Disclaimer: As this website's intention is to show all existing technologies and solutions to build a 100% net zero society, there are also technologies that can be seen as a middle-term solution to start to tackle some of the most urgent issues we have. Plastic to fuel tehnologies is one of those. Researchers have discovered ways to turn plastic back to fuel. Which will then be used just like ordinary fuel. This will still contribute to higher CO2 amounts in the atmopsphere. Because plastic originally comes from oil that was in the ground. And like ordinary fossil fuel this process goes one way only (oil from ground to plastic to CO2 in atmosphere). But since we are currently still using huge amounts of fossil fuels directly from the ground and since our society for now is still producing huge amounts of plastic in addition, we may as well use plastic as fuel and at least help solving the problem of plastic pollution. Also, companies who can produce oil from plastic (usually) also can produce "plastic from plastic". Advancing the circular economy (plastic to plastic to plastic.. with no waste and no surplus of CO2 emission).
Nonetheless in the future we should 1. avoid production of non biodegradable plastic, 2. If we can't avoid it recycle it (like PET e.g.) 3. If we can't recycle it (as in "cycle", circular economy) build things with it so its CO2 stays out of the atmosphere.
In 2011 a group of Yale University Students discovered a fungus that can dissolve plastic. Since then, many researchers around the world are continuing the research around that potentially groundbreaking discovery. More and more kinds of mushrooms are being found that are able to digest different kinds of plastic. From the Amazonian rainforest to the Swiss Alps. Maybe we could even eat those plastic eating mushrooms as Kathatina Unger proofs with the fungi catlery.
There is the problem that companies around the world that are using plastic packaging only have to pay for its production but not for the cost of its pollution or the cost of cleaning it up. Same thing with CO2 and many other kinds of pollution. One way to handle that problem is to create a market for pollution. So companies who are polluting the environment (for example with CO2) are in some form of dept. They will have to pay that dept (with money) to another company or project that is reducing pollution (CO2) from the environment. Like this we give pollution a price and it can be traded with money like any other good.
With the Kyoto Protocol 1997 such a market has been created and introduced for the first time. Countries are capping the companies' emissions. If the companies can't keep their emissions under a governmentally decided limit, that company can buy "CO2-Credits" from another company that is eliminating CO2 from the atmosphere (or at least stays under the limit by some margin). Because this kind of limit is decided by the government (mandatory) it's called the "Compliance (Carbon) Market".
But this principle can and is also being used to tackle many other things that are not regulated by governments yet. That's called that the "Voluntary (Carbon) Market". The Deekali Project is an example for that. There are organizations - for example NGO's - that are creating certain standards. For example a plastic pollution reduction standard (another organization). A company that is using plastic packaging and is therefore contributing to plastic pollution can buy those pollution credits. And projects that are launched to clean up and reduce plastic pollution - now the crux of the matter - can be financed with that money.
Verra is an organization that is setting such standards. It is investigating programs that are fighting and reducing pollution. If those programs proof to meet the requirements for the standard, they can be financed by the money that originally comes from the companies that are contributing to pollution (e.g. companies that are using plastic packaging and are buying those credits to make their company greener than it would be without buying those "pollution credits").
The Deekali Project is a project where people in Senegal are collecting and recycling plastic waste and therefore signigicantly reduce the amount of plastic waste that is ending up in nature and the sea.
With electromobility being one of the main pillars of a net zero world, of course the adequate recycling of old batteries is essential. So far the main challenge was to sell electric cars at all. Not many years ago the whol car industry was openly making fun of Tesla for its vision. Now that Tesla has proven that ist actually is possible to produce great, sexy electric car that people actrually want to buy, the second step (recycling the batteries) is getting more important. Just like with electric cars 20 years ago, it is clear that it's absolutely possible to recycle those batteries to create a closed-loop battery supply. All we need is companies who are willing enough to invest a bit of money to perfect the technology and make the process more economical. The claim of pro fossil fueled cars people, that car batteries would make an environmental mess and therefore we must all continue to pump CO2 into the atmosphere and drive petrol cars is simply nonsense.
While we need to try to avoid waste in general, most of us can't live without producing waste yet. As long that's the case we at least ought to make the best of it and for example burn the waste in a "waste plant" where the energy from the combustion process can be used as heat (to heat houses) or be turned into electricity. There's barely any smoke coming out of the power plant as the pollutants from the incineration are filtered out. It is hard to find numbers but the power plant is probably not polluting more than an average highway. Which is why you may find those modern waste plants within residential areas in cities with no negative effect on people's haelth living next to it. In Copenhagen they built Amager Bakke that is combining leisure with utility as it has a ski slope (Copenhill) on top of it. When we throw away plastic and we burn that waste in such a power plant there is still CO2 emitting. But at least we can use that plastic waste one more time and generate heat and electricity. Instead of putting the waste on a dump and potentially pollute the ground and the air with toxins. And at Amager Bakke they are planning to absorb back 500'000 tonnes of CO2 with carbon capture technology. In a net zero society we may replace plastic with organic material that does not come from crude oil. And we still wopuld want to burn those materials in such waste plants.
I often wondered - since there are recyclable materials like PET already - why companies don't use exclusively recyclable materials already. Probably the reason is just the absence of laws and financial reasons. Companies usually don't have to come up for the cost that waste is causing to the environment. Only for its production. Like a plastic bag (production cost maybe 1 Cent) that ends up in the sea, ultimately poisoning or killing fish that will end up costing us humans much motre money than 1 Cent. Either because fish is getting rare and therefore less affordable or fish is getting poisoned by microplastics that will end up making us humans sick and our medical bills more expensive.
Long story short; One of my favourite drinks is the Emmi's (cold) Café Latte. The downside: A bad conscience for the unnecessary thick oneway plastic wrapping. In Switzerland (and other countries) we have already a good recycling-system for bottles made of PET. Or tin cans, paper, cardboard, glass. Milk for example is usually being sold in a recyclable plastic wrapping. Coke either in recyclable cans or recyclable PET or glass. So there's no excuse for successful companies not to use recyclable packaging.
That's why I was glad when I noticed the change of another (Swiss) product that I often buy; Ovo. They finally started to sell their chocolate milk in recyclable PET-bottles. And apparently, Emmi has just started to sell their coffee in the same kind of bottle too. By the way: Switzerland is pretty good in PET recycling, as around 90% of recyclable PET is already being recyclet here. But then again countries like France or Belgium have adopted stricter EU-rules so the Switzerland based company is forced to adapt so they can sell their products in those countries. The European Union is a good instrument when it comes to climate protection. Because when it decides something all member countries must adapt the rule. And in the case of Switzerland, the EU market is way too important for Swiss companies so they will follow automatically to be able to sell their products in the EU. Same impact when big countries like the USA, Russia or China are imposing new laws to tackle global warming and protect nature.
Around 80% of plastic waste in the ocean comes from rivers (that all end up in the sea in the end). Therefore Dutch start-up "The Great Bubble Barrier" created exactly that. A barrier made of bubbles that lies diagonally on the ground of a river and that keeps all kinds of plastic waste from passing. Because the barrier is diagonally, the stream of the river will push the plastic pieces to the side of the river and into a container. 86% of plastic parts can be caught like this. The genius thing about that system: Ships can still pass the barrier as it is just made of bubbles. And the barrier does not have any bad influence on the ecosystem.