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decisions about product and packaging design and regulation far upstream. The
end-of-life plan for plastic affects the entire value chain.
A recent document produced by the Ocean Conservancy (2015) titled “Stem-
ming theTide,”with strong industry support, called for a $5billion investment in
waste management, with large-scale waste-to-energy incinerator plants targeting
SEAsia, specificallyChina,Taiwan,Philippines, Indonesia,andVietnam,basedon
astudyreporting4–12milliontonsofwasteentering theoceansannually,primarily
from that region [11]. Itwas released1weekprior to theOctober2015OurOcean
Conference.Within days, the organization Global Alliance for Incinerator Alter-
natives (GAIA) submitted a letter in response with 218 signatories, mostly envi-
ronmental and social justice NGOs, arguing that incinerators historically exceed
regulatorystandardsforemissionsandsubsequentlycauseharmtotheenvironment
and human health and that the financial cost to build infrastructure,maintenance,
and management are typically underestimated [79]. In many cases, the financial
structure includes long-termwaste quotas that lock communities intomandatory
waste generation [66]. For example, the $150million cost to build the H-Power
Fig.2 Circulareconomymodelforplasticproductsandpackaging.Ahighpercentageofrecycled
content is required as feedstock for new products, and the remainder from sustainable sources
(potentiallybiopolymers). Poorpractices (redarrows) throughout the life cycle aremitigated, for
example, by proper legislative policy, public awareness that leads to proper consumer waste
handling, and incentivized recovery systems (e.g., returnable bottles). Recovery is further
improved by regulating end-of-life design in products and packaging. This leads to reduced
leakage of plastic to the environment from all sectors of society, and significant improvements
are social justice concerns for communities that manage waste. The small amount of residual
plastic is thendisposedof responsibly
Microplastic:WhatAre theSolutions? 283
Freshwater Microplastics
Emerging Environmental Contaminants?
- Titel
- Freshwater Microplastics
- Untertitel
- Emerging Environmental Contaminants?
- Autoren
- Martin Wagner
- Scott Lambert
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2018
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-61615-5
- Abmessungen
- 15.5 x 24.1 cm
- Seiten
- 316
- Kategorien
- Naturwissenschaften Chemie