The Clariter 4Rs

According to a report from the Center for International Environmental Law, the production and incineration of plastics added more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere in 2019 alone. The packaging industry is solely responsible for 141 million tons of the 300 million tons of plastic waste produced each year. That is higher than the amount created by the following 4 biggest industries combined: building and construction, other, textiles, and consumer products. This means that more than half of all plastic produced is designed to be used once and then thrown away, destined for landfill, incineration, or worse, polluting the environment. The Earth, oceans, and atmosphere are being destroyed by plastic. 

Environmentally-conscious consumers have long since adopted the 4 Rs – Reduce, reuse, recycle with the additional R varying from refuse, restore, recover, and repurpose, amongst others. Nevertheless, this has yielded very little positive influence on the enormity of the plastic waste problem. The 4Rs are not just a consumer’s responsibility, and they are increasing pressure on the industry to adopt a variation of the 4Rs into their processes as well. 

Let us take a look at how the packaging and other industries can implement small changes using Clariter’s 4R strategy, which will deliver dramatic results: 

Rethink: To successfully implement the full Clariter 4R strategy, the first step needs to be rethinking the design of the packaging being manufactured. Circularity needs to be the driving force behind the redesign by creating packaging that is more easily recycled (2nd R), removed (3rd R), or reused (4th R) by eliminating or reducing the use of problematic and hard to recycle materials. 

Recycle: The environmental impact of not recycling is two-fold in that recyclable materials never realize their usefulness for other purposes, and the packages thus require disposal by other means. Recycling rates are meagre as only a limited amount of waste types, such as PET, have been recycled. Clariter offers an exciting and unique value proposition for the industry. The company’s innovative upcycling technology can accept the majority of plastic waste types, even the problematic, mixed, and those hardest to recycle, removing the limitations of other recycling methods. 

Remove: Clariter is uniquely Plastic to Products. By transforming plastic waste into 3 industrial, ready-to-use product families: white oils, paraffin waxes, and aliphatic solvents, called ClariProducts, we end the life of end-of-life plastic. Plastic waste is removed from the Earth. In addition, Clariter’s solution is net carbon negative. For each 1 ton of ClariProduct produced, we reduce carbon emissions by 0.8 tons. Each Full-scale Clariter Plant can accept 60 000 tons of plastic waste annually to create 50 000 tons of ClariProducts. This would reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 38 500 tons per Plant per year. So, Clariter cleans the environment from both plastic waste and carbon emissions – at the same time!  

Reuse: Using limited resources more wisely is a driving force to combat climate change. ClariProducts are industry-standard crude oil alternatives. They are used as drop-in ingredients to make a multitude of consumer end-products. In addition, they can be used by industry to enable a circular economy. The industry is empowered to replace crude based packaging with eco-friendly alternatives made with this next-generation range of environment-friendly petrochemicals. Sustainable plastic packaging made from unsustainable plastic waste is now a reality. 

The result: Reducing and better managing packaging waste is beneficial for both the environment and the businesses. More and more customers prefer dealing with “greener” and sustainable companies. More clients equal more profits. After all, there is no such thing as a sustainable product in unsustainable packaging!  

This is an opinion article written by Clariter. We were inspired by: Center for International Environmental Law ReportCircle WasteNational GeographicThe Guardian 

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