By Chris Sheedy

Glance at the statistics listed in the National Plastics Plan 2021 from the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment and it’s clear we’re facing a disastrous problem of our own creation. In 2018 and 2019 alone, Australians used 3.5 million tonnes of plastics. One million tonnes per year are single use – 84% of all plastic in Australia is sent to landfill and just 13% is recycled.

Despite almost 100% access to recycling facilities, each New Zealander discards approximately 58 kilograms of plastic every year. The government estimates only a third of household waste is recycled, and 100,000 tonnes of recyclables end up in landfill annually.

It all adds up. By 2050, plastics in our oceans will outweigh the fish there.

What’s it got to do with accountants?

The world’s plastic problem is one that could have a happy ending. In fact, the Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that we can reduce plastic waste that ends up in our oceans by 80% using existing technologies and solutions.

Better still, solving the plastic problem also presents economic benefits. According to Surfers Against Sewage’s 2022 End Plastic Pollution Report, solutions will involve investment in skills-based circular economy jobs. They will increase employment; improve resilience around price, inflation and shortages of imported goods; and will reduce plastic exports to countries where that plastic is eventually dumped or burned.

Accountants and other finance professionals have a central role to play, says Mathew Nelson, EY’s Oceania chief sustainability officer.

“We need finance people to come onboard to create the market,” Nelson says.

Currently, he says that companies look at plastics from their specific point of view, as a raw material cost, a profit centre or a waste item. If businesses are looking only for returns on investment, many are unlikely to see value in developing plastic recycling technologies or markets.

“At the risk of using a very old, clichéd saying, we have to follow the money,” Nelson says. “That’s where I think finance professionals can work together to say, ‘Rather than each of us looking at each of the slices of the money in the chain that will either be a cost or a profit for us, let’s look at the market as a whole and recognise that this has got value’.

“So, how do finance professionals come together and recast this? How do we look at this as a potential resource, rather than a potential cost? We’ve got to be a little bit careful that we’re not always looking for the business case for undertaking this activity. Some businesses have broken free from that mindset and understand the potential overarching benefits, which are reputational but also a range of other things.”

Valuing your reputation

Ellen Burtenshaw-Davies, chief of staff at Samsara Eco (see below), agrees. The businesses that are queueing to use Samsara’s plastic recycling platform technology are not planning to do so secretly.

“It is important for brands to be able to demonstrate that they’re actually doing something worthwhile and they’re not going to do that quietly. Many brands now have sustainability departments and have published their environmental commitments. They’ve identified a shift in consumer sentiment and they’re responding,” Burtenshaw-Davies says.

Of course, for all of this to work there must be a circular market for plastics, not the current one-way process that takes plastics from fossil-fuelled production to a hole in the ground, or to a new home in the ocean.

“That’s why businesses have to look at the whole picture and not just get stuck on one slice of it,” Nelson says. “Way too much focus on the plastics problem has been about finding ways to collect and recycle. What desperately needs to happen in the market is investment needs to be put into what we do with the collected and recycled material.”

With the right investments, he says, there is great opportunity, particularly around creating advanced manufacturing capability.

“I think most people would acknowledge that that would be a good thing,” Nelson says.

An example is New Zealand startup Nilo, which recycles all types of plastic (including the so-called non-recyclable ones) into roading and construction materials, and chemicals (such as an alternative to formaldehyde). Another? Future Post uses a mix of single-use, soft and other plastics to produce sturdy fencing posts, with a 50-year life expectancy. Better still, at end of life the posts can be returned to Future Post, broken down and recycled into new posts.

Practical, affordable and powerful

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is playing a multitude of roles around solving the plastics problem. According to senior principal research scientist Dr Denise Hardesty, CSIRO has as one of its core missions the understanding and identification of a range of different solutions to the plastics problem. This involves collaboration and sharing of opportunities and innovations among government researchers, community members and industry.

Stopping plastic pollution before it gets out into the environment means looking at whole-of-life cycle approaches, she says. In fact, it often means developing solutions that don’t immediately appear connected to plastic.

