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“Plastic packaging in Portugal represents 8 percent of waste. Each inhabitant is producing around 40.3 kg per year, above the European Union average. We need measures to reduce the consumption of plastic, because if other countries can do it, we can too”, said Joana Correia Prata, a researcher at the University of Aveiro.
The country continues to directly send "33 percent of waste to landfill", which is still "the dominant form of waste treatment in Portugal", since there is also some scrap from other forms of waste treatment, such as recycling, which end up for going to landfill.
Plastics, with “very degraded material”, which cannot be reused, or “materials that mix different types of plastic” all end up in landfill in the country.
Joana Prata admits that “a lot of regulation is needed in terms of plastic additives”, recognising that “the European Union is making an effort”, but that “it is very difficult”.
“There are many different plastics, despite the large polymer categories, each type of plastic has a mixture of additives that no one really knows because it is an industrial secret of each company. It is very difficult to reach conclusions, because the market is very big and there is a lot. But yes, the ideal would be to be able to regulate this and for everything to be recyclable”, she said.
The study “The road to sustainable use and waste management of plastics in Portugal”, also analyses the Portuguese trade balance with regard to plastics.
“Portugal imports a lot of plastics, and also exports, mostly from the European Union. This recycling and recovery of plastics, in terms of energy or material, brings many ecological and economic benefits”.
The researcher emphasises that, “if Portugal were able to recover this waste, it would be a reference at a European level”.
Portugal also has “another area in which it can be a reference”, the “production of bioplastics”.
“We have the agroforestry and marine part, we can produce bioplastics from this organic matter, and therefore also be a source of bioplastics for the European Union. If we built biorefineries and took advantage of these substances, we could also have added value for the economy”, she concluded.
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Why do supermarkets sell olive oil in plastic bottles , olive oil is acidic does it contaminate the oil?
By Graca Townsend from Lisbon on 09 Nov 2021, 16:29
It is all smoke and mirrors when it comes to recycling in Portugal. There is no civic education about protecting the environment; for example, why must you buy a new plastic bottle for hand wash instead of buying a bigger container which then you can fill up the existing hand wash bottle? Why must milk be sold in plastic? There are so many ways to cut down the use of plastic but Portugal does not care. It is unbelievable how Portugal can destroy its own country and then cry wolf.
By K from Algarve on 10 Nov 2021, 08:53
The amount of plastic used here is amazing. My supermarket will not allow me to buy, say, a cucumber or pepper unless it is in a plastic bag. In other places they stick the price label straight onto the skin of those types of items. The same supermarket bags the meat into 2 plastic bags.
As to environment issues, I am so tired of blue masks everywhere. The masks will take many years to degrade. Govts should ban the sale of them. People should use the washable type. The dreaded blue ones need to be disposed of properly and not discarded all around the streets.
By L from Other on 10 Nov 2021, 23:08
After numerous mistakes, like seeing their highly subsidised and grossly expensive (mis)management of plastic waste ending up either in local landfills or open dumps and from there eventually into Earth's oceans (many of us have seen the famous mats/"islands" of plastics floating on the Pacific Ocean!), Portugal is showing that it did not learn anything over all these years of gross mismanagement of plastic waste and keeps "researching" a matter for which sound solutions were found long time ago! Energy recovery is the best form of plastic waste management both environmentally and economically. This means heat recovery, i.e., the use of plastic waste as fuel under controlled conditions. This is a superior form of recycling as defined by Basel Convention protocol on the transportation and disposal of hazardous wastes. The applicable code R1, is defined as the "use of the plastic material/waste as fuel (other than direct incineration) or other means to generate energy".
By Tony Fernandes from Other on 11 Nov 2021, 03:07
No plastic should be recycled it is mostly polyethylene for which there is a unlimited feedstock to make more. Recycled plastic has been ground up and therefore has shorter polymer chain lengths. 100% recycled plastic cannot be used unless it is for a lower grade product. To use recycled plastic it must be supplemented with new which if you think it out is mathematically absurd. It is good to see that the Pacific garbage patch is now being cleaned but unfortunately yet again they are trying to recycle it. Ocean plastic absorbs polychlorinated biphenols a very nasty pollutant, we do not want this in products. So what is the the solution high temperature incineration for electricity generation and conversion to liquid fuels for transport.
By David-Paul Newton-Scott from UK on 11 Nov 2021, 09:53
So, all the trouble that we go to to separate our waste, even down to removing staples from magazines, is a total waste of effort?
Really?
If so, we'll just burn it all on our farm ????
By Christopher D Dyke from Beiras on 11 Nov 2021, 16:08
Christopher, you might as well do whatever you like. Portugal only cares about the Golden Visas and overpriced housing. Everything else is a sham. It will only be when everything is burnt down, when there is finally no clean water, when foreigners finally stop coming to the "promised land" that they will wake up. Maybe. But they will probably just do the usual - oh poor me, give me give me give me EU money. (and everyone knows what happens to the EU funds.... ).
By K from Algarve on 11 Nov 2021, 21:44