Waste
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Clara Salina ... Reducing plastic waste through barcode control: 60 year old material has already fully polluted our Planet

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Reducing plastic waste through barcode control: 60 year old material has already fully polluted our Planet

The following wants to be a concrete proposal to scientists and politicians to reduce plastic waste. It is offered for public discussion.

We all agree on one point: we must stop plastic pollution. Our oceans cannot afford it any longer: mammals and birds are dying, fishes are eating million of pieces of micro plastic that eventually reach our food and the Pacific Plastic Garbage Patch`s insects are changing the natural environment.

After many failed attempts to raise awareness about plastic pollution among friends and colleagues, trying to demonstrate the evidence of the existence of an environmental enemy hidden behind plastic, I realized that a possible solution which can bring forward a real change is revert the general paradigm of plastic waste collection.

Plastic material has two sides to it: a friendly one, giving us facilities and an incredible quantity of useful devices, inert and not dangerous. And a less friendly one, which appears only after having used it, too often for only a few minutes, when it becomes waste material.

Unfortunately any problem plastic provokes is too far from our daily life and generally people understand only what they make experience of.

This is the reason why this problem must be solved by governments’ revolutionary decisions: there probably won’t be any short period change or demand bottom up, as everyday life facts show that awareness among people has not been raised enough. Governments must be the authors of change.

The proposal is simple.

Let’s start from a question: since packaging, bottles and any plastic container –which causes the disaster we face- are produced and sold by a market which is privately owned: why shouldn't the same private market be in charge of recycling the plastic sold, instead of the public administration?

Therefore

Every country on the Planet should establish by law an obligation for every distribution channel (i.e. markets, malls, fast foods, etc.) to gather all disposable plastic they sell. 
This could be achieved gradually, for example 30% the first year, 60% the second, 90% the third, and it should include all kinds of packages (cans, bottles, wrappings, plastic bags and so on) under the Public Administration control.

How would this control be feasible?

Nowadays all distributors and retailers already use barcodes basically on every item/product sold. These same codes, beyond administrative and general information such as price, taxes, etc. could also easily carry all the information about packaging materials and their weight.

By doing so, the whole production+selling system would be able to know and track data on recyclable materials in real-time, per cash register, per day, per week, per month, year and so on.

Cash registers at supermarkets are indeed the last control bulwark of the selling chain: after that, only environment and awareness is left.

The challenging possibility to oblige any distribution channel to gather plastic disposables, under the strictly barcode control supervised by Public Administration, can be the solution to put an end to plastic pollution.

For years the public-driven garbage collection model has been the only way to get rid of the waste. But now, since the environment has reached a point of saturation and our oceans and seas are close to collapse, beyond the public-driven garbage collection, we must introduce new legal devices and politics which rethink and revert the paradigm.

There is no time left: solutions related to public recycling systems and based on raising awareness have shown their weakness since they take too much time to be really effective.

Plastic is only 60 years old but despite any recycling program or public compromise many countries have tried to implement, plastic pollution has reached a magnitude that seems to be impossible to diminish.

In the last 20 years, almost every European Country has been making huge efforts trying to raise environmental and recycling awareness among citizens. Even if European consumers are now more concerned about the role they play in recycling, Mediterranean Sea is experiencing the same problem. Therefore, referring to the entire Earth, how long will it take -for less-green, less-developed countries but also for some developed one, or the ones who are now living their consumerist era- to create awareness within their consumers?

If humankind made this in 60 years, from the moment in which every distribution channel is obliged by law to gather all disposable plastic sold, within few weeks that achievement can influence (and start changing) the habits of billon and billion of consumers and producers.

It is only a guess but it is likely that the problem solving soul of private market would probably start immediately to increase demand/offer of sustainable packaging: e.g. banning plastic bags, producing refillable dispensers for liquids (soaps, shampoos, oils, etc.), or returnable boxes. Marketing and human creativity should start playing their role, igniting the change by engaging customers using its levers ('responsible customer' loyalty plans, etc.).

A new way of selling perhaps can also give opportunities to young entrepreneurs, with new ideas and trading strategies. (see for instance www.pesonetto.it )

How to make it reality?

This idea is proposed to be discussed. Governments, experts and any political organization can promote this possible and radical change.

The implementation of this proposal should be 0 cost for Nations and it can work in collaboration with the already existing public recycling channels.

In reply to skeptics, an important example is Uruguay, whose law on recycling (# 17.849) charges the operational costs to the market.

Indeed, inside their webpage describing the basis of the law, the Ministry of Environment tells: “Operational plans are funded by brand owners and importers. The Ministry carries out monitoring and control, and applies penalties and fines on companies that are not in compliance with the regulation” (tentative translation of “Los planes operativos son financiados por los propietarios de marca e importadores. El Ministerio realiza el seguimiento y control, y aplica las sanciones y multas a las empresas que no se encuentren en cumplimiento de la normativa'.)

On the other side talking about logistic, distribution channels might refer to: “Revers logistic in plastic recycling” wrote in 1992 by Dr. Theodore Farris and Dr. Terrance Pohlen, (The International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Volume 22, #7, pp. 35-47 see http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=846458&show=abstract)

Clara Salina ... photographer, visual artist, producer, environmental activist, animalist

clarasalina@gmail.com