Click here for over 150 oil prices
Start trading CFDs on over 2200 more instruments
Click here for over 150 oil prices
Click here for over 150 oil prices
Start trading CFDs on over 2200 more instruments
Click here for over 150 oil prices
Click here for over 150 oil prices
Start trading CFDs on over 2200 more instruments
Click here for over 150 oil prices
Click here for over 150 oil prices
Start trading CFDs on over 2200 more instruments
Click here for over 150 oil prices
Find out more
More than two years after the Covid-19 pandemic, many emerging markets still face high levels of plastic waste. Amid many environmental and fitness challenges, countries and corporations are looking for answers to combat the problem.
Accounting for about 12% of the world’s counterfeit waste before the pandemic, according to the World Bank, plastic has taken on a bigger role in the fitness crisis.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) has been deemed imperative to prevent the spread of the virus, while single-use plastics used in food delivery in particular have also proliferated.
Although an OECD report published in February found that overall plastic use fell by 2. 2% in 2020 due to declining economic activity related to lockdowns, the increased use of PPE and single-use plastics has exacerbated plastic waste, leading some to describe the situation as a “plastic pandemic”.
In the early months of the pandemic, it was reported that face masks and latex gloves were washed on southeast Asian beaches, while at the United Nations COP26 Climate Change Conference in November last year, Walter Roban, Bermuda’s Deputy Prime Minister, said Bermuda’s sea coast was flooded with plastic.
Although governments have implemented other methods to combat the virus, pandemic production of PPE and single-use plastics has continued in some parts of the world, and China’s recent mass testing strategy resulted in gigantic amounts of plastic and medical waste. In addition, the rebound in the global economy has led to an increase in the production and wider use of plastic.
The low percentage of plastic recycling exacerbates the problem. The OECD estimates that 9% of plastic waste is recycled, of which 50% ends up in landfills, 22% escapes waste control systems and ends up in landfills, open or out of control. waterways, and 19% is incinerated.
He poses a number of demanding situations for emerging markets.
According to a 2018 World Bank study, the United States, China and India were responsible for 13%, 11% and 9%, respectively, of the world’s plastic waste. Europe – Russia – accounted for 20%, Latin America 11%, sub-Saharan Africa 9% and the Middle East and North Africa 7%.
Emerging economies, which bear the brunt of the damage that plastic waste can cause, have a vital role to play in solving this problem.
In addition to the plastic produced by emerging markets themselves, exporting plastic waste from developed countries to emerging markets poses challenges.
While this practice provides economic opportunities to low-income countries, much of this plastic is difficult to recycle and ends up in local ecosystems, creating significant health risks: poisonous chemicals in burned or discarded plastics have been linked to serious health problems. as a cancer for those who classify plastics. For example, Zambia has experienced several cholera outbreaks due to poor drainage exacerbated by plastic-clogged systems.
At the public level, emerging markets have been the first to ban the use of certain plastics. Bangladesh was one of the first countries in the world to ban thin plastic and polyethylene bags in 2002, while more than 30 African countries have implemented total or partial bans. – or imposed heavy taxes – on plastic products.
Meanwhile, in an intergovernmental attempt to resolve the situation, in May last year, ASEAN member states introduced a regional action plan to combat marine debris.
The plan aims to decrease plastic inputs into the system, improve collection capabilities, minimize leaks, and create a price for waste reuse. It includes rules for countries to phase out single-use plastics, harmonize regional criteria on recycling and plastic packaging, and regional measurement and monitoring of marine debris.
Foreign countries have also come forward to help, and the U. S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has come forward. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security said in June that it had granted India’s Banyan Sustainable Waste Management a $9 million loan to increase its plastic recycling capacity from 15,000 to 51,000 tons consistent with the year.
Other state-of-the-art measures have been designed to solve the plastic problem.
For example, Hong Kong-based startup EcoBricks uses plastic waste from old washing machines that would otherwise have been sent to landfills to create building materials.
Earlier this month, the company allocated 15,000 bricks to pave a prom in Hong Kong’s Tuen Mun district, with the plastic used in the bricks coming from 560 old devices.
In one initiative, a team from Indonesia’s North Sumatra University has developed a biodegradable wood and plastic composite that can be used as curtains in the structure of houses, fences or furniture.
As studies continue, early evidence suggests it could be digested by local Indonesian termites, which could position the compound to update other constructs that are more destructive to the environment.
These advances are based on innovations. In October 2018, Siam Cement Group (SCG) and Dow Thailand Group unveiled a 220-meter recycled plastic strip.
The procedure involves collecting plastic, cleaning it and crushing it into small pieces before combining it with the asphalt. According to the Faculty of Engineering at Chulalongkorn University, recycled road is 15-30% more solid than bituminous concrete and, according to SCG data, more resilient. to water erosion.
By Oxford Business Group
More in Oilprice. com:
back to home page