Introducing Newoil - Summary and Readers Response Draft 3 (Finale)

The article “Parliament: Singapore looks to create Newoil by transforming waste plastic into alternative fuel” by Liu (2020), illustrates future and existing recycling plans for Singapore. As stated, Newoil is a process in which plastic waste is chemically reduced into pyrolysis oil, resulting in an increase in the recycling rate of plastic waste which sequentially helps us achieve sustainability demands. Currently, National Environment Agency (NEA) has reimbursed money to citizens for recycling beverage containers to encourage Singaporeans to recycle. In July 2020, NEA requires large companies to record the amount of plastic used for packaging. NEA also introduced Newsand, a project used to incinerate general waste to form ash and slag and then reusing it for construction. Additionally, e-waste is a rising factor in the economy. Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health and the Environment and Water Resources, mentions in the article that by 2022, Singapore will have three operational facilities that can undertake more than 50,000 tonnes of e-waste annually. Another factor lies in large areas of food enterprises. Approaching 2024, they are to separate food waste for treatment under the ‘Resource Sustainability Act’ by NEA. This will help track down the food waste produced by these companies.

According to Liu, Newoil is a reliable brand to produce oil from plastic waste. However, she lacks information regarding how the pyrolysis process could contaminate the air or how unsustainable it would be in terms of energy expenditure.

Primarily, from what Liu has reported, Newoil is a process of melting plastic to oil using pyrolysis. However, she did not explain the consequences that may occur, for example, air pollution. According to Baranski (2021), plastic pyrolysis produces more exhaust emissions than diesel from hydrocarbon processing. This will result in emitting high temperatures which will eventually release harmful pollutants such as nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxides. Thus, this will result in air pollution.

Secondly, the article mentioned that if Newoil is successful, it will bring Singapore closer to being a zero-waste nation and a low carbon economy. However, Liu omits the process of pyrolysis which I believe is the key factor to support the idea of it being unsustainable. According to Rollinson (2018), pyrolysis occurs when solid organic matter is heated to a temperature where gases, oils, and char are released. In this case, char is called 'charcoal' and when we pyrolyzed plastic, the amount of char produced is very small or none at all. Henceforth, plastic is pyrolyzed into oil or gas that, invariably, can be used as a fuel. This shows that pyrolysis waste treatment takes more energy than can be recovered. Therefore, Newoil is not as sustainable as we expected it to be.

On the other hand, the article demonstrates that it would give more opportunities for Singaporeans to find new jobs in the mechanical field. Rubel et al. (2019) state that companies seeking to explore profitable new business models can explore pyrolysis while improving their environmental, social, and governance performance at the same time. Thus, it is likely that Singapore's market will experience a substantial impact. 

All in all, although Newoil is one way to recycle plastic waste, it is not a recommended process as pyrolysis can have a negative impact on our society and environment. Therefore, it is hard to determine how Newoil can be a sustainable solution, despite being recognized as a reliable environmental brand.


References

Baranski, A. (2021, May 25). Plastic Pyrolysis Pros and Cons: Converting Plastics Into Energy. https://www.profolus.com/topics/plastic-pyrolysis-pros-and-cons-converting-plastics-into-energy/ 

Liu, V. (Ed.). (2020, March 4). Parliament: S'pore looks to create  Newoil by transforming waste plastic into alternative fuel. The Straits Times. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/parliament-singapore-looks-to-transformwaste-plastic-into-oil 

Rollinson, A. (2018, December 4). Why pyrolysis and ‘plastics to fuels’ is not a solution to the plastics problem. https://www.lowimpact.org/pyrolysis-not-solution-plastics-problem/ 

Rubel, H., Follette, C., Felde, A.M., Appathurai, S., Díaz, M.B., Jung, U. (2019, July 15). A Circular Solution To Plastic Waste. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2019/plastic-waste-circular-solution 

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