How many people today grab a takeaway coffee cup from the local cafe to drink on the go? We don’t know, but the number must be enormous.. Most every one of the above have a plastic top that will last 100s of years. Some cafes still use plastic cups that last a similar time. Is 10 minutes of coffee worth 100s of years of trash?
These items can be seen littering our gutters and on our streets all over the place. If they were all cardboard, they would still be littered, but they would, at least, be gone in a short time.
They do not need to be made of plastic.
On the way home from the gym last week, a distance of about 1 km (1/2 mile), I counted the items of plastic litter on the curb as I walked. In that short distance I counted 63 pieces of plastic litter. Plastic drink bottles, bottle tops, candy wrappers, plastic film, polystyrene fragments etc. That seemed to be a lot to me. I guess it is a generational thing. Our parents would have been horrified to see that amount, whereas it seems to go unnoticed by our youth of today. In another 20 years how many pieces will there be on this stretch, -- 200? What will today’s youth think of that new amount then when they are older? Will their children be so readily accepting of a higher amount of litter? Eastman ‘remains confident’ in chemical recycling project even as White House drops funding – USA
Posted on June 6, 2025 by DrRossH in Plastic Recycling
Eastman Chemical Co. “remains confident” in its plans for a chemical recycling facility in Longview, Texas, after the White House canceled its $375 million investment, but will also “evaluate potential changes” if required.
Industry consultants Esteban Sagel and Howard Rappaport assessed the impact of the removal of funding for advanced recycling. Sagel, principal with Chemical & Polymer Market Consultants in Houston said managing plastics at the end of their useful life “is a complex issue” for several reasons, including inefficient waste management systems, lack of material recovery facilities and mismatched recycling regulations.
“Chemical recycling has limitations, but in general is one of the best options to manage complex/mixed plastic waste,” he added.
At early developmental stages, technologies require a lot of capital and a long-term vision and strategy, according to Sagel. Unfortunately, he said, the existing system for private capital allocation “gives prevalence to short-term results over long-term gains.”
“This may be a controversial opinion, but it is in instances such as the development of novel technologies that governments can provide the necessary financial support to allow for these technologies to survive the initial developmental stages and be scaled,” Sagel said.
“Without solutions such as chemical recycling, plastics will remain hard to recycle and therefore our standing with consumers will continue to erode,” he added. “Petrochemical companies have a responsibility to work on end-of-life solutions for our products. But, with the current incentives of our capital allocation systems, this may be a mirage. And with reduced governmental support, I feel we may not be able to reach the necessary circularity our industry needs.”
Rappaport, a market analyst with StoneX in New York, described the loss of the Eastman grant as “disappointing” and that it “could not have come at a worse time from an industry standpoint.”
“Petrochemical and plastics producers are coming off an extended earnings trough, brought on after a period of significant capacity build in North America (and elsewhere),” Rappaport said. “Add to that the overwhelming barrage of negative media surrounding plastics waste (litter), microplastics contamination (questionable science) and various health related concerns (mostly speculation).”
He added that even as the industry is making large commitments and investments in mechanical and chemical recycling, “the naysayers are even questioning the validity of plastics recycling in general.”
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