Who Built a PCR Plastic Parking Lot?
In this day and age we need to take recycling seriously. There are so many barriers in place preventing us from effective plastic recycling or re-use allowing for the environment to literally drown in plastic litter. The effects on fish, wildlife, us humans? Not good. And while it’s hard to fully understand and quantify just yet, we know things need to change and quickly. Just to push the point, every year more than 300 million tons of plastic is made. And over half of the plastic that is produced is put into single-use products that are used for just moments (or days) and then discarded. Of course, most of that plastic will last for centuries.
Of the 8.3 billion metric tons that has been produced (since plastic production began in the 1950’s), 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority—79 percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter. Meaning: at some point, much of it ends up in the oceans, the final sink. - Source: National Geographic
While we here at Portco are hard at work on some new products that will help change the plastics game, it’s important to prop up and celebrate others who are making a progressive difference. So please read this amazing story about Meijer and Dow, who have paved a huge parking lot using PCR plastic…specifically the equivalent weight of 944,000 plastic grocery bags!
Read the article here on Flexible Packaging Magazine (or get the PDF here if you’re not a member).
Using PCR plastic to make a parking lot? Great job Meijer and Dow! Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash