Global governments need to restrict single-use plastics that are made with ordinary plastic said Michael Stephen, Executive Director at technology solutions provider Symphony Technologies in this week’s Net Hero Podcast.
Symphony Technologies turns ordinary plastic, at the end of its service life and in the presence of oxygen, into biodegradable materials.
Michael explained how their technology works.
He said: ‘All you do is put a special masterbatch in the plastic at the manufacturing stage, this has got catalysts and stabilisers in it.
‘The plastic product, whatever it might be, a shopping bag, for example, is made and used as it normally would be.
‘At the end of its lifecycle, it starts to degrade when it gets chucked out into the open environment with sun and heat exposure.
‘As opposed to ordinary plastics, biodegradable plastic eventually gets eaten by microbes. This happens because the molecular weight of the plastic has been reduced to the point where they can get into it.
‘Ordinary plastic still degrades when left alone but it degrades slowly and creates microplastics.
‘Our plastic, on the other hand, degrades 90 times faster than ordinary plastic and doesn’t create microplastics.’
He told us that there is still a surprising amount of misinformation out there about the correct type of plastic, one that is sustainable.
He said: ‘I have a problem with what is called and marketed as compostable plastic.
‘The issue is that when you put it into a composting plant, it immediately turns it into carbon dioxide which is then released into the atmosphere within 180 days.
‘On the other hand, people still think that our plastic creates microplastics whereas we deal with the problem of microplastics.’
Michael believes that plastic is too important to just ban it completely.
‘Already in 1992, we were looking ahead and we saw that plastic was going to be a problem but what were we going to do about it?
‘A lot of people said that we should ban it. But I was uncomfortable with that because I knew and still know that plastic is immensely useful and we can’t do without it for protecting our food and other goods from contamination.
‘It saves a lot of lives, especially in the third world where people are much more exposed to disease than we are.’
Watch the episode below and don’t forget to register for the Big Zero Show Online – 100 Days of Labour event.
