PLASTIC: Overview of National Leadership

Key concepts:

• Consumer Product Safety legislation – tool to address the plastic challenge
• clearinghouse needed to exchange national innovation policies
• global network to assess impact of alternative policies
• potential to start with most active Trailblazer centers

The law firm Norton Rose Fulbright produces a blog on Consumer Product Safety. In an effort to reduce the burdens of compliance with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has voted to remove seven types of plastics (containing specified additives) from the CPSIA’s mandatory third party testing requirement for phthalates in children’s toys and child care articles.  The Commission determined that the following types of plastics with specified additives do not contain regulated phthalates above the 1,000 parts per million limit in the CPSIA:

  • polypropylene (PP)
  • polyethylene (PE)
  • high-impact polystyrene (HIPS)
  • acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
  • general-purpose polystyrene (GPPS)
  • medium-impact polystyrene (MIPS)
  • super-high-impact polystyrene (SHIPS)

The applicable lists of specified additives in each type of plastic can be found in the draft final rule until the final rule is published in the Federal Register.

Posted in Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Innovation in AUSTRALIA

Great Barrier Island beach a ‘plastic graveyard’

Newshub – AUGUST 30, 2017

Kurt Salmond was stunned by the amount of plastic and other waste that had washed up on the small island of Rangiahua (Flat Island).

Innovation in FLANDERS

Flanders Today: Three-month grace period on plastic bags

Alan Hope

Friday September 1, 2017 a range of changes go into effect, including a ban on plastic bags in Flanders. Plastic bags are set to disappear from the Brussels landscape, as the much-discussed ban takes effect.

Innovation in INDIA

23 tonnes of plastic waste collected

The Hindu – AUGUST 30, 2017

The city Corporation on Tuesday collected around 23 tonnes of cleaned plastic materials in collection drives conducted across 25 health circles.

National Green Tribunal (NGT) disposal mechanism for seized plastic 

The Hindu – AUGUST 30, 2017 07:24 IST

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday asked the Delhi government to explore a disposal mechanism for the nearly 8,000 kilograms of plastic of less than 50 microns thickness that was seized by authorities following its ban.

Innovation in Kenya

Discarded plastic bags are a scourge in many places across the globe. But the situation is particularly bad in Kenya. Plastic bags hang from trees and clog waterways. And in Kibera, a slum on the edge of Nairobi, there are entire hills made of plastic trash.

But now, the Kenyan government has said “no more.” Starting Monday, plastic bags are illegal in Kenya. Anyone found manufacturing, selling or even using plastic bags could be charged up to $38,000 and spend up to four years in jail.

Kenya tried to ban plastic bags before in 2007 and 2011 — without much success.

Critics of the new ban say it will probably fail this time as well. The population is far too dependent on plastic bags and they lack a viable alternative, writes Leah Oyake-Ombis, a researcher at the University of Nairobi, in The Conversation:

“Plastic bags also have an extremely important role in the average person’s daily life as they stand out for their excellent fitness for use, resource efficiency and low price. For Kenya, where 56 percent of the population live on less than a dollar per day, plastic bags support the “kidogo” economy — synonymous with the majority. This economy is based on the small amounts people buy — for example one cup of cooking oil, or a handful of washing powder or squeeze of toothpaste. To take these home they need the small plastic bags.”

Rather than banning bags, Oyake-Ombis believes that Kenya should focus on plastic recovery and recycling. In contrast, environmental activist Wanjira Mathai tells The World that a plastic bag-free future in Kenya is possible. “We’ve seen this happen in our neighboring countries, in Rwanda and Tanzania. And many of us marvel at the beauty and cleanliness of a city like Kigali,” Mathai says. “So why not in Nairobi?”

So Kenya has banned plastic bags — with a four-year prison term for those who don’t comply.

Innovation in the NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands seems to have learned more from Hurricane Katrina than we did and has systematically prepared for major storms.

Amsterdam

The city of Amsterdam sits almost seven feet below sea level in a the Netherlands, which has endured more than its share of death and destruction from raging storms. CNN reports that the Netherlands, with much of the country lying below sea level, has managed to avoid a major flood in decades while the United States is suffering yet another catastrophe. Why? CNN’s answer, beyond the precise technical details the experts here provide, stresses a difference in culture, politics and psychology: the United States is in denial.

Port of Rotterdam

The Port of Rotterdam is an international model in five key ways:

First, a model for plastic recycling is showcased at Plant One Rotterdam. Ioniqa, a spin-off of TU Eindhoven and the Dutch Polymer Institute, has discovered the key to producing an ‘eternal PET bottle’: a process in which PET waste of all types and colors can be endlessly recycled into pure feedstock. This raw material is suited for any application that requires new PET. The recycled PET is comparable to material from fossil sources in terms of price and quality.

Second, The Port of Rotterdam is innovative in setting policy for international supply chain and shipping.  For example, the Irish Times reported (February 23, 2017) that 160 containers of recyclables collected and processed in Ireland that were being shipped to China were stopped at the Port of Rotterdam by the Dutch Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) because the shipments contained high levels of non-recyclables.

A statement from Ireland’s National Transfrontier Shipment Office (NTFSO) noted that the ILT consented to the reprocessing of 53 of the detained containers at a facility in the Netherlands. The rest of the detained containers were returned to Ireland in early 2017.

Third, the Global Edition of Recycling Today describes how the Port of Rotterdam stopped shipments of contaminated recyclables from Ireland: 160 containers destined for China.The Port of Rotterdam is a model for the circular economy.

In the traditional, linear economy, raw materials are used to make products that are discarded or, in the best case, incinerated after use. In the circular economy, production, innovation and recycling are key issues: products and substances are re-used to as great an extent as possible. ‘There is no such thing as waste’ — cycles are closed as much as possible so adding new raw materials to the production chains is limited. The objective is to improve the re-use of products and raw materials wherever possible and to limit destruction of value. Waste is only incinerated to generate electricity if nothing else can be done with the residual product. In a circular economy, production and consumption are as efficient and as clean as possible.

Fourth, free disposal of clean plastic waste is a service offered in the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Sea-going vessels in the ports of Rotterdam Rijnmond and the North Sea Channel district can dispose of unlimited plastic shipping waste free of charge (this service started on 1 January 2016) and was agreed between the port authorities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam and the waste collection companies. The waste must be segregated and clean at the time of disposal.

Fifth, Rotterdam is a proposed location for a waste-to-chemicals plant. The construction of a waste-to-chemicals plant in the Netherlands that will produce methanol from synthesis gas generated from residual waste is moving forward. A partnership consisting of AkzoNobel, Van Gansewinkel, Air Liquide, AVR, Enerkem and Port of Rotterdam announced that it is looking to build the plant in Rotterdam in collaboration with the Port of Rotterdam, the City of Rotterdam, the province of South Holland and InnovationQuarter.

As the above examples of Rotterdam’s leadership suggest, Rotterdam is moving toward becoming a global hub for waste management.

Innovation in the UNITED STATES

Coca-Cola: 100 Billion Plastic PET Bottles per Year

Laurel Brunner Not So Fantastic Plastic – Tuesday, AUGUST 29, 2017

Not So Fantastic Plastic

Coca-Cola’ company produces over 100 billion plastic bottles per year in PET bottles.

See the app @ earthDECKS.org
Saving Our Oceans from Plastic: articles by Zann Gill

 

 



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