Dear Dr. Nafees,

Please have a look at this useful ResearchGate link.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_to_solve_the_problem_of_the_plastic_waste_which_is_increasing_everyday#post-comment-editor

Dear Nafees,

As far as I think, you can try to recycle the waste plastic by maintaining minimum cost.

Regards,

Washim

I am convinced that plastics (implicitly microplastics) will become the No. 1 enemy of terrestrial and aquatic life. More and more studies and research in this field are trying to open our eyes to this reality. The biodegradation of plastics needs more than 500 years, but hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic are manufactured every year, most of them being discarded into the environment, water streams, arriving in sewage sludge, on the soil if use the sludge as a fertilizer. Microplastics are ingested by animals and fishes, then they are consumed by humans and again follow their circuit in the environment, while leaving irreversible effects on the organisms they come into contact with. The effects of fine plastic particles on living organisms are more severe than we are aware. Assuming we stop making plastics today, the disastrous effect of those present in the environment is still very long-lasting. I do not think any strategy could limit the use of plastic to a level that significantly reduces its negative environmental impact. This is indeed a field of research that must have the highest priority in financing but billions of euros, dollars, etc. go to research projects without any applicability or concrete results.

We have technology to destroy plastic, I worked for plastic waste incinerators (temp above 1200 deg.C to avoid dioxins) but I think we'd better stop use plastic for our own comfort to the detriment of health. All stores selling food are overloaded with disposable plastic boxes and bags, plastic packaging are used excessively for an attractive exposure of fruits, vegetables, etc. I do not see a solution to ban the use of plastic totally but a major reduction must become an obligation. I really think plastic waste threatens us the most...

Thank you Carmen Mateescu for detail comment. You are right, banning of plastic is not the ultimate solution. So we have to think about recycling as suggested by Md. Washim Akram also.

To reduce plastic, I will suggest an integrated approach. Such as, identify some plastic types and banned that. Another type of plastic may be recyclable and some may be easy to incinerate. This is how, there may be some decrease.

I think, use of different types of plastic as packing material is a big problem. If we develop some sort of legislation, or policy to use one type of plastic as packing material.

Dear Arvind Singh,

As suggested, I went through the various comments. The question floated over there is almost the same. No doubt, different researchers have identified different techniques with no practical solution.

I think we have to economize plastic recycling/treatment by considering its economic aspects. For example, it is easy to convert plastic into furnace oil but at what cost? To make the question more simple, consider the various expenditures:

1. Waste plastic collection

2. Transportation

3. Processing equipments

4. Electricity

5. Labor

6. Marketing

Now compare price of furnace oil available in the market and price of furnace oil prepared from plastic.

Similarly consider other treatments

The presence of small fragments of plastics, generally referred to term of

(micro-plastic) which can occur in the rivers, soil and organisms and eventually causes health problems for human being due to Polymers release in environment, in my simple opinion, impose rules to use intensive plastic in commercial and manufacturers.

Most plastics are not biodegradable (they do not rot like food, paper, or agricultural product). So, plastics can hang around in the environment for hundreds of years. The thermochemical conversion process ( such as gasification, pyrolysis, incineration, torrefaction, etc.) can be an excellent option to convert this waste into energy. Among these processes, pyrolysis is a suitable one in terms of low cost and small size equipment volume.

Hi Nafees,

Together with Liselotte Rambonnet (Leiden University) I started the citizen science project Plastic Spotter in Leiden, the Netherlands, which tries to minimise the plastic pollution in our canals. We organize not only canal clean-ups but also study the litter we find. By analyzing our clean-up findings we try to trace back the source of our litter. Not all plastic can be banned, but by targetting the origin of the most frequently encountered items, we do really make a change. Litter from the terraces next to the canals for example are polluters which could be easily traced back; and by convincing them with our data to change to reusables, a lot of waste can be prevented.