Extrusion International USA 6-2019

45 Extrusion International 6/2019 Does your example set a precedent elsewhere? Stover: We are expanding in Chile and beyond. We are now talking to fisheries in the north and south of the country and neighbouring countries. We are also in the process of setting up a project in Peru and are also ne- gotiating with the relevant authori- ties in Argentina and Ecuador. The volumes that we collect and process are growing all the time. But our ra- dius remains rather local. If you look at the amount of old nets that we re- cycle each year, it becomes clear that we certainly do not yet have much in- fluence on the big problem of plastic waste. But we are showing a way to change the way fishermen deal with nets. How can the problem be tackled globally? Stover: Because littering with old fishing nets is a global problem, we are in contact with groups that want to tackle the problem globally. For example, we are a founding mem- ber of GGGI, the Global Ghost Gear Initiative. In this working group, all parties involved in the issue are look- ing for possible solutions that can be applied everywhere. Another very Do you need political guidelines to get recycling rolling, as in the EU? Stover: That would certainly be good, but in the current political situation in the USA this is very unlikely. We are convinced that consumers can put pressure on companies to design their products better and produce more sustainable products. But that only works up to a certain point. Con- sumers don’t want to give up their convenience, they want everything at the lowest possible price and the companies that produce such prod- ucts don’t want to get away from plastic because it’s cheap for them. What is really needed, therefore, is regulation by politicians, including at local level. Companies must be influenced and punished if they do not comply with the regulations. The multinationals in particular have so far often shirked their responsibili- ties. But many of these companies have set themselves ambitious sustainabil- ity targets. Stover: It’s true that pressure is ex- erted on these companies from out- side. After all, no one can hide the images of the littered seas and hide our waste crisis. These companies have now started initiatives and are setting themselves goals for the next few years. That’s a good start, but you have to keep the pressure on. On closer inspection, the initiatives and plans of these companies are quite small compared to their size. Some are ambitious, but for many it doesn’t matter much. I think we need to increase speed and scope signifi- cantly. The plastics industry produces more plastic every year. If we actually used as much recycled material as ev- eryone promises, we would see a de- cline in the production of new plastic. Thank you for this interview! Bureo https://bureo.co VDMA e.V. Plastics and Rubber Machinery kug.vdma.org important point for us is education. We show fishermen and fisheries that there are ways to avoid pollu- tion. How is the USA dealing with plastic waste? Stover: My observation is that we are safely behind the EU there. In some places and regions, such as New York City or California, there are a number of great initiatives. In California there will soon be a law requiring manu- facturers of plastics and plastic prod- ucts to invest in recycling. At the local level, there have been many bans on disposable products. So there are a few good initiatives, but as a country, the US has a problem dealing with its own garbage in a sensible way. For a very long time, we have relied on the fact that we can simply export our plastic waste. Recycling is cur- rently still very inefficient in the USA. Even of the waste that is collected, only part goes for recycling because the other part cannot be recycled at all. The infrastructure and certainly also the technical possibilities are in- adequate. Basically, we will have to change the way we use, process and recycle material, and we will have to change it globally.