Major Obstacles to Sustainability in the Plastic Industry

Abstract

Sustainability focuses on taking into account in our work and in our daily lives all the resources upon the planet. The plastic industry is one of the major users of non-renewable resources and aspects of sustainability have to be considered. Plastic solid waste (PSW) recycling is one of the most important remedies available for sustainable plastic waste recovery and yet the plastic industry faces a number of obstacles to recover this resource. A survey was conducted on a number of plastic manufacturing companies in Kitwe city in Zambia to identify the major obstacles affecting sustainable PSW recovery and recycling. A fishbone diagram was used to categorize the major obstacles into the causes and finally the causes were then grouped according to their economic, environmental and social impacts on these companies.