By Steve Munatones

“Who knew that diving among a bunch of plastic trash would become the catalyst for Doug Woodring to eventually be nominated and voted in as an Honor Administrator in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame? That is the long road that Doug has taken from diving along the coastlines of Asia to being inducted in the Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,” asked Steven Munatones.

By Plasticity Forum

Asia has the trifecta when it comes to plastic pollution – high-levels of concentrated environmental impact; limited infrastructure; and a USD$21.1Bn market for recovered plastic, of which USD$4.2Bn is unmet (1).

By Doug Woodring and Trish Hyde

Modern economic theory maintains that countries should optimize the trade of global goods and services by embracing other nations’ competitive advantages—letting others excel where their advantages exist. What it did not account for is the trade of “bads” between nations, whereby a country sends unwanted materials (in this case, waste) to another’s shores to take advantage of that country’s competitive advantages (low labor costs and lax environmental enforcement). This trade of bads was widely adopted in the case of waste recovery and recycling partly because developed countries haven’t established on-shore solutions for processing at the same rate they’ve created trash, due to high processing costs within their borders.

By Trish Hyde and Doug Woodring

Underlying the trade in plastic waste is the harsh reality that few countries participate in circular economics, and much of the world lacks the needed processes and infrastructure to create Second Life markets for their own local collection. Ironically, this includes two of the world’s wealthiest cities – Singapore and Hong Kong. While both have virtually 100 per cent collection coverage, limited local processing options means that half of the recyclables go to landfill or incineration, while export markets are sought for the rest, if they are collected, sorted, and recovered properly in the first place, which is not common.