Patricia Aymà Maldonado

So we say that is the perfect allusion, but because we promote recycling, global plastic pollution keeps increasing.

Mechanical recycling is just kicking the problem into the future.

It delays the waste and it's not solving the problem.

We have two types of recycling, okay?

Mechanical, that I've talked before, and chemical.

And chemical recycling could help in the future because it breaks plastic down to its basic molecules.

So you can make a new virgin material again, but right now it's extremely expensive.

So the point is that we're recycled today because that's the system we have.

If someone at home is listening right now thinking, why should I recycle?

Please don't stop.

It still matters, okay?

Because the system right now is this, and we are part of the system.

The industry is huge and we can't pretend it will disappear overnight.

And today, the most sustainable thing we can do is limit the consumption and recycle what we use.

But if we want a real system level change, we must reduce the creation of these problematic waste in the first place.

And that means rethinking the material itself.

So we are not endlessly trying to repair a system built on materials that were never designed to be circular.

We also need to push companies to take responsibility, to adopt better materials, better designs and better alternatives like bioplastics.

So at Benvero, we work with bacteria that eat organic waste and turn it into a fully biodegradable, microplastic-free bioplastic, a material that comes from organic waste and returns to organic matter when it degrades.

So instead of creating a material that needs rescuing, we create one that never becomes a problem at the first place.