a decrease in the production of
plastic.
Plastic Roads helps to maintain a dirt cheap production
process that pollutes the environment.