The same properties that make plastics so useful—their durability and resistance to degradation—also make them nearly impossible for nature to completely break down. But we can turn to chemical recycling: breaking down plastics to their molecular components, particularly hydrogen and carbon (the building blocks of fuels), through techniques like depolymerization, pyrolysis, and gasification.
A hundred years ago, a worn shirt would get patched, a blunt saw sharpened, a bottle refilled, a nappy washed, a razor blade changed. Now, the market drives us towards disposal. Those who sell products into the economy must have some level of financial or logistical responsibility for their end-of-life management. The potential for private benefit at public cost justifies government intervention.
In a collaboration between researchers, the government, and production manufacturers, materials can be recycled and reformed into new products. We talk about three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Professor Veena Sahajwalla offers a fourth: reform. Instead of shipping waste offshore, we could be harvesting the high value materials in our waste. Each year, 50 million tonnes of e-waste is produced globally. In Australia, fewer than 1.5% of the 4 million computers sold a year are recycled. The total value of the resources embedded in them approximates $70 billion.
How can textiles quietly heal us? Are wearable medical devices of any use when patients are too stigmatised to wear them? What good is fancy cycling gear that won’t protect the rider? Can we close the loop on global fashion, the world’s second biggest polluting industry? From comfort and style to function and protection, clothing fulfils some of the most basic human needs; but now we’re exploring textiles that can contribute to wound healing, or even become body implants through a next generation recycling process.
