Recycling
The future of recycling
By Aldous Hicks, CEO and Co-founder of ReCircle Recycling Ltd
Over the past 20 years the waste industry has changed dramatically. Most Western countries have taken responsibility for their waste and have stopped disposing of everything in landfill. This means that the global recycling market in projected to get to £30bn by 2020.
However, cross-contamination of plastics and dirty packaging unfortunately means over half the items put into recycling bins do not get recycled. Recyclable materials are very valuable in their pure state but the cost and difficulty of separating mixed recycling make it uneconomical.
The waste industry is now a high-volume throughput industry ‒ removing waste hygienically, and regularly ‒ making it an efficient and cheap alternative to a failed high-cost recycling system. Long-term, however, sending packaging etc to a landfill or throwing it into the ocean is a wasteful and polluting. To compete, the recycling industry needs to transition to become an industry focused on high-purity.
Recyclable materials are very valuable in their pure state but the cost and difficulty of separating mixed recycling make it uneconomical. With mounting public and government pressure, something needs to change in order to stem the tide of used packaging and products ending up in a landfill.
How can the recycling industry change further and also become profitable?
Getting to 100% Closed-loop Recycling
Currently, when used-materials are recycled, they tend to be made into ‘lesser’ products. A plastic bottle, for example, may be processed into pack tape for example which is then disposed of in landfill. So, even when recycling happens, it often only delays the inevitable.
A truly green initiative, however, would move towards a 100% closed-loop recycling system. That is, a system where a recyclable product is transformed back into its original form e.g. a plastic bottle is remade into a plastic bottle or an item of equal value many times before it’s disposed of.
Separating mixed plastics, however, is difficult and expensive even on an industrial scale and a small amount of the wrong type of plastic can contaminate an entire batch. Just .05 kg of PVC plastic within 1,000 kg of PET flakes can cause it to become brittle and yellowish in colour.
Education has only gone so far. Despite increased familiarity with recycling practices majority of people in the West are still unsure over which items can be recycled.
As such, the contamination issue has, to-date, been insurmountable for the recycling industry. So, while I think that in the next 20 years we will have a 100% closed-loop recycling system, there are a number of other technologies and processes that need to be implemented before closed-loop recycling is achievable. These will tackle the issue from both sides, empowering consumers while developing the capabilities of the de-manufacturing economy.
Extended Producer Responsibility
We predict that within 10 years, the businesses of the world, starting with FMCG, will be able to deliver on their extended producer responsibility (EPR).
This means that all product prices will include the environmental costs of used-packaging being sent to landfill. If the product’s used-packaging is identified and closed-loop recycled the EPR will be delivered. EPR will incentivise more sustainable production practices, product longevity and maximise close-loop recyclability. Technology will both identify the packaging and via closed-loop recycling deliver EPR. Once operating, EPR legislation can be enacted.
Within 20 years, we predict that there will be a closed-loop recyclability index (CLR) displayed on every product. Just like ingredient contents in food, the CLR will influence a consumer’s purchasing decision and further educate the public.
These labels will help to further educate the public as to what can and cannot be de-manufactured, as well as identifying products that support the de-manufacturing industry.
All this will drive change in consumer purchasing behaviours, promote the growth of the de-manufacturing industry, and help to reduce de-manufacturing costs. By 2039, the de-manufacturing economy will approach the same level of employment as the financial services industry and will employ as many designers and robot operators as the manufacturing industry.
The role of consumers
Over 10-20 years there’s been a green revolution. People are now more aware than ever of the effect their waste has on the environment and innovative new technologies are offering solutions to key environmental challenges.
However, recent documentaries, such as the BBC’s Blue Planet II, demonstrate just how far we still have to go. Many people no longer trust curbside recycling collection but don’t know what else they can do.
The simple answer is to let the public take a more active part in the recycling process. Instead of confusedly separating items and hoping for the best, consumers should be empowered to guarantee 100% correct segregation of different plastics, for example, and ensure they are delivered to manufacturers in a pure form, ready for closed-loop recycling.
In fact, by delivering high-purity materials back to manufacturers, consumers could benefit directly from the high value of these materials. Government schemes encouraging the purchase of recycled materials will assist further.
This is where technological innovations, like ReCircle, will play a major role. ReCircle is an appliance for home or business that will use a sensor to identify and guarantee the correct separation of different plastic, glass, metal, etc. The appliance will then wash and grind the materials for separate storage in the base. The high-purity materials are then picked up and the consumer reimbursed for the weight of recycled materials.
Appliances like this are an important step towards achieving 100% closed-loop recycling and help empower households and businesses to make purchasing decisions which take into account the product’s life cycle assessment and closed-loop recyclability.
In 20 years, every individual, business, hospital, factory, building site, bar and restaurant, education institute, airport and any other venue in the world will take responsibility for the separation and cleaning of their recyclable material. On an individual level, required purity then becomes easily achievable, allowing the industry to benefit from valuable, high-purity closed-loop recyclable materials.
Innovation
Existing technologies will be re-engineered to help both industrial and consumer recyclers. We predict that these technologies will focus on improving the ease and affordability of high-purity recycling.
The first and arguably most important innovation will be a further and continuing reduction in the cost and size of material sensors. Currently, sensors are relatively expensive because they can sense multiple substances. Exception sensors, detecting one substance only, will be smaller, simpler and when mass-produced very much cheaper.
Next, we need to reduce the size of the grinding, granulating and compacting equipment. More compact appliances will allow consumers to process their recycling in their own home or business.
The combination of improved technology, the circular economy and de-manufacturing, means I can envision a world in which nearly all used-materials will be 100% closed-loop recycled. Looking forward 20 years recycling appliances will be an accept part of everyday life for all of us.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aldous Hicks is the CEO and Co-founder of ReCircle Recycling Ltd. Aldous has over 30 years of business experience as a technology and software developer, project manager and mechanical engineer, including developing water and material recycling technology. He developed SOHO custom PC database software and prior to that worked with Mannesmann Demag AG, a multi-national German mechanical heavy engineering company.
Aldous has now turned his attention and expertise to the recycling economy, founding ReCircle to create a solution that will empower consumers while reversing the unsustainable and inefficient recycling system.
https://www.recirclerecycling.com/
https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/recircle-recycling-ltd/pitches/q4PVOq
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/recirclerecycling
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReCircleRecycle
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/recirclerecycling
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recirclerecycling/
ABOUT RECIRCLE
ReCircle Recycling Ltd (RRL) https://www.recirclerecycling.com/ aims to address the problem of contamination with our patented technology in the form of a recycling appliance.
The main function of the appliance, or “ReCircle”, is to ensure captured used-materials are kept separated with 100% accuracy. By keeping each type of used-material separated and pure, the appliance will ensure the inherent material value is not lost due to being mixed with other different materials – the major problem with the current recycling system.
By guaranteeing 100% purity of recyclable materials, ReCircle can;
- Remove the need for the current expensive and inefficient collection of co-mingled recyclables and the ensuing problematic sorting & separation processes.
- Guarantee 100% closed-loop recycling of glass, steel, aluminum and plastics (PET & HDPE) processed by the ReCircle appliance.
- Retain the value of used recyclable container materials, so they can be sold at a premium and successfully closed-loop re-manufactured after their useful life.
LINKS
https://www.recirclerecycling.com/
http://www.facebook.com/recirclerecycling
http://www.linkedin.com/company/recirclerecycling
https://twitter.com/ReCircleRecycle
http://instagram.com/recirclerecycling
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBd18yNL9G7CcmrwhFGMGpg
REFERENCES
http://www.petbottlewashingline.com/pvc-in-pet-bottle-recycling/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_producer_responsibility
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38338599
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