5 Alternatives for a Planet without Plastic

Last February (in 2015), a study published in the journal Science estimated that in 2010 between 4.8 and 12.7 million tons of plastic rubbish were dumped in the world’s oceans. Although this is a frightening number, it is only a small part of the 275 million tons that were generated that year in 192 coastal countries. World production of plastics has increased some 500% since 1980, and these materials represent between 80% and 90% of maritime pollution. However, most of it stays on land, and it is in developing countries with poorer sanitation and recycling systems where the problem of plastic pollution is of particular importance. In fact, developing and emerging countries are mainly responsible for plastic pollution; according to the study in Science, of the 20 most polluting countries only the twentieth is a western developed nation, the United States.

Is it possible to conceive of a future without plastic? Some predict that the future depletion of fossil fuels will force it and that it will be necessary to develop substitutes. But even if this comes about, the end of plastics would not mean their disappearance from the Earth due to the very slow degradation of these polymers, and thus it will be necessary to also address means of decontamination. This is the background for the efforts toward the goal of achieving a world without plastic.

Living without plastic
Ban plastic?
Biodegradable plastics and bioplastics
Microbes that eat plastic
Reverse recycling

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Poo power: fuel, lampshades, paper and other useful things made from waste:

Poo. It’s a dirty word, and in some parts of the world, a taboo. But everyone does it – the average person alone produces 72.5kg of faecal matter annually. Some of it gets treated, some of it is left to float around, but nearly all of it has an economic value.

Last year, the UK’s first bus powered by human poo hit the roads of Bristol and in January this year, the Janicki Omniprocessor, a machine that turns human poo into water was revealed. Janicki Bioenergy, the company behind the machine, is soon to ship a processor to Dakar, Senegal, where it will produce 10,800 litres of water.

Here are some other examples of how waste is being integrated into sustainable, circular design and production with environmental and social benefits.

Stools made from stools
Poo to the slaughter
Let cow poo provide the power
Writing on rhino poo
Run your vehicle on panda poo


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New age alchemists

More and more companies are making wealth from waste and, in the process, saving the environment from devastation. Business Today looks at fi ve of these green businesses.

FABRIC FROM PLASTIC

LIQUID GOLD

GREEN POWER

TOWERING HEIGHTS

CLEANING E-WASTELAND

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