The Identity of Oxo-Degradable Plastics and Their Use in Switzerland
The Identity of Oxo-Degradable Plastics and their Use in Switzerland Project Report commissioned by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) March 2020 Commissioned by Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) Air Pollution Control and Chemicals Division Industrial Chemicals Section 3003 Bern (Switzerland) The FOEN is an agency of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). FOEN support: Josef Tremp, Andreas Buser Contractor Chair of Ecological Systems Design Institute of Environmental Engineering Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering ETH Zurich John-von-Neumann-Weg 9 8093 Zurich (Switzerland) Authors Helene Wiesinger, Magdalena Klotz, Zhanyun Wang, Yaqi Zhao, Melanie Haupt, Stefanie Hellweg This study has been conducted under contract 16.0023.PJ/R262-2398 on behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). The contractor bears sole responsibility for the content. Executive Summary Oxo-degradable plastics (ODP) are plastics containing pro-oxidant additives that allegedly promote fragmentation and subsequent biodegradation. However, in practice, ODP do not fully biodegrade under environmental or industrial composting conditions, and thus may serve as a source of microplastics in the environment. In addition, ODP can negatively impact recycling processes. Recently, the Single-Use Plastics Directive has been adopted in the European Union, stating that the placing on the market of all plastics containing additives, which through oxidation lead to fragmentation (i.e. ODP), will be prohibited. In this study, we investigate the occurrence of ODP in Switzerland and the feasibility of identifying ODP using handheld XRF. The main lessons learned are as follows: Finding 1: No wide use of intentional ODP has been identified in Switzerland, with some unknowns.
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