“Stormwater is an area where we see a large amount of waste trapped or transported,” Hardesty says. “Our answer to that has been to develop a smart sensor solution that can be retrofitted into stormwater drains to help councils measure and monitor water and waste levels.

“Importantly, our focus has been on making sure that’s a low-cost solution. Councils don’t have a lot of money. We’re currently running a pilot program with some Sydney councils around Sydney Harbour, and in collaboration with the Sydney Coastal Councils Group and the Sydney Olympic Park Authority.”

Replace or recycle

CSIRO shares a bold goal with the Australian Government: to reduce by 80% the amount of plastic volume entering the environment by 2030. It’s not an unrealistic goal, Hardesty says.

“In jurisdictions where we have container deposit legislation (CDL), we see up to a 40% decrease in beverage-associated waste in the environment,” she says. “We are already seeing the rest of the states and territories implementing CDL and soon it will be nationwide.

“If you think about the increased awareness within communities, and infrastructure investments being made around the country and across supply chains, they can also substantially change the game. I feel optimistic that we’re on track to hit this really audacious, ambitious goal.”

There are also opportunities to go plastic-free. For example, New Zealand hair and skincare company Ethique produces shampoo, conditioner and skincare bars, similar to bars of soap. The company estimates that since 2012 it has prevented more than 28 million single-use plastic bottles from being manufactured.

In cases where plastics are hard to replace, Hardesty says we need new technologies to mass-produce polymers from seaweed and mushrooms – both of which are at various stages of development – rather than petrochemical-derived plastics. We need low carbon-footprint plastics recycling programs. And, as Nelson says, we require a circular market for recycled and environmentally friendly packaging.

“Changing our relationship with plastics is fundamentally important,” Hardesty says. “It relates to climate, economics, equity and environment.

“I think when we put a price on plastic, when we treat it as a commodity, rather than as waste, we will change the game. For companies, focusing on smart procedures, better procurement processes and plastics minimisation is just good business.”

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Recycling at the molecular level

Samsara Eco is one business that says it’s close to cracking the plastic code. Chief of staff Ellen Burtenshaw-Davies explains how.

“We have developed a platform technology, meaning the technology can tackle multiple plastics, as well as upcycle those plastics into other commodity chemicals. We do that using proprietary enzymes and a novel process that breaks down waste plastic into its building blocks. In chemistry terms, we’re breaking down polymers into monomers. Think of it as molecular recycling.

It’s fundamentally different to the majority of recycling, which typically works by melting down and extruding waste. Instead, we break it down into its core molecules. The resulting monomers can replace petroleum-derived inputs in the production of new plastics, so we’re actually tackling two problems – the mountain of plastic waste that nobody knows what to do with (apart from burn it or let it sit in landfill) and production of brand-new plastics without using fossil fuels.

Molecular recycling has a lower carbon footprint than most other recycling technologies and is far better than the really nasty stuff like incineration, which releases carbon trapped in waste plastic back into the atmosphere.

We’ve known from the start that if this solution is not economical for a company to adopt, they’re not going to use it. So, we need to scale fast. We’re currently trialling with partners and customers, and next year we’ll build a commercial facility. Our goal is to be processing 1.5 million tonnes of plastic by 2030.”

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Government goals

Governments in New Zealand and Australia have ambitious goals around plastics management.

In New Zealand, according to a report from David Parker, attorney-general, minister for the environment, minister of transport, minister of revenue and associate minister of finance, by 2025 hard-to-recycle food and drink packaging made from PVC and polystyrene, and some degradable plastic products will be phased out. So will all single-use plastic items, including drink stirrers, cotton buds, single-use bags, cutlery, plates and bowls, straws and fruit labels.

According to the National Plastics Plan 2021 from the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, these are some of the national packaging targets for industry for 2025:

• 100% of packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable
• 70% of plastic packaging goes on to be recycled or composted
• 50% average recycled content to be utilised within packaging (20% for plastic packaging), with problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging phased out.

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From CA Library