Green Education – Explaining Take-Back Programs


Personal Note From Patrick, The Editor

Hello Reader, I hope you are doing well!

While we learned how to check the sustainability of our lab items last week, we now turn our attention to plastics.

All of us see the huge amounts of waste we produce every day. However, some companies are trying to make a difference.

They take their items back — and this is how it works:


Today's Lesson: Exploring Take-back programs

What they are and how to make them work


Number Of The Day

While countries like the US rely heavily on landfilling, 18 out of 27 EU member states have implemented a landfill ban. This means plastics in those countries are either recycled or incinerated (with or without energy recovery). However, plastics cannot be recycled indefinitely. As a rule of thumb, most plastics can only be mechanically recycled a few times—typically 3 to 7 cycles for polypropylene—before their quality degrades too much for further use.

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Discussing Take-back Programs

Take-back programs are a great way to avoid plastic waste being incinerated or landfilled.

If you haven’t heard of them, they are services organized by companies that take their waste back to ensure proper recycling.

Plastic items are often not recycled due to the following reasons:

  1. Recycling facilities only recycle a fraction of plastic types
  2. Items do not fit the required properties (e.g., too small in size)
  3. Items are incorrectly discarded (by habit discarded without separation)

How Do Take-Back Programs Work?

In essence, they are straightforward.

The supplier defines a specific set of items they are willing to take back.

They are often very precise about what is accepted. The reason: waste streams need to be well-defined—e.g., contain only one type of plastic—to ensure efficient recycling.

Quick note: At this point in time, manufacturers should have no problem recycling items from other vendors. However, one could argue that differences in additives, or the number of previous recycling cycles, might theoretically interfere with the recycling process.

Nevertheless, take-back is now available for a wide range of items, such as:

  • Pipette tip boxes
  • PET bottles (e.g., used in cell culture)
  • Gloves
  • Polystyrene coolers
  • Miscellaneous (e.g., centrifuge tube Styrofoam racks, packaging, instruments)

Typically, the manufacturer sells specific cardboard boxes that are used to collect and send back these items. For take-back, 3 options currently exist that depend on the service provider:

  1. On-demand (e.g., labs fill out a form and “order” the pick-up)
  2. Regularly (e.g., monthly)
  3. Drop-off at delivery stations (e.g., FedEx)

The manufacturer then organizes transport and recycling.

Still, these services are not for free. Costs are usually tied to the purchase of these take-back boxes and, depending on the manufacturer, can be quite “noticeable.”

How the Recycling Happens

Nobody really knows…

This is where we basically enter a black box. After sending the box back, we’re left guessing because no single vendor has published a Life Cycle Assessment or process plan.

Most likely, the boxes are sent to recycling companies contracted by the manufacturers or vendors.

There, the plastic is probably ground, washed, sorted, and pelletized (i.e., mechanically recycled), with the pellets being either sold or molded directly into new products.

Take-Backs Do Not Always Recycle

To be precise, in most cases, we are talking about downcycling. While recycling technically means producing the same product again, most take-back programs result in lower-quality products used in construction or materials with less stringent requirements.

However, there are companies—like Starlab or Polycarbin—that apparently run closed-loop systems, e.g., producing new tip boxes from tip box waste.

Still, plastics cannot be recycled forever through mechanical recycling—typically, a mix of old and new plastic is used. So how these companies manage it remains unclear, especially since no disclosure or life cycle analysis is available.

Applying The Knowledge

You are not sure whether or not to establish a take-back program?

Next week we will discuss whether they are sustainable for your institution because it might not be in all cases.

However, if you found it to be a good solution, you simply fill out a form on the vendor’s website. They will then typically send you their waste collection box.

Here is a compilation of all take programs I know of for you

The two most common challenges are finding space for the boxes and deciding how often take-back needs to be organized.

And when setting your take-back up, make sure to:

  1. Encourage them to ask questions
  2. Have clear, visible graphics posted
  3. Organize a few control checks early on to ensure everyone understands the system

Upcoming Lesson:

Investigating The Dark Side Of Take-Back Programs...


How We Feel Today


References

Schyns, Z. O. G. et al., Mechanical recycling of packaging plastics: A review. 2020. Macromolecular Rapid Communications, First published: 30 September 2020. doi:10.1002/marc.202000415

Eriksen, M. K. et al., Closing the loop for PET, PE and PP waste from households: Influence of material properties and product design for plastic recycling. 2019. Waste Management, 96, 75–85. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2019.07.005


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Otherwise, wish you a beatiful week!
See you again the 19th : )

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Edited by Patrick Penndorf
Connection@ReAdvance.com
Lutherstraße 159, 07743, Jena, Thuringia, Germany
Data Protection & Impressum

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