Good News Notes:
“Wildlife filmmaker Sir David Attenborough has appeared in a video campaign for a new plastic recycling technology in the U.K., alongside other naturalists calling for stronger protections for the world’s oceans.
The campaign heralds the start of construction in the U.K. of a groundbreaking recycling facility which the firm behind the technology claims will be the first in the world capable of recycling all types of plastic. The process offers hope that a much larger proportion of the 300 million tons of plastic trash produced annually worldwide could be reused, reducing the quantity of plastics that end up in the ocean.
‘What’s so tragic about plastic pollution is that it is so totally unnecessary,’ Attenborough says in the video, released by U.K. recycling firm Mura Technology. ‘The plastic in our oceans should never have found its way there in the first place.’
Attenborough is joined in the video by the prominent marine biologist and campaigner Dr Sylvia Earle, and Jo Ruxton, producer of the 2016 Netflix documentary A Plastic Ocean.
Mura’s recycling process, branded HydroPRS, took 12 years to develop and uses supercritical steam—steam that is superheated under great pressure—to break down plastics back into the oils and chemicals they were made from. Those components can then be used for a range of products, from new plastics to fuels.
Steve Mahon, CEO of Mura Technology, told Forbes.com: ‘Our process offers a viable recycling route for materials considered “unrecyclable”, that would otherwise be destined for landfill, incineration and the environment. HydroPRS can convert all plastic types back into their constituent ingredients, for re-use in the manufacture of new plastic materials.’
Mahon said there is no limit to the number of times plastic can be recycled using the process, and the process is even able to separate organic materials from plastics such as food packaging. Those organic materials are in turn used to fuel the boilers at the heart of the process.
The new plant is being built in Teesside, northeast England, with plans to roll the technology out worldwide. It has received government support, with Rebecca Pow, the U.K. under-secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, saying: ‘The Government is committed to both clamping down on the unacceptable plastic waste that harms our environment and ensuring more materials can be reused instead of being thrown away. By investing in these truly ground-breaking technologies, we will help to drive these efforts even further, and I look forward to seeing them develop and deliver real results.’
New methods to cope with plastic waste are desperately needed, with more than 8 million tons of plastic waste ending up in the ocean every year. As well as destroying critical ocean ecosystems, these plastics break down into microplastics, which can now be found in almost every food system on Earth, including in our drinking water, table salt, and even in the air.
But far from the plastic mountain reducing, the problem is set to get worse, with plastic waste expected to increase six-fold by 2030, eclipsing all current efforts to curb the crisis. The situation is likely to worsen further still with oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Shell investing heavily in new plastic production…. .”
View the whole story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2021/03/25/sir-david-attenborough-backs-new-uk-tech-that-can-recycle-all-plastics/