The statistics lay bare recycling’s inability to stem the tide of plastics clogging our ecosystems. Of the staggering 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic the world has produced since its debut in the 1950s, a minuscule 9% has been recycled. The remaining 91% ends up charring the landscape of landfills, fouling our forests and polluting our priceless oceans — a vile legacy we are bequeathing to future generations.

And who, you might ask, is primarily responsible for this ecologically criminal status quo? The very companies that fear-mongered decades ago about a mythical recycling solution even as they carpet-bombed the world with cheap, disposable plastic packaging destined to become noxious, virtually immortal refuse.

This sordid tale of corporate deception dates back to the 1970s. As public outcry grew over the scourge of visible plastic pollution, shadowy alliances of petrochemical profiteers like Big Oil and plastics manufacturers joined forces with consumer product giants like Coca-Cola. Rather than explore sustainable alternatives, they initiated an insidious public relations blitz to divert responsibility.

The concept of recycling was central to this greenwashing campaign. Coca-Cola began funding some of the earliest municipal recycling facilities in New York City. The plastics lobby created front groups with benign-sounding names like the “Council for Solid Waste Solutions” to proselytise the fake gospel of recycling as a societal panacea. They promised Americans that we could recycle 25% of our plastic bottle waste by 1995 just by following their lead.

Meanwhile, these same corporations were executing a silent coup as cash-strapped cities and towns rushed to spend millions on exorbitant blue bin programs and processing equipment. They rapidly phased out older, reusable and refillable packaging formats with sturdy glass bottles that had achieved a robust, sustainable 96% return rate nationwide. By the late 1970s, refillable container return rates were bled down to an anaemic 5% as disposable plastic became ubiquitous.

Laws and public policies aimed at mitigating the plastics crisis were systematically stymied through lobbying might. When New York State proposed a pioneering tax on disposable bottles in 1971, industry pressure killed the plan. When Congress debated a legislative ban on all non-returnable containers in 1973, the plastics lobby began to bury it. Even unilateral bans enacted by states, like Hawaii’s 1977 restriction on plastic bottles, were swiftly torpedoed after industry backlash.

Fast forward a half-century, and the plastic peddlers and their multi-national corporate enablers show zero signs of relenting in their recycling confidence game. Last year, ExxonMobil fought to defeat a proposed plastic pollution fee in Maine. The oil colossus remains a top funder of lobbying juggernauts like the American Chemistry Council and the deceptively branded Alliance to End Plastic Waste — groups fervently protecting the status quo at all costs.

The hard truth is that even under utterly optimal conditions, recycling has severe limitations in resolving the plastic crisis. Due to thermal realities, most of what we put in those blue bins isn’t recycled. And the recycling process itself is highly energy-intensive, burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases while yielding plastic of degraded quality.

Serious historians will look back on pro-recycling propaganda as one of the most egregious cases of mass greenwashing the world has ever witnessed. Armed with bottomless profits and mercenary lobbyists, plastic pushers hid behind a shibboleth of Environmental Responsibility to protect their cash cows. They diverted the public’s attention from their pollution nightmare while making taxpayers shoulder the crushing costs.

Society truly needs a revolutionary new approach to sustainable packaging — one centred on reducing overall plastics production, aggressively transitioning to reusable material formats, mandating corporate responsibility for the full lifecycle impacts of disposables, and universally banning unnecessary single-use packaging.

The plastics crisis was a corporate-made catastrophe borne of unchecked greed and willful deception. They can never recycle their way out of this gargantuan mess of their own making. Our planet’s ecological survival hinges on dismantling the recycling myth and apportioning accountability to the calloUs captains of these industries who betrayed the Earth in pursuit of profit.

The post The Recycling Lie – How Corporations Duped Us Into Drowning in Plastic appeared first on Medika Life.

TEL AVIV, Israel – November 28, 2023 — UBQ Materials, climate tech developer of advanced materials made from waste, today announced its COP28 agenda focused on showcasing its proven resource recovery solution to convert residual household waste into climate positive UBQ™ material. UBQ Materials will for the third year join the Israel delegation at COP28 in Dubai, exhibiting in the Israel Pavilion. Additionally, UBQ Materials has partnered with the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), which unveiled the first ever Waste and Resource Pavilion, emphasizing the substantial link between waste and climate change.

