Plastic Waste: Challenges and Opportunities to Mitigate Pollution and Effective Management

Abstract

The present world is now facing the challenge of proper management and resource recovery of the enormous amount of plastic waste. Lack of technical skills for managing hazardous waste, insufficient infrastructure development for recycling and recovery, and above all, lack of awareness of the rules and regulations are the key factors behind this massive pile of plastic waste. The severity of plastic pollution exerts an adverse effect on the environment and total ecosystem. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of plastic waste generation, as well as its effect on the human being and ecological system, is discussed in terms of source identification with respect to developed and developing countries. A detailed review of the existing waste to energy and product conversion strategies is presented in this study. Moreover, this study sheds light on sustainable waste management procedures and identifies the key challenges to adopting effective measures to minimise the negative impact of plastic waste.

Keywords: Challenges; Plastic waste; Waste generation; Waste management; Waste recycling.

Fig. 1

A global snapshot of plastic generation, consumption and disposal (NAFTA-Canada, Mexico, United States region, CIS-Commonwealth of Independent States) (Jambeck et al. ; Geyer et al. , ; Horodytska et al. 2019)

Fig. 2

The scenario of global mismanaged plastics waste (Jambeck et al. 2015)

Fig. 3

Sources of different types of plastic wastes (Gwada et al. ; Lanorte et al. ; Ding et al. ; Unicef ; Klemes et al. 2020)

Fig. 4

Influence of plastic wastes on soil as well as corresponding effects on plant growth and ion adsorption (Guo et al. 2020) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 5

Human exposure to microplastic through different routes (Guo et al. 2020) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 6

Global plastic input to the ocean

Fig. 7

Micro plastics (MP) and nano plastics (NP) interact with other organisms and pollutants in marine life

Fig. 8

Life cycle of a plastic product (Mourshed et al. 2017) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 9

Global plastic waste scenario from municipal solid waste (Country basis) (Bank 2021) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 10

Cumulative plastic waste generation and disposal (in million metric tons). Continuous lines indicating historical statistics from 1950 to 2015; broken lines indicating forecasts of historic trends to 2050 (Geyer et al. 2017a, b) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 11

Different routes for plastic waste management

Fig. 12

A lab-scale fluidised bed reactor for incineration of polyolefins with the equipment. 1—computer storing date of FTIR, temperature and acoustic signals, 2—A/D convertor for thermocouple signals, 3—heated probe for sampling the flue gases, 4—exhaust fan, 5—cyclone, 6—ash trap for coarser particles, 7—freeboard space, 8—radiation shield, 9—heating sleeve, 10—thermocouples, 11—air supply valve, 12—plenum chambers, 13 e Ni–Cr perforated plate (Żukowski and Berkowicz 2019) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 13

Mechanical recycling loop of plastic products

Fig. 14

Plastic recycling uses (Simões et al. 2014)

Fig. 15

Diagram of different chemical recycling process (Europe and challenges 2019) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 16

Conceptual modelling illustrates the main action needed to tackle the marine litter issue

Fig. 17

a Sea bin (Down 2018), b how sea bin works (Carpenter et al. 2017), c ocean clean up array by Boyan slat (Inhabitat 2014) and d interceptor for removing plastic pollution from river (Cleanup 2019) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 18

Operationalization of circular economy

Fig. 19

Policies for fascinating circular plastics

Fig. 20

Currently used advanced methods for plastic waste management

Fig. 21

a Schematic diagram of simple pyrolysis process (Gaurh and Pramanik 2018), b simple schematic diagram of hydrocracking (Munir et al. 2020) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 22

Texaco gasification process diagram (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 23

Solutions to tackle the plastic waste problem (NRDC January 05, 2016, Revelator January 8, 2021, Earthday.org JANUARY 24, 2020, Geographic July 5, 2019)

Fig. 24

Problem-based selection tool to manage plastic waste

Fig. 25

Phase-out of lightweight plastic bags around the world (Xanthos and Walker 2017) (with permission to reuse)

Fig. 26

Six level pyramids to reduce plastic wastes