Discover the circulation of plastics with the new Story of Plastic online brochure

A new online brochure(external link, opens in a new window) detailing the life cycle of plastics is out now! The brochure provides easy-to-understand information about the challenges and potential of plastic materials, the importance of recycling and the handling of recycled plastic. The brochure is aimed at all residents, especially young people, to raise awareness of the importance of everyday waste sorting and help understand the life cycle of plastics in the broader context of circularity. “I hope that the brochure will help everyone find their role in building a circular economy,” states Outi Hynynen from the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development of Espoo.

In recent decades, plastic has been cast in quite a negative light, but the fact is that this bad reputation is not fully deserved. It is true that plastic is hazardous to the environment when it ends up in the wrong places, and manufacturing new plastic typically requires oil, the use of which accelerates climate change. However, plastic has also given us a great deal: its affordability has raised the standard of living of countless people, its versatility has solved many everyday problems and freed up people’s time to contemplate bigger questions, its impermeability and hygiene make it an excellent packaging material and reducer of waste, and its lightness makes vehicles made out of it more energy-efficient.

Actually, the problems associated with plastic often have less to do with plastic itself and more to do with us, the users of plastics. In other words, the majority of the challenges associated with plastics could be solved by transforming our own system from a linear economy to a circular economy. A circular economy is all about minimising the use of new natural resources and making more efficient use of materials and items that are already being used in our society. When plastic is appropriately sorted, it does not end up in the environment. Making new plastic items out of old plastic items that are no longer needed reduces the consumption of new oil. And if old plastic items are recycled as material instead of being burned for energy, the carbon dioxide bound to them stays out of the atmosphere.

Plastic is such a popular and versatile material that the efficient recycling of plastic is integral to the circular economy. This is why the City of Espoo and LAB University of Applied Sciences launched the Story of Plastic – From Waste to Product project with the aim of improving both the early and later stages of the life cycle of plastic products.

At present, not all plastic is yet recycled, and not all recycled plastic can be utilised as material. With this in mind, the Story of Plastic project set out to both increase the recycling rate of plastic and develop new ways of handling recycled plastic. As part of these efforts, LAB University of Applied Sciences’ plastic lab has been conducting tests on mixed plastic waste collected in Espoo for about a year now, with the development of a new way of handling recycled plastic in a more streamlined manner nearing completion.

Check out the brochure to learn more about topics such as the importance of sorting, the handling of recycled plastic now and in the future and what kind of boundary conditions the use of recycled materials sets for the product being manufactured.

Discover the story of plastic online brochure!(external link, opens in a new window)

The story of plastic is also being told through a touring physical exhibition featuring samples from the different stages of plastic processing and products made out of recycled plastic.

Story of Plastic exhibition at Lippulaiva Library 2.-29.8.

Story of Plastic – From Waste to Product is a joint project of the City of Espoo and LAB University of Applied Sciences that has received funding from the Ministry of the Environment’s support programme for the Plastics Roadmap trial and pilot projects. The project was launched at the start of 2021 and will continue until the end of September 2022.