TO: Napa County Climate Action Committee
FROM: Brian D. Bordona, Director of Planning, Building, and Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Ryan Melendez, Planner II - Sustainability
SUBJECT: Climate Education Video: What really happens to the plastic you throw away
RECOMMENDATION
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PRESENTATION: VIDEO - “WHAT REALLY HAPPENS TO THE PLASTIC YOU THROW AWAY” - EMMA BRYCE: TED-ED
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ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California
Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.
BACKGROUND
Video: “What really happens to the plastic you throw away” - Emma Bryce: Ted-Ed
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xlNyWPpB8&list=PLBoopqPhzJXwVbmvx59ZldgKrqzAHsS9t&index=14&t=2s>
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Plastic is formed using fossil fuels by chemically bonding oil and gas molecules together. Recycling plastics will not halt the use of fossil fuels, but it can reduce the need to make new plastic materials. Recycling reduces the amount of waste that ends up in landfills with finite space. environmental contamination of plastics and hazardous and non-hazardous materials into ecosystems. Proper recycling practices can also play a critical role in reducing the amounts of plastic and hazardous and non-hazardous waste contamination that pollutes land and water ecosystems. While the process of recycling is a tool to improve environmental and climate solutions, it’s important to remember a few key points about waste reduction and recycling:
• Prevention is the only real answer: For plastics (and all waste for that matter), the “reduce” part of he “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” mantra is really the best and most sustainable solution. Recycling is not a magic bullet and nationwide, only 5-6% of plastic is recycled each year.
• Plastics never really go away: As pointed out in the video, unlike organic-derived materials like paper, plastics never decompose back into soil where exposed to natural elements (i.e., air, water, and sunlight/heat source). Plastics only photodegrade into smaller pieces on land or in waterways (microplastics).
• Plastics are an unsustainable material type: For recycling, many materials are finite but have the benefit of being either continuously recyclable (like metal and glass) or renewable (e.g., paper which is renewable in that it is made from trees that can be planted and regrown in our lifetime but degrade with each recycling cycle). For example, cardboard can be turned back into cardboard two or three times but then the fibers shorten and must be turned into boxboard and then possibly kraft (brown paper towels). Plastics, while “recyclable” in general, is neither continuously recyclable nor renewable. Therefore, reducing plastic use while increasing the use of (or reusing) other materials like metal, glass, etc. is the best option to avoid waste.
• Plastics Recycling is possible, but very challenging: There are hundreds of plastic resin types, and they are not recyclable when mixed and their tolerances for contamination are very, very low. In general, only resin types labeled #1, #2, and #5 are readily recyclable. The challenge for recycling facilities is to collect them and sort them out effectively from other resins. This is a difficult, time consuming, and costly process, and it is not possible to recycle our way out of the problem while the plastic recycling rate lags behind other major material types.