American Companies Are Digging Up Marine Waste As Raw Material Instead Of Plastic.

The Chicago Tribune pointed out that Coca Cola Co launched a bottle made of partially recycled marine plastic waste. The world's largest floor tile manufacturer, Interface Inc., also used carpet made of discarded fishing nets to weave carpet. New ventures are collecting funds to collect waste plastics from the sea to make new products. Douglas Rader, chief marine scientist of the Enviromental Defense Fund, said that the trend was welcomed, though they were only superficial, and the scale of environmental problems was still large.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, by 2050, the weight of marine waste plastics will be equal to that of fish in 2050. Every year, about 8 million tons of plastics are wasted or wasted due to the waste management system, which leads to the dumping of waste materials into the ocean. According to market prices, the value of these packaging materials is about US $10 billion, but it is difficult to recover waste plastics from the ocean and reuse them. Al Carey, head of Unifi Inc., headquartered in North Carolina, says plastic is exposed to brine for a long time, resulting in a higher cost of recovery.

Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization, raised $22 million and launched an autonomous floating garbage collector in the Pacific in September 2018, but it was damaged in December. The founder of Boyan Slat recently proposed a more solid collector, but said it needed more development to make the project economically sustainable. Since 2002, global plastic production has nearly doubled annually to about 3.5 billion tons, and is expected to increase by three times by 2050. Kevin Stairs, a chemical and pollute expert at Greenpeace, says that no matter how we recycle, we will never be able to get rid of this plastic crisis. Recycling makes people think there is a solution. This is not the case.

However, enterprises continue to recycle plans, partly to satisfy consumers' demand for sustainable products, and to enhance their sense of responsibility. In the year of adidas2015, a sneaker was made, which was made of recycled fishing net nylon thread. Now, the company has more than 450 products with "marine plastic" label products. But unlike the original sneakers, these products are not made from marine garbage but instead of plastic from coastal areas. Stefan Pursche, a spokesman for the company, said that we have been looking for more raw materials, and collecting plastic waste from the beach is a more reliable option. This change has created an obstacle to the goal of "clean oceans". The recycling of recycled plastics on the coast has been greatly reduced, and the motivation for salvaging waste plastics in the sea is also decreasing.

Since 2017, Dell has recovered 27 metric tons of marine plastics within 50 km of China's coastline or river. The company has repeatedly used packaging materials and is expanding its plans. HP said that its procurement of 450 tons of garbage that could enter the ocean, equivalent to 35 million plastic bottles, was used for making ink boxes, notebook computers and display parts. These technology companies are working with general motors, Interface and other companies to establish partnership with NextWave Plastics group to promote the commercialization of the supply chain to prevent waste plastics from entering the ocean.