Sustainable Packaging: Are we wasting valuable energy?

Biogas is a renewable energy source that exerts a very small carbon footprint and has proven to be an extremely viable resource.  The cause is indisputable and the effect holds the key to significantly advancing sustainability in plastic packaging.   The cause is a process in which living organisms, microbes, breakdown organic matter in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically).   The effect offers an immensely valuable alternative energy resource.   Although the term for what causes this process ("biodegradable") cannot be labeled on any plastic packaging or product in the State of California, our ability to design plastic applications to comply with these anaerobic environments is the catalyst for advancing our efforts in how we handle plastic waste.  To achieve circularity, recouping end-of-life value is imperative and our energy needs are rapidly growing.   Today, our most inexpensive disposal method returns an essential need and it’s already the single most common waste stream for plastics.  With our ever growing energy requirements, is it wise to continue to overlook this valuable resource? 

Speaking of California, did you know that Orange County just added another landfill gas-to-energy (LFGTE) project, making it the fourth LFGTE facility in this immediate region?  At a tune of $60 million, this highly efficient and strictly regulated facility is not only estimated to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 53,000 tons annually, but it will also generate roughly 160,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity.  Collectively, the four LFGTE operations in this one region alone produce approximately 400,000 MWh of electricity annually, enough to power over 50,000 Southern California homes.   

Apple, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, BMW, General Motors, Kimberly-Clark, Mars, UPS, Pepsi and many others  have harnessed this valuable resource as an important part of their competitive strategy.  The US EPA and the Departments of Agriculture and Energy recognized directed biogas as an emerging technology in a December 2015 report, touting that it "offers the nation a cost-effective and profitable solution to reducing emissions, diverting waste streams, and producing renewable energy." 

Today, in the United States 85% of all municipal solid waste is disposed of into environments that are converting biogas into clean energy!  This energy is used to power homes, manufacturing, businesses, schools, and government facilities.  Think about this; what if all of the plastic packaging being disposed were waste-to-energy compliant and could be converted into clean energy?  We would instantly take a huge leap forward in addressing our plastic waste problem and help solve some of our energy shortage problems as well, all without the need to subsidize billions of dollars or modify any consumer behaviors. 

It's irrefutable that we have the ability/technology to accelerate the biodegradation process of plastics.  The question now becomes, where should this process take place?   In the New Plastics Economy, the objective is to harness innovations that can scale across the system, to re-define what’s possible and create conditions for a new economy.   It’s about deriving greater “end-of-life” value through the infrastructures we already have in place.  Today, one of our highest priorities is alternative energy.  With the vast majority of plastic waste entering anaerobic environments that control and convert biogas into clean energy, we should probably stop ignoring this asset. 

For more information, please contact ENSO Plastics.