Statistics on plastic waste

The amount of plastic produced in Japan has come down from its 1997 peak of 15,210,000 tons but remained level for a number of years, with 14,650,000 tons produced in 2007. The total amount of plastic waste also remained stable, with 9,940,000 tons emitted in 2007. Household waste accounted for 5,020,000 tons (down60,000 tons) of this, with industrial waste at4,920,000 tons (down 60,000 tons).

The amount of plastic waste emitted by households fell slightly in line with the decrease in the production of resins for household containers and packaging. Industrial plastic waste also fell slightly, a number of cars recycled later the approval of the car recycling law, it stabilizes after an increase of 20,000 tons.

Effective reutilization increases every year as well as mechanical and feedstock recycling, the creation of solid fuel from waste, waste power generation, heat-utilizing incineration and other methods of thermal recycling have brought the total of reutilizing waste to 7,220,000 tons – an increase of 1,800,000 tons over 2002.

However, the 1,520,000 tons of plastic waste exported to Hong Kong and China, among other destinations, represent 70% of all mechanically recycled waste, poses a serious problem in terms of the international flow of recycling and sustainability of Japan’s own recycling systems.

The actual use of plastic waste increases to 73%.

Large-scale industrial plastic waste 5 years of investigation show that the amount of plastic waste sent to landfills has dropped dramatically. This is reflected in the figures for 2006.

With 2,130,000 tons being mechanically recycled (up 90,000 tons, the previous year) and 4,810,000 tons used for thermal recycling (down 80,000 tons compared to the previous year), the actual use of plastic waste increased to 73% (+ one point compared to the previous year).

Readily usable industrial plastic waste The amount of plastic waste used in mechanical recycling the production of new plastic products, using plastic waste as a raw material) increased 90,000 tons to 2,130,000 tons in 2007.

Of this amount, 660,000 tons were accounted for by domestic plastic waste (13.1% of household plastic waste). On the other hand, twice this amount of industrial plastic waste (1,470,000 tons or 29.9% of the total) was mechanically recycled.

Indeed, a large part of industrial plastic waste lends itself to mechanical recycling due to its quality and the relative stability of supply. A breakdown of the waste used for mechanical recycling reveals a 110,000 tons increase from the previous year in the recycling of used products to 1,250,000 tons. This is due to the gradual continuation of the shift towards recycling containers and packaging, household appliances and cars in 2007.

The success of the various recycling laws can be seen in a breakdown of the 1,250,000 tons of used products: 502,000 tons of PET bottles, 197,000 tons of packaging film, 113,000 tons of household appliances,86,000 tons of agricultural plastics, and 83,000tons of expanded styrofoam packing.

It affects the efficient operation of the recycling systems of each industrial area and associated group. While the use and consumption of plastic are increasingly high, news about viable possibilities for reuse, recycling, and disposal are also on the rise. Developments such as the increasing number of additives used to reshape resistance, the texture, flexibility, color, resistance to microbes, and other characteristics of plastics make plastics less recyclable. Moreover, there is very limited market value in certain plastics, leading municipalities to landfill or incinerate plastics as waste.

Based on numbers from the EPA (2011 data), only 8% of plastic supplies are recovered through recycling. A pressing concern about plastics chucked in the waste stream is their longevity and the uncertainty around their biodegradation. It is approximated that most plastics would take around a span of 500-1000 years to completely decompose into organic components.

A majority of our plastic waste ends up in landfills or as litter as a result of the longevity and the low rate of recycling. Inarguably, plastic waste does affect living organisms throughout the ecosystem either in a direct or an indirect manner, including an alarmingly high impact on aquatic life at a macro and micro scale. In fact, according to the United Nations, roughly 80% of marine debris is nothing but plastic.