Wishcycling

Simply wishing something will be recycled is not enough.

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April 27 2023

“Wishcycling” may not be a term you have heard of before but is something that we are probably all guilty of. We wish that if we throw a piece of rubbish into a recycling bin, it will get recycled. We’ve done the due diligence of buying a seemingly sustainable product with recyclable packaging and the ‘chasing triangle’ recycling logo on it. We clean it out, treat it accordingly and then wish it well, as it goes on its way to be recycled into a brand-new product, perpetuating its lifespan, and becoming part of the loop of circular economy.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in Neverland. Plastic isn’t sprinkled with fairy dust by the waste collector fairy and whisked away to join the other ‘lost boys’ on their journeys in immortality.

What happens instead, is many of the materials collected in recycling bins don’t belong there. Uneducated recycling leads to waste. Products that cannot be recycled or that are soiled with liquids or foods, just spoil the entire batch. A recent article in the Straits Times newspaper stated that, “40 per cent of all items placed in the recycling bins cannot be repurposed due to food and waste leakage or they are simply non-recyclable.” This figure is staggering, considering we are already dealing with miniscule local plastic recycling rates, only 6% recorded in 2021.

Let’s say, now we’re dealing with the 60% so-called recyclable materials. Many consumers also mistake the chasing arrows logo, for the resin identification code on plastic products. These were obviously put there by petroleum companies who wanted to dubiously get consumers to think they were making the right choices and buying recyclable materials. I mean come on, of all the shapes and logos in the world. How convenient.

So then, what can be recycled and what can’t be?

Words are relevant because of the meanings attached to them. If something is recyclable, technically, we assume the meaning would be that it can and it will be turned into something new. Most of us even assume that this product will be turned into the same product again. This is very rarely the case. The US Federal Trade Commission defines a product as recyclable when at least 60% of the consumers have access to recycling facilities that can actually recycle a product. Let’s not even go so far to think about what is happening with waste management in developing countries. Right here in Singapore, we do not have the facilities to recycle all types of plastic. Most of it is incinerated and put in the landfill at Semakau or burned and turned into energy. We are only now working on a material recovery facility in Tuas, which will not be ready until 2025. Therefore, is anything that says its recyclable, actually recyclable in Singapore?

The happy myth that a PET bottle will be recycled into another PET bottle also needs to be debunked. Most plastic is downcycled. PET bottles, for example, are usually crushed up and spun into fiber, making polyester. Which by the way, is strangely named as a different polymer, even though no other materials are added to the PET structure. Rumpelstiltskin then works away at the spindle, spinning this golden material into textiles, knowing full well, that we will never win the game. Once plastic has reached this stage, there is no return. This already degraded and broken-down plastic loses its strength and qualities quickly.

Oh, and for those of you who haven’t even thought about recycling as an option and still believe that burning fossil fuels to make virgin plastics is a cheaper option, and that we can just burn everything to get rid of the waste, I advise you to think of your lungs, the extreme weather occurrences, how hot Singapore is already and is going to be and of course, the polar bears. A study done by Beyond Plastics at Bennington College found that the “plastics industry is responsible for at least 232 million tons of CO2e gas emissions per year.” This means, that pollution from this industry will bypass that of the coal industry in just 7 years.

So then, what are our 3 recycling wishes? (Ok, I’ll be generous and give you 4.)

First, we have to wish that the global plastic recycling rate increases from 9%, otherwise we’re going to be swimming in plastic and breathing in so much greenhouse gas that the human race will not survive.

Next, wish that people learn to have some common sense (which doesn’t seem so common these days), make educated consumer choices, practice a conscious refusal of plastic packaging and single-use plastics and move towards a zero-waste lifestyle.

We also have to wish, that governments step-up and put in place proper recycling facilities. There is no point having a whole feedstock of valuable plastic material, ready to be recycled, that ends up in a landfill or as energy (which is not, by the way, a renewable energy resource).

And please, wish that both consumers and producers own their responsibility to the environment. We have done a really good job in damaging our planet, and ourselves. It is time we stop being self-destructive, and start believing in fairies again.