Norway Recycles 97% of their Plastic Bottles

Humans all around the world can be associated with most of the causes for the rapid decline in the condition of the environment. One of the most potent and dangerous causes that we have introduced to the world is plastic. The fight to replace plastic with alternative materials has been going on for a while now, but generations have come and gone but the plastic waste still sits in our landfills or float at the bottom of some ocean in the world. There have been various tests conducted in laboratories all around the world regarding ways to counter the toxic effects of plastic waste on our environment or methods to recycle the waste to reuse it.

Newspapers and magazines are awash with horrific incidents of sea animals whose carcasses wash up on shores or the sight of birds lying dead on the ground as a result of the various kinds of pollution that humans have introduced to this planet. Only recently did we come across the news of a 6-metre-long whale washing up on the Norwegian island of Sotra which later had to be put down by zoologists due to its irreversibly worsening health. Upon inspection, 30 plastic objects were uncovered from the stomach of this mammal. 

It has been statically proven that roughly 100,000 sea mammals and over a million birds die every year due to plastic waste. This horrifying data does not seem to affect most people, because the UN Environment Program recently revealed that the world production of plastic bottles is around 480 billion, and guess where all that waste goes? If you guessed the ocean, you are right. A rough estimate of a truck load of plastic waste is dumped into the ocean every minute.

To be honest, not everyone is a stone-cold robot who turns a blind eye to pressing problems such as this. Infinitum, a Norway-based organisation, has its plastic bottle deposit hub right outside Oslo. They recycle roughly 97% of the plastic bottles in Norway to be reused by the public. According to Sten Nerland, director of logistics and operations, plastic is one of the best products that can be used because of its cheap, malleable qualities, provided you figure out a full-proof way to recycle it. Efficiency is the key motto in Infinitum, as they operate with two key incentives. The first is to minimalize the taxes paid by companies. Recycling would reduce their taxes to virtually zero. The second incentive is to instil in the minds of people that the bottles are not to be thrown away but to be deposited for recycling, which is why they have to deposit an amount while purchasing a bottle.

In conclusion, Infinitum is setting up a blueprint for the rest of the world to follow. With plastic wastes literally choking the life out of our environment, it becomes our duty to employ efficient ways to counter this horrific problem.