Since the first factories began fabricating polyester from petroleum in the 50s, we have generated approximately 9.1 billion of plastic. According to research, less than a tenth of the waste made from plastic has been recycled. About 12% has been incinerated, emitting dioxins and other carcinogens into the atmosphere. The rest has accumulated in the natural environment and in landfills. Plastic is everywhere now. It inhabits our waters, building up in the guts of great white sharks and seagulls. More research finds that plastic is responsible for more CO2 emissions from production to disposal than the aviation industry.

The problem is that even the smallest share of plastic that does get recycled ends up in the trash heap. Traditional recycling methods in which old containers are turned into flakes, washed, melted down, and then made into new products – inevitably yield goods that are less durable and more fragile than the starting material. In the best-case scenario, material from a plastic recipient might be recycled a few times before it becomes totally unusable. Even so, it will be "downcycled" into lower materials like clothing – materials that will eventually end up in landfills. However, the latest recycling technologies could keep more plastic out of these landfills.

A New Way to Recycle Plastic

Now more than ever, researchers and scientists are trying to find new sustainable ways to recycle plastic. So far one recycling technology has managed to turn our heads – Pure Cycle Technology.

Developed by John Layman at Procter and Gamble, this new recycling process removes odor, color and contaminants from plastic waste feedstock and turns it into a virgin-like ultra-pure recycled polypropylene.

Recycled plastics are normally contaminated with toxic impurities, are darkly tinted, and have a very unpleasant odor which prevents the widespread use of plastics in almost all consumer applications. This might be one of the reasons why we cannot find recycled plastics in food and other sensitive packaging applications. But to fully facilitate a circular economy, the quality of recycled plastic must be as close as possible to virgin plastic.

This new way of recycling plastic cleans, sanitizes, and decolorizes recycled polypropylene (the second most used and produced plastic in the world).

But there's more. This technology uses a non-toxic solvent to remove contaminants and impurities from recovered plastic. The resulting ultra-pure recycled polypropylene can be assembled with 60 -85% less energy compared to the energy needed to manufacture virgin polypropylene. 

Metaverse: Reducing the Costs of Travel

With the arrival of Metaverse this year, we're expecting it to have far-reaching implications for the recycling and waste management sectors.

Stringent lockdowns during the pandemic have gained momentum in immersive augmented and virtual reality. Users and remote workers on this platform may share their experiences and communicate with one another in real-time inside simulated chat rooms. But what we don't feel is how this new version of the internet impacts our environment. One of the most notable advantages of Metaverse is that it will significantly reduce the need for human travel, resulting in less pollution, less traffic, fewer accidents, and consequently less global warming.

On the political and corporate aspect of this matter, this new technology will make it easier to hold conferences in virtual environments, thus saving considerable amounts of time besides the enormous expenses on their travel and security.

Recent findings hint that Metaverse will help in the reduction of other polluting-job-related operations. For instance, military training operations could be conducted in Metaverse environments, helping to reduce CO2 emissions.

Cities With Innovative Recycling Programs

Over the last 20 years, municipalities across the US and Europe have slowly but surely increased their recycling covering rates. We can see that in forward-looking cities like New York. Vowing to send zero waste to landfills by 2030 as part of the One NYC program, New York's bold approach to recycling is turning heads across the world. Planned in a collaborative process in 2016, this program encourages city officials, developers, architects, planners, recycling experts, waste haulers, business tycoons, and the general consumers to work together to refine existing systems and build new ones. 

However, Europe's battle against plastic waste doesn't remain unnoticed. Of course, EU countries still produce massive quantities of plastic, but the closed-loop approach seems to get much attention in countries like Germany and Denmark. Whether through the ongoing distribution of plastic and paper presses for affald' or trash in Danish, or ongoing product usage and components until their disappearance. 

 Streamline Recycling Routes With IoT

Already widely used in the European states, Internet of Things technology is all the rage right now, and with a good reason. Recent tech uses sensor hardware fitted in residential dumpsters and disposal units to streamline route collections. The number of these devices is growing significantly, having all chances to improve threefold within the next few years promising noteworthy profits to engineers and programmers engaged in producing them.

However, like many other things in the digital century, modern cities are getting smarter, implementing a range of IoT solutions in municipal practices – from street light control and traffic to parking lot optimization. The same goes for waste management, which has become a top-of-mind issue for urban authorities across the globe. As such, environmental cities should focus on facilitating the waste collection, creating opportunities for organic waste recycling, and improving the sanity of garbage disposal systems. When carried out, these strategies can yield the following social, environmental, and financial benefits.

• Lessen resource depletion – with the implementation of the old adage "Waste not, want not."
• Improve the local agricultural industry – separated waste from declining areas for suburban landfills could be used as compost to augment the capacity of soil for the benefit of local farmers and consumers.
• Enforce the green agenda-less waste ensures less CO2 emissions as well as cleaner waters and soils. Even better, the number of rodents and disease transmitters that thrive at dumping grounds will diminish.