Recycling executive takes issues with sector criticism

Comments made by now outgoing United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson nearly one year ago still are being pointed to as unhelpful by a plastics recycling executive in that nation.

Philippe von Stauffenberg, CEO and founder of Greenback Recycling Technologies, remarks, “A great example of harmful throwaway comments is the prime minister’s statement that ‘recycling doesn’t work’, when in reality, the biggest hurdle is that investment in recycling infrastructure has not been forthcoming in Britain over the last 20 years—particularly when compared to most EU countries. Rhetoric such as this only encourages the public to think twice about recycling their waste, so it can be a damaging position to take.”

The CEO says the recycling sector needs to warn against the dangers of “only telling half of the recycling story.” Although Johnson’s comments are nearly one year in the past, von Stauffenberg says he senses “growing rhetoric” suggesting recycling “doesn’t work,” pointing to a recent report in The Express in the U.K.

According to Greenback, the article referred to plastic recycling as “nonsense,” which the company calls “a blanket statement is not only short-sighted but ultimately ends up causing more harm than good, particularly as it relates to groundbreaking recycling technologies developed in the U.K.”

Greenback and von Stauffenberg consider themselves part of that technology development scene. “Britain is a hotbed for new technologies that are making significant contributions to solving the plastic pollution challenge,” von Stauffenberg says.

The CEO continues, “Precisely because in the past there has been significant underinvestment in recycling technologies and poor financing of extended producer responsibility programs in the U.K., there is no entrenched waste management industry defending an unsustainable status quo. In fact, there is now a flourishing start-up scene with technologies that provide fresh thinking along many parts of the recycling value chain. These range from new compostable plastic materials and advanced recycling of plastic using enzymes to technologies enabling full transparency and traceability with the help of the blockchain. “

While touting the progress, von Stauffenberg adds, “Comments like the PM’s are putting at risk one of the most needed, and most innovative sectors of industry. Britain is a leader in recycling innovation and could be a role model for many countries that also have significantly underinvested in the past.”

He continues, “Anti-plastic or anti-recycling rhetoric really tells only half the story and treats plastic packaging as though it’s a singular problem to be solved. It not only ignores the role of plastic packaging in ensuring food safety and durability and reducing food waste but also that it is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly material if it is collected and treated correctly.”

Greenback, which is building a recycling plant in Mexico in cooperation with Nestlé, describes itself as developing a decentralized network of innovative recycling facilities, located next to sources of waste. The company’s model uses small-scale plants to convert flexible packaging that is often hard to recycle into “pyrolysis oil” that it says can be used as recycled-content feedstock for food-grade packaging.

"Plastics are rarely the villain they're made out to be, but people often are," von Stauffenberg says. “Given its high price, in addition to recycling plastic into pyrolysis oil (a material that is identical to fossil feedstock), we need to ensure that we can prove that it is really made from used plastic packaging, as otherwise, people will profit by mixing it with fossil oil and selling it as ‘recycled.’ We have therefore developed technology that traces the journey of waste all the way to the packaging producers so that consumer goods companies can rely on the provenance of their recycled packaging material.”

In the meantime, the recycling executive says, “Blanket statements that recycling doesn’t work are neither accurate nor helpful. Technology exists so that every piece of plastic can already be recycled. The work is now to make it scalable and financially viable. The combination of a government committed to introducing regulations with incentives and penalties and supporting new technologies could ensure Britain’s leadership in the future.”

He concludes, “What we ought to be doing instead of rubbishing recycling is improving ways to recycle rubbish: recover plastic waste that was not previously recycled and turn it into new packaging. This will not only reduce the amount of plastic that ends up polluting landfills and rivers but lessen the dependence on fossil feedstock to make new plastics. We need to close the loop—that’s the heart of what we are doing at Greenback.”