Collection of modern plastic waste management initiatives in the world

Leading countries in recycling plastic waste have had initiatives in modern and effective plastic waste recycling technology and management.

1. Sweden – 99% of waste is recycled

Sweden is known as one of the world’s leading sustainable development countries, with the goal of achieving a waste-free society. Here, a lot of waste is applied with plastic waste treatment technology by recycling and using for different purposes such as biogas and energy.

For many years, it has been at the forefront of recycling, and now Sweden has become a waste importing country, importing about 2.3 million tons of waste each year. Since 2011, less than 1% of Swedish households have taken their waste to landfill.

The national reuse policy is also carried out very synchronously and closely. Private companies are also involved in importing and burning trash to provide energy and a national heating network for the cold winters here.

2. Austria – uses enzymes to recycle PET plastic

The most prominent in plastic waste treatment technology that must be mentioned is Austria’s biotechnology for recycling PET plastic. A company in Austria has developed a high-tech solution, using enzymes from a fungus to recycle PET plastic. Enzymes from fungi will decompose PET into molecules, then these molecules go through a strict recycling process to turn into high quality plastic.

This Austrian method is highly appreciated by international environmental experts. Thanks to the discovery of this special “plastic-eating” enzyme, environmental managers have an effective option for recycling PET plastic, instead of burning or crushing environmentally harmful waste as before. .

3. Germany – garbage is a business opportunity

Currently, Germany is almost at the top of Europe in plastic waste treatment technology. They mostly use very little virgin plastic, which is recycled from finished petroleum plastic granules and used for the first time.

In recent years, the German government has issued information and required supermarkets to provide environmentally friendly bags, or if customers request plastic bags, they must pay and not be exempted. Usage fee as before. Because of this, the amount of plastic bags used in supermarkets has decreased significantly. People have replaced plastic bags with reusable bags or brought cloth bags to avoid having to spend money on plastic bags.

A German initiative on recycling that many European Union countries have followed, is to increase the responsibility of manufacturers in limiting the amount of waste. Accordingly, manufacturers and retailers have to pay to have Green Dot printed on product packaging. The more packaging produced, the more costs businesses will have to pay. To save costs, businesses are forced to use less paper, thinner glass and limit metals, so the amount of waste released into the environment will also be greatly reduced.

4. Norway – 97% of plastic bottles are recycled

With a recycling rate of up to 97%, Norway is currently the leader among European Union (EU) member countries in the fight against plastic waste. 92% of plastic bottles produced in Norway are made from high-quality plastic materials and can continue to be used for drinking water. Less than 1% of non-recyclable plastics are required to be released into the environment. Therefore, the life cycle of some plastic bottles in Norway can be recycled up to 50 times. This has turned Norway into a model for the world in the field of environmental protection.

The secret to helping this country is to uniformly and widely apply a “deposit” system. When consumers buy bottled water, they will have to pay for the entire plastic bottle, an amount equivalent to 3,000 – 7,000 VND.

On the other hand, the Norwegian government is also aiming to solve this problem. The government is willing to completely exempt all businesses from this tax, if the national recycling rate reaches over 95%. Currently, companies in this country with plastic waste treatment technology in the Nordic country are achieving impressive numbers, 7 years in a row.

5. Belgium – over 80% of waste is recycled

Belgium is one of the countries with a high recycling and reuse rate of waste in the world, always above 80%. Of the total 183,000 tons of waste collected from households each year, Belgium’s nine recycling plants process about 157,000 tons of plastic and metals and recycle about 132,000 tons (84%) of plastic packaging.

Belgium uses two extremely advanced waste management processes at source called: Ecolizer and Green Event. Ecolizer is a web-based system for production management, helping manufacturers calculate the impact of products on the environment right at the design stage. The system calculates production, transportation, consumption, energy and waste treatment, helping manufacturers assess the environmental impact their products will cause. From those assessments, improvements will be proposed in the process and in product design to reduce the negative impact on the environment as much as possible.

Similar to Ecolizer, Green Events is also a web-based management system for events. This system helps assess the amount of waste that event organizers may create during the event, and also offers ways to reduce waste during the event, even including a list of places for Rent reusable cutlery.

6. Japan – only 1% of waste goes into the environment

Japanese people release nearly 350kg of waste/person/year into the environment, and this country generates about 45 million tons of trash, ranking 8th in the world. Because there is not much land to bury waste, Japan has implemented a solution of burning waste.

This country uses fluidized bed combustion – an effective method for burning difficult-to-burn materials. This technology treats waste by burying it in a layer of sand, then using gas from the furnace process and some other chemicals to destroy the waste. Garbage inside the oven will be continuously convected, and will be destroyed in a quick time.

This technology also has an outstanding advantage: it helps reduce emissions such as NO and NO2 significantly, and the amount of heat after burning waste is used to produce electricity.

It is known that 20.8% of the total annual waste is recycled in Japan, especially PET synthetic plastic bottles. This is the material used to produce drink bottles in vending machines and grocery stores across Japan. PET bottles that have not gone through the filtration process can be turned into fibers for clothes, bags, carpets and raincoats… the plastic waste treatment technology here has brought a new source of income from recycling plastic into new products.

Source: Môi trường & Đô thị