this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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[โ€“] Majoof@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Genuine question:

Assume that it's financial viable, is there anything stopping me from establishing a manufacturing facility whose goal is to produce as much plastic waste as possible?

Because if there isn't, there's our problem...

[โ€“] zik@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There are no facilities in Australia which can recycle soft plastics in commercial quantities. It requires a special process which is very energy intensive and expensive to run (pyrolysis / depolymerisation). The only country in the world which does it at commercial scale is Japan, and even they only process around 10% of their soft plastics. Still, it's better than the 0% we do here.

It's unlikely to ever be done here in Australia because it's a lot more expensive to recycle this way than just making new plastic.