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The Problem
Over 80,000 tons of flexible plastic packaging is manufactured each year in Indonesia.
The average use of a single use drink container is only 4 seconds, after which it may sit in a landfill forever. This type of plastic has no market for sale as it is difficult to recycle.
Therefore, in Jakarta, that which XSProject cannot buy does not generate income for the trash-pickers and ends up clogging landfills and waterways, or worse, getting burned and releasing toxic fumes. XSProject buys waste from the trash pickers before it reaches the landfills.
The manufacturing and use of this type of plastic pouches, (many of them aluminum bonded to plastic) is on the rise because it is cheaper to produce, costing companies less – but not recyclable, as hard plastic bottles are, costing the public more in pollution and environmental damage.
- Products are the source of all environmental problems.
- Unintentional side effects of manufacturing, use and disposal.
- Products (i.e. your cell phone) look harmless but there are many invisible “hidden costs” – pollution, deforestation, species loss, global warming are all by-products of the industries that bring us food, transport, shelter, clothing and goods.
- “Hidden costs” are environmental impacts from manufacturing and disposal toxic vapors and gases emitted by factories, pesticides, radiation.
- 30 tons of waste are produced for every 1 ton of product manufacturing.
- 98% of all products are thrown away within 6 months of purchase.
- Only 1 in 10,000 products is designed with environmental care in mind.
Source – The Total Beauty of SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS by Edwin Datschefski Rotovision 2001