TechKnowSaturday 5:30pm ET/2:30pm PT

Problems and solutions for plastic waste

An expert roundtable sounds off on how to resolve our dependence on plastic

May 28, 2015 4:00PM ET

by Suzanne Zionts @suzietracey

From legislators, to professors, to innovators in recycling, TechKnow investigates the journey of one single plastic bottle and the efforts to truly recycle the product creating zero waste. On this week’s special, contributors Dr. Shini Somara and Dr. Crystal Dilworth examine new innovations currently used to battle the trend of a single serving society.

Steven Nutt is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. Professor Nutt said that the majority of the population does not realize the magnitude of the problem with plastics.

If people only knew the problem that they were creating when they extolled the virtues of throwaway living. This is a monster in the creating right here.

Gabriella Lozano is the owner of L’s Café in San Francisco. She insists in doing her part for the community and practices composting at her establishment. She may be one small business owner but her stringent composting practices allow for 90 percent of her business' waste to be recycled or composted.

For me, I feel it’s a great responsibility not to leave such a big impact in the city, and in the world for the next generation.

On a larger scale, Leon Farahnik , the Chairman of CarbonLITE founded the bottle to bottle recycling plant to process over two billion bottles annually. CarbonLITE’s bottle grade PET flakes can turn into new bottles. Even with these innovations, Farahnik sees a bigger societal issue when it comes to plastic.

That’s a people problem, they throw on the street, or throw it in the ocean, unfortunately that’s a habit that has to be stopped.

Manager of Resource Recovery Program at East Bay Municipal Utility District, John Hake, takes an innovative approach to becoming the first energy neutral plant in North America. At East Bay MUD, they combine solid food waste with liquid wastewater to create fuel.

A digester is like the human stomach, so organic material goes into the digester and in there it’s biodegraded by bacteria and they feed on the solid material and that solid material is being converted into biogas and that biogas is a great renewable energy source.

San Francisco Assembly Member David Chiu is at the forefront of the combating plastic pollution from the legislative side. In fact, San Francisco is the first city in the country banning single use water bottles from city property.