Gym clothes, water and shampoo bottles, facial scrubs, car interiors, to-go boxes — plastic is everywhere. It also inevitably ends up in the ocean: There are now several massive garbage patches spinning in various oceans around the world.
Plastic is also entering our bodies. Recent studies show nanoplastics in bottled water, in the food chain, and in prepared food served in plastic. Human health risks are not yet known.
The Aspen Ideas: Climate summit, which ran from Monday through Wednesday in Miami Beach, gathered an array of global experts to bat around ideas about how to solve climate and pollution problems.
The panel “Taking Out the Trash: Solutions to plastic pollution” looked at how innovation is starting, just barely, to address the plastic problem. One startup is launching stainless-steel shareable water bottles, while the largest beauty company on the planet is pushing the industry to take tons of single-use plastic off store shelves and replace them with pouches. Here’s a look at those potential solutions.
Bike sharing, but with water bottles
In a bike-sharing concept, you ride a bike you don’t own, then drop it off at a bike station. Trying something similar for water bottles might sound outlandish, but according to Manuela Zoninsein, it’s not only possible, it’s profitable.
Zoninsein is CEO of Kadeya, a Chicago-based startup that eliminates single-use bottles by creating what they call a “bottling plant the size of a vending machine.”
Users get a stainless steel bottle of water, drink it, and return it to any of Kadeya’s vending machines.
The machine is automated to then sterilize it, refill the bottle with tap water and reseal it for the next user, and stainless-steel bottles don’t need the plastic films found in aluminum cans.
For now, Kadeya places the machines at self-contained locations such as construction sites or military bases, but they have their sights on sports arenas, movie theaters, hotels, airports and airlines.
Zoninsein said the process cuts one-third of the cost, 75% of the carbon footprint and 99.9% of the plastic use.
The system not only eliminates plastic water bottles, it nixes the carbon footprint of shipping very heavy water around the country. And she said the systems can dispense sodas and cold brew as well.
As she developed the concept, skeptics had lots of questions, particularly about germs and hygiene.
“The washing technology already exists,” Zoninsein said, “We’re not trying to send someone to the moon.” That said, the system’s bottle washer is designed to wash only their bottles, not plates, etc., and can therefore be more exacting in its sanitization.
One audience member brought up the fact that poor local water quality in places such as Flint, Michigan, have caused residents to use far more single-use plastic bottles than they want to.
Zoninsein said there needs to be investment in infrastructure for water quality, and she commended the Biden administration for committing to eliminating lead pipes in the U.S. She said Chicago, where Kadeya is based, still has quite a few lead water service lines. “It’s insane. We’re the wealthiest country in the world and kids are drinking water with lead.”
As for plastic water bottles and microplastics, she predicts a consumer backlash once more findings on nanoplastics and microplastics come out.
According to the National Institute of Health, “when plastics break down over time, they can form smaller particles called microplastics, which are 5 mm or less in length — smaller than a sesame seed.
Microplastics, in turn, can break down into even smaller pieces called nanoplastics, which are less than 1 micrometer in size.” Nanoplastics are too small to be seen with the naked eye — tiny enough to enter the body’s cells and tissues.
Fixing the beauty industry’s ugly plastic problem
Go to any drugstore and you’ll see hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of plastic packaging on the shelves: hair products, makeup, facial scrubs, potions, lotions and perfumes that all come in plastic. Panelist Marissa Pagnani McGowan, chief sustainability officer for L’Oréal’s North America division, the largest beauty company in the world, said the company is driving for better packaging solutions.
“We’re pushing very hard on refillable formats in the form of pouches,” she said.
The idea is that you buy the first bottle of shampoo, or whatever product it is, keep the “parent bottle” at home, and buy refill pouches when needed. The pouches, which use far less plastic than a new bottle, and are easier to ship, are currently made of recyclable plastic, but McGowan and her team are pushing for alternative materials in the future that would be biodegradable.
It’s not just material, though, it’s also mindset.
“There’s a lot that goes into changing behavior,” McGowan said. “Not only does the consumer have to buy the refill, take it home, refill their bottle enough times to make it worthwhile, but you also have to work with your big-box retailer to make sure that (the process is) easy and convenient and simple and that the consumer actually sees the benefit.”
Another crucial pillar, McGowan said, is creating a circular life for the plastics they do use.
L’Oréal is working with a startup to make plastic stronger so pellets can be reground into new pellets more times. Right now the average is two or three times. “We’re looking for plastics that can be used in a continuous loop.” she said.
You’ve also got to motivate employees. At L’Oréal, when a product is reformulated and repackaged, the new format has to have a better sustainability score. If scores don’t improve, bonuses shrink, said McGowan.
Pretty in plasticPrior to L’Oréal, McGowan worked in fashion, where fabrics that contain plastic have revolutionized the apparel industry: Fleece, spandex, nylon, polyester, moisture-wicking polypropylene. Any fabrics with plastic may shed micro and nanoplastics into your home, and into water flowing out of your washing machine, McGowan said.
For apparel to become sustainable, it needs to become a more circular system, meaning material must last longer, and be easily reused.
“It’s about designing for recyclability,” she said. “It’s keeping products at their highest use for the longest time with durability.”
One of the vexing challenges for the apparel industry is converting or dismantling used, human-made fabrics into valuable forms.
That starts with how producers build fabric. McGowan said a crucial question for the apparel industry is, “Can you get a fabric blend that can be easily broken down, where you could pull apart a multi-blended fiber. Can you then turn that fiber back into something that’s meaningful?”
Things are changing, she said. “The thought process of design for something that can be broken down, the innovation to break it down, the use of materials once they have been reformulated — that is all happening now, and it wasn’t before, say 10 years ago. So I have hope for other plastic-based fibers.”
This story was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.
