Reduce, reuse, compost: Why recycling alone won’t solve the plastic crisis

Sep 27, 2021

Relatively little plastic waste makes it to recycling centres - to address the waste crisis new forms of packaging are needed. Image: Vincent Kneefel

Daphna Nissenbaum

Co-Founder and CEO, TIPA

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Plastics and the Environment

White three-arrow recycling symbol on a dark blue bin.

Gary Anderson's three-arrow symbol won an Earth Day competition in 1970 to find a sign for recycling. Image: Unsplash / @sigmund

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Line graph showing rate of plastic leakage into ocean from 2016-2040 in line with current industry and government commitments to reduce and a business as usual scenario.

Commitments by governments and industry will reduce the annual volume of plastic flowing into the ocean by only about 7% by 2040. Image: Breaking the Plastic Wave, The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2020

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— Daphna Nissenbaum, TIPA

Circular flow chart showing end-of-life options for biodegradable and compostable plastics.

Organic recycling options for biodegradable and compostable plastic products. Image: European Bioplastics

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