Within the Waste and Resource Pavilion, UBQ will highlight its novel bio-based material, UBQ™, which was named a 2023 TIME Best Invention. The company will showcase how incorporating UBQ™ can enable companies to meet specific sustainability targets such as waste diversion, circularity, increased post-consumer recycled content and emissions removal and avoidance. According to leading environmental sustainability consultancy Quantis, for every ton of UBQ™ used, manufacturers effectively prevent up to 11.7 tons of CO2eq. emissions and divert over 1.3 tons of waste from landfills and incineration.

“Joining the first Waste and Materials Pavilion aligns us with ISWA’s mission at COP28 calling upon stakeholders to ‘recognize the Waste and Resource Management sector as a net reducer of GHG emissions towards a low carbon future.’ This has been part of our story from our inception,” explained Gali Feldboy, Global Sustainability Director of UBQ Materials. “The take-make-waste economy cannot continue. UBQ sees waste as an abundant asset that can be converted into valuable materials through innovative solutions. Our process retains the inherent value of mixed household waste by converting it into a sustainable, adaptable raw material that can replace carbon-intense oil-based plastics across endless durable and semi-durable applications.”

UBQ Materials executives will contribute to conversations at COP28 focused on real-world solutions that tackle climate change. Feldboy will serve as a panellist as part of the Waste and Resources Pavilion program entitled Social Entrepreneurship to Tackle Climate Change joined by Carlos Silva Filho, President of ISWA, Christina Jaeger of the Yunus Environment Hub, Andre Dzikus of UN Habitat’s African Clean Cities Platform and Aline Cardoso, São Paulo Secretary for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship.  

Co-founder and co-CEO of UBQ Materials Jack ‘Tato’ Bigio will speak at the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub Pavilion on the Climate Partnerships: Corporate – Startup Collaboration for Net Zero Targets panel. The session, part of the COP28 theme on Energy, Industry and Just Transition, will focus on successful corporate and startup collaborations aimed at achieving net-zero targets. Organized by Start-Up Nation Central, Bigio will be joined by UBQ customer Keter, one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of resin-based household furniture and garden consumer products, to discuss how incorporating UBQ™ is enabling Keter to achieve is sustainability targets.

“In this Global Stocktake year, it’s more important than ever for stakeholders across both public and private sectors to understand the proven, scalable and economically sustainable solutions that will measurably reduce carbon emissions,” said Bigio. “With our Netherlands facility scheduled to begin operations, we’re already in the process of selecting the site for our next facility. COP28 gives us the opportunity to connect with governments, policy makers and leading companies from around the world to demonstrate the power of UBQ™ to localize waste management and harness this valuable resource to create a sustainable, highly recyclable material supporting a true circular economy.”

UBQ Materials will also exhibit from the Israel Pavilion, one of four Israeli companies taking part in the event this year. The company will present to attendees its first industrial scale facility scheduled to become operational by the end of 2023. Located in Bergen op Zoom known for its advanced industrial and manufacturing sector, the industrial-scale facility will have an annual production capacity of 80,000 metric tons of UBQ™, cycling 104,600 tons of regional waste back into productive use.

###

About UBQ Materials Ltd.

UBQ Materials Ltd. closes the loop between the ecosystems of waste and materials. Through its advanced conversion technology, UBQ Materials Ltd. has created a pioneering bio-based thermoplastic, UBQ™, made entirely from residual waste, including all organics and hard-to-recycle materials. A sustainable plastic substitute, UBQ™ preserves finite resources, diverts waste from landfills and incinerators and prevents emissions. A certified B Corp, UBQ Materials is expanding globally to provide the world’s largest businesses, municipalities and consumers with a climate positive solution for a circular economy. Learn more by visiting www.ubqmaterials.com.

The post UBQ Materials to Showcase Resource Recovery Solution at COP28 in First Ever Waste and Resource Pavilion appeared first on Medika Life.