The global consumer goods industry’s plans for dealing with the vast plastic waste it generates can be seen in a landfill on the outskirts of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, where a swarm of excavators tears into stinking mountains of garbage.
These machines are unearthing garbage to provide fuel to power a nearby cement plