Following some of the principles of the circular economy, plastic debris collected in the oceans can re-enter the production loop. With the recent focus on ocean plastics, brands have been scrambling to create from them (it’s a great marketing tactic). Products as varied as swimwear, sunglasses to jackets, shoes, and skateboards are now using recycled ocean plastics like discarded fishing nets and plastic bottles. _
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Have you ever wondered how products are made from ocean plastics? Typically, the process involves collection of marine plastic waste which is then sorted and sent to a processing plant. This is common in places like the Phillipines or Italy._
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Anything that can’t be used in the process is recycled, landfilled or incinerated separately. For the types of plastic that can be used, the processing plant crushes, washes, and dehydrates the waste, leaving nothing but small plastic flakes. The flakes are heated, dried, and cooled, then cut into small resin pellets. Normally, polyester is made from oil but instead these pellets are melted to create a filament which is spun into a type of polyester yarn._
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This takes some of the plastic out of the environment and recycled polyester uses less water and fewer chemicals than traditional polyester. However, this process doesn’t eliminate plastic pollution as washing polyester clothing can create microfibres which may end up in all our waterways, recycling like this is still energy intensive and currently it only seems to keep the plastic out of the landfill loop once. Those products aren’t compostable so when we discard them they just end up right back into landfill. _
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We’re bigger advocates for stopping the pollution at its source, using far better materials and designing more effectively for end-of-life and usage, but we should be thinking about how we can keep recycling some plastics over and over as a number of items we absolutely need them for, and others we’re simply not going to get away from (if our political and economic structures continue) for a long, long time. Some of these processes will get us some of the way.
