Toxic Legacies / Filtering the Truth
The concept of recycling has gained immense popularity as a sustainable approach to waste pollution and is embraced as a potential solution to our escalating environmental crisis. However, not all recycling practices – especially when it comes to plastic – are necessarily environmentally friendly. In many cases, claims to recyclability are merely greenwashing, a marketing strategy used by companies to position themselves as environ- mentally conscious without implementing actual changes in their production practices. My master project aims to investigate the greenwashing behind recycling and how the concept of recycling can tend to justify the production of waste in a consumer-based system.
The concept of recycling has gained immense popularity as a sustainable approach to waste pollution and is embraced as a potential solution to our escalating environmental crisis. However, not all recycling practices – especially when it comes to plastic – are necessarily environmentally friendly. In many cases, claims to recyclability are merely greenwashing, a marketing strategy used by companies to position themselves as environ- mentally conscious without implementing actual changes in their production practices.
My master project aims to investigate the greenwashing behind recycling and how the concept of recycling can tend to justify the production of waste in a consumer-based system.
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Image 06: One step carbonisation process for batteries
3. Cigarette butts to batteries
An interesting technical development for cigarette waste is the
conversion of cigarette butts into batteries. In 2014, researchers
from Seoul National University in South Korea found a way
to convert used butts into a carbon-based material capable of
storing the energy required for high-performance batteries. The
study published in the journal Nanotechnology outlined how
used filters were transformed by a one-step burning process
and consequently converted into carbon. 53 Carbon conducts
electricity well, stays stable and is cheap making it a popular
material for making supercapacitors.
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