Shocking study: Recycling can release huge amounts of microplastics

Recycling has been promoted by the plastics industry as a key solution to the growing problem of plastic waste. But a study found that recycling itself may release huge amounts of microplastics.

According to the Guardian an international team of scientists took samples of liquid waste from a state-of-the-art recycling facility in an undisclosed location in the United Kingdom. They found that the microplastics released into the water amounted to 13% of the plastic processed.

The facility could release up to 75 billion plastic particles in every cubic meter of liquid waste, they estimated.

I was incredibly shocked,” said Erina Brown, the lead researcher of the study conducted at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. “It’s frightening because recycling is designed to reduce the problem and protect the environment. This is a huge problem that we are creating.

Researchers examined the water before and after the installation of a water filtration system at the plant and found that the filter reduced the concentration of microplastics from 13% of the processed plastic to 6%.

The estimate of 75 billion particles per cubic meter pertains to a factory with an installed filter. The majority of the particles were smaller than 10 micrometers, roughly the diameter of a human red blood cell, while over 80% were smaller than five micrometers, Brown stated.

Microplastics, which are typically defined as any plastic particle smaller than 5 millimeters, have been found everywhere, from freshly fallen snow in Antarctica to the depths of the oceans, and they can be toxic to animals and plants.

The results also revealed high levels of microplastics in the air around the recycling facility, with 61% of the particles being smaller than 10 micrometers. Particles smaller than 10 micrometers have been linked to human diseases.

The installation was a “better scenario,” Brown said, given that she had made efforts to install water filters, while many other recycling units may not have done so.

Microplastics from recycling:

Let’s find out what the other factories are emitting.

A significant factor is what other factories emit on a global level,” he said. “This is something we really need to learn.

The study, published in the Journal of Hazardous Material Advances, indicates that the recycling plant discharged up to 2,933 metric tons of microplastics annually before the introduction of the filtration system and up to 1,366 metric tons afterward.

More than 90% of the particles we found were under 10 micrometers, and 80% were under 5 micrometers,” Brown said. “These are digestible by a lot of different organisms and were found to be taken up by humans.

For me, it highlights how drastically we need to reduce plastic consumption and production.”
Globally, only about 9% of the 370 million metric tons of plastic produced is recycled.

Judith Enck, former senior official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who now leads the advocacy group Beyond Plastics, stated: “The findings are concerning but not surprising. This one recycling facility, a state-of-the-art facility, highlights the serious problem of plastic use. It causes serious issues, even regarding the infrastructure for recycling plastics. This is a loud call for less usage.”

Source: ieidiseis.gr