The circular economy

It’s not just about tossing packaging into the recycling bin. By Anna Mouton.

There’s a growing awareness of the plastic problem — not least because most people see plastic litter every time they step outside. However, the impacts of our throw-away culture extend beyond plastics, and the solutions are proving to be complicated.

Dr Kirsten Barnes is an environmental scientist and circular economy expert. She co-leads the South African chapter of the African Circular Economy Network. In this interview, she explains some of the complexities of keeping our packaging resources in circulation and out of landfill.

Q. What is the circular economy?

A. In the most inclusive definition, the circular economy rethinks all the inputs to material resources we use in our society, how we use those inputs, and what we do with the outputs. It can be framed in terms of three main concepts: Eliminate, Circulate, and Regenerate.

The idea of Eliminate is to remove elements if we know there’s minimal potential to retain those resources in our economy. When they’re used, they go to landfill, or worse, into the environment.

For example, PVC in packaging is technically recyclable, but recycling it doesn’t make economic sense. There are other packaging polymers that are far more easily recycled. PVC is also a contaminant in the recycling of other plastics, so it’s better to eliminate PVC from packaging.

With Circulate, the idea is to maximise the number of iterations in our economy. What’s great for the South African context is that we now have several international and local studies showing that circulation can increase our job numbers. In a circular economy, jobs can shift from highly extractive industries to other parts of the value chain.

And then Regenerate thinks about how we interact with the natural environment. Without the natural environment, we won’t exist. So, we need to use natural resources in a way that sustains the environment. We must regenerate and protect natural systems.

Q. Why isn’t paper always the greenest option?

A. There are many intricacies related to recycling different materials. It’s not simple because the impacts of the various processes are spread across different areas.

For example, if you look at paper production and recycling, the chemicals used in the pulping and paper production processes are detrimental to ecosystems. So, the effluents are of concern. And there is quite a bit of water used in forestry, paper production, and recycling.

In South Africa, we have a relatively low water process for paper recycling and production. We try to minimise water use because our country is water-poor. Many European countries with very high rainfall use a lot more water in the process, which means they can effectively recycle more paper types.

You can’t say that paper, plastic, or glass is better across the board. It depends on the specific application. We also need to ensure that we have the necessary information to make decisions.

Q. What are the problems with plastic?

A. Plastics are relatively lightweight, so transport emissions are lower, and they can be lower carbon to produce and recycle. They are also versatile. But the problems lie in how widespread plastic pollution is and in the toxicity of certain chemicals that leach from some plastics.

Plastics are also visually very impactful, and they have macro-effects, such as clogging stormwater drains. And we’re getting more and more data on potential health effects. We are only just starting to understand microplastics and nanoplastics in our bodies and in the environment. For example, we’re beginning to realise that they’re affecting the carbon cycle in parts of the ocean.

We don’t have a very good handle on how to assess the impact of plastics at the end of their use, when they end up in landfills or the environment. We need to build a knowledge hub to be able to evaluate the different packaging types and choose packaging wisely.

We’re hoping to do this under the Plastic Reboot project, a global programme that aims to support circularity for plastics in the food and beverage sector.

Q. How is the South African government tackling packaging waste?

A. Currently, we have the national Extended Producer Responsibility [EPR] regulations, which were promulgated under the National Environmental Management Waste Act [Act 59 of 2008]. They include targets for collection, recycling, and the inclusion of recycled content for various products.

Under these regulations, any producer who places more than ten tonnes of packaging on the market per year is liable for EPR fees. The producer is either the packaging manufacturer, the brand owner who puts their product in that packaging, or the importer.

The targets and EPR fees don’t apply to anything produced locally that is bound for export. But if more countries have EPR schemes in the future, the fees will be payable in the target market.

The fundamental purpose of EPR fees is to close the gap between the cost of virgin and recycled content. So, EPR fees should be designed to cover the collection, recycling, and incorporation of recyclate in other products. They also need to cover the integration of the informal sector and the payment of service fees to waste pickers.

In the future, there will be a higher EPR fee for packaging that’s more difficult to recycle. What we should see is that it becomes a disincentive to manufacture materials that end up in landfills or are not compatible with normal recycling processes.

Q. What is the problem with recycled plastic in food packaging?

A. Including recycled plastic in food packaging is currently only possible for PET [polyethylene terephthalate] plastic in South Africa. It’s a great application that allows PET plastic to have a longer life in our economy.

The challenge the fruit industry faces with PET is related to EU regulations requiring accreditation of all packaging manufacturers and recyclers supplying recycled PET into food-contact packaging. Currently, this only affects beverage bottles, but it will be extended to all PET packaging.

In Europe, there are requirements for input streams related to food-contact or food-grade packaging, specifying the separate collection of food packaging from other types of packaging. That also applies to anything put on the market in the EU.

In South Africa, we have very mixed sources of recycling, so that you could have highly toxic chemicals, even including some household chemicals, in that waste stream. If those contaminants enter the plastic, they can migrate into packaged food products or contaminate other food products when they’re stored together. And for some of these chemicals, the threshold at which they become toxic is quite low.

Well-designed recycling processes, such as PET bottle-to-bottle recycling done in South Africa, can effectively mitigate these contaminants.

Nonetheless, the EU regulations require separate collection for food packaging. Many European countries can’t even do that effectively at the moment. But in future, the EU will require recycled content across the board. So, it’s very concerning for our export markets.

Q. Should the fruit industry be thinking wider than packaging?

A. I worked with Crop Life South Africa as a member of the SA Plastics Pact. Under their pesticide management programme, Crop Life South Africa also stimulated the collection of other agricultural plastics.

Shade netting is a problem because it is often only replaced when it’s already severely disintegrating. By then, the UV damage is too great to recover the material.

Irrigation piping is relatively well recovered. Piping often contains UV stabilisers and therefore has a relatively high recycling rate. Many of our recyclers deal with that.

The problem is the small items, such as the little clips. I was walking through vineyards, and it’s quite scary to see the range of plastics just lying around. There is a movement, led by some members of the Compostable Plastics Council, to develop agricultural plastics that have the desired longevity but eventually degrade into non-toxic materials.

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The PRO Alliance website provides more information on EPR, and SAPRO‘s (SA Plastics Recycling Organisation) website offers information on plastic recycling in South Africa. Or visit Crop Life South Africa to read about their container management programme.

The European Commission’s Energy, Climate Change, and Environment site has more on the European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste