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A dump site in Ipoh in which plastics from UK recycling bins was found among stacks of discarded plastic nearly 20ft high. \u00a9 Unearthed<\/p><\/div>\n
At Smugglers Way, a recycling centre on the south bank of London\u2019s river Thames, a worker stands next to a fast-moving conveyor trying desperately to sort the city\u2019s recycling.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s paid less than London\u2019s living wage on a pay-as-you-go contract. She fears if she doesn\u2019t meet the target \u2013\u00a0to pick at least one item every two seconds<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 she may not be at work next week. Cameras follow her\u00a0 \u2013 she never knows when she\u2019s being watched. This is not a high-margin business.<\/p>\n Her job is to pick out the stuff that shouldn\u2019t be there: the nappies, the toilet brushes and the things that perhaps could be recycled but are too contaminated. It\u2019s a hard thing to judge and sometimes, with the sheer speed of the process, paper, plastic or entire unopened recycling sacks go in the bin. Other times colleagues fear materials which should be taken off pass them rapidly by.<\/p>\n Five miles north BP chief executive Bob Dudley is presenting the\u00a0company\u2019s latest review of world energy data<\/a>. There are also plenty of cameras.<\/p>\n Global carbon dioxide emissions keep rising, thanks, in part, to\u00a0a\u00a0rise in demand for oil-derived petrochemicals of the kind largely used to make plastics<\/a>. For Dudley, this is no bad thing. As demand for oil to be burnt slows, the company sees a rise in \u201cnon-combusted\u201d oil \u2013 used for plastics and other products \u2013 driving growth.<\/p>\n In the\u00a0oil giant\u2019s latest energy projections the use of oil for plastics is the single largest source of new demand over the next 20 years<\/a>, even assuming tighter regulation on plastic use and disposal by governments.<\/p>\n But the question is \u2013 how tight exactly? In the same forecast, BP noted a global ban on single-use plastics would cut demand growth for liquid fuels by 80%.<\/p>\n Faced with that reality oil companies want to make sure that plastic production isn\u2019t curtailed by governments eco-sensitivities, and are teaming up with recycling firms to try and reduce the impact of plastic waste on the environment. A global alliance of companies including Shell, Exxon and waste giant Veolia\u00a0have committed $1bn over the next 5 years<\/a>\u00a0to improving waste processing infrastructure, mostly in the far east where plastic \u201cleakage\u201d into the oceans is greatest<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the same time, helped by cheap gas from fracking,\u00a0the oil giants in the group are also investing billions in facilities designed to meet the predicted demand for ever more plastics<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 including\u00a0mega-projects to feed demand in South East Asia<\/a>. On current trends, much of that will be single-use and designed \u2013 at best \u2013 to be recycled. That\u2019s if things go well: so far only 9% of the plastic used in the world has been reprocessed.<\/p>\n Our trust in recycling as a solution to the mass consumption of single-use products requires some magical thinking. As we put our bag or box outside somewhere in our mind do we wonder: why are so few things I buy are actually recycled? How will anyone sort out this medley of smashed glass and dessert pots? In the UK \u2013 for example \u2013\u00a0just two brands<\/a>\u00a0use 100% recycled content in their bottles.<\/p>\n Yet we are often encouraged not to dwell too hard. When we publish stories about the failures or limitations of recycling we are often warned by companies and government bodies that we risk \u201cputting people off;\u201d. This is an argument for an industry to avoid scrutiny on the grounds adults cannot hold two ideas in their head at the same time.<\/p>\n Instead, we\u2019re told, recycling is all part of the \u201ccircular economy\u201d: another buzz-phrase for Shell and its partners whose first goal is to \u201cenable the circular economy\u201d in South East Asia.<\/p>\n Circular? That\u2019s a powerful mental image to put out there.<\/p>\n Making products recyclable at the end of their life; encouraging them to be recycled and \u2013 crucially \u2013 making new products from recycled materials is\u00a0important to lowering emissions<\/a>. But this is not a circle, especially not when it starts with the mass production of new, disposable, products using oil.<\/p>\n The UK is no world leader in dealing with recycling \u2013 but it\u2019s far more advanced than the countries targeted by Shell and its alliance partners. That plant in Smugglers Way was uncontroversially described\u00a0as \u201cstate of the art\u201d.<\/a>\u00a0It claims to process 99% of recyclable material coming in and frequently welcomes visitors to witness its\u00a0\u201cmodern, efficient\u201d facility.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n But even in the UK there is only so close you can go before the magic starts to wane. Transparency is limited.<\/p>\n We know \u2013 because councils check \u2013 how contaminated our recycling bags are going into a waste plant to be sorted, but the effectiveness of that process is harder to gage. In the UK the level of contamination in the bales of recycling going out is commercially confidential.<\/p>\n Into the gaps flow more complex versions of those same nagging questions we experience as we put out our recycling bag.<\/p>\n Recycling that is contaminated is hard to process, the spectrum of what counts as contamination is pretty wide. In one case, we were told, it includes fluid in an open water bottle. One way or another much of it gets or burned or dumped far away.<\/p>\n Last year we discovered mountains of recycling \u2013 including a lot of British, American and European packaging \u2013\u00a0apparently abandoned and heavily contaminated in a Malaysian dump<\/a>. It\u2019s a phenomenon that\u00a0has been repeated again and again<\/a>\u00a0around the world as countries scramble to\u00a0close their doors to imports.<\/a><\/p>\n As one local campaigner in Malaysia told Unearthed: \u201cYou [developed countries] have so-called high recycling rates; as citizens do you know where your plastic waste and pollution ends up? It\u2019s in other people\u2019s countries, affecting other people\u2019s children.\u201d<\/p>\n As the problems with plastics and sorting become harder to export, they have become more visible in the west. UK councils now admit a significant percentage of material which can \u2013 in theory \u2013 be\u00a0recycled is actually burnt<\/a>\u00a0instead for want of anyone to buy it and turn it into something useful.<\/p>\n Even the stuff that makes it through has a limited shelf life. There are only so many times a product can be recycled. Each time the quality goes down, there are fewer uses for it and it becomes harder to process. After that, still assuming the very best of cases, it must take its next step in the circular economy and be burnt to produce energy, \u2018offsetting\u2019 emissions elsewhere.<\/p>\n Except that, in economies trying to rid themselves of carbon emissions for power, burning rubbish to produce energy does not \u201coffset\u201d emissions from fossil fuels, it just adds to them.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the thing with calling oil for plastic \u201cnon-combusted\u201d (not burnt). Any single use plastic is, even in the best case, eventually combusted, either that or it is dumped; often ending up floating about polluting ecosystems whilst slowly releasing CO2 or disrupting the ocean\u2019s carbon absorption in ways science\u00a0is only just beginning to understand.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n In fact, \u201cnon-combusted\u201d oil products like single-use plastics are even more carbon-intensive to make than they are to burn. When you add it all together greenhouse gas emissions from plastics alone could equate to15<\/a>\u201317%<\/a>\u00a0of global emissions by 2050. In 2019 the life-cycle emissions from plastic products will be equal to roughly\u00a0189 coal plants<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other single-use products\u00a0are little better or worse\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 they are all a climate issue. As the IPCC suggested in key scenarios, to limit climate change western nations\u00a0must reduce material consumption<\/a>.<\/p>\n