August 12, 2024 – As global environmental awareness intensifies, plastics manufacturers are increasingly emphasizing sustainability, striving to promote recyclable designs and improve non-recyclable ones to minimize environmental impact. Despite these efforts, a significant challenge remains: most plastic products are still difficult to recycle, primarily due to a lack of recyclable design. This design gap hinders recycling efforts, results in considerable resource wastage, and contradicts global trends in managing plastic pollution.
According to a report by the UN Environment Programme, optimizing recyclable design can significantly boost recycling profits and potentially increase the share of economically mechanically recyclable plastics to over 50% by 2040. This underscores the crucial role of recyclable design in plastic products.
However, some plastic items, such as automotive plastics, low-value plastic packaging, and labeled paper, remain notoriously difficult to recycle. These products, designed without adequate consideration for recyclability, pose significant challenges for subsequent recycling. For instance, automotive plastics, with their diverse types, complex structures, and added coatings and paints for aesthetics, complicate the recycling process and affect the quality of recycled materials. Similarly, low-value plastic packaging, often made from composite materials, is technically challenging to recycle, while certain label designs complicate the recycling process.
To promote recyclable plastic design, ChinaReplas has established the “Golden Apple Award” and the “Rotten Apple Award.” The former recognizes innovative designs in plastic recycling, while the latter highlights difficult-to-recycle plastics as a warning to the industry and a catalyst for improvement.
Currently, the sixth edition of the ChinaReplas “Golden Apple Award” is underway, alongside the “Rotten Apple Award” nomination process. These initiatives aim to steer the plastics industry towards a more environmentally friendly and sustainable path through positive incentives and negative warnings.
According to the Color Masterbatch Industry Network, such activities not only raise awareness among businesses about the importance of product design but also guide consumers to choose environmentally friendly products, promoting a greener lifestyle across society. These efforts are expected to lead the plastics industry to take more substantial steps towards sustainable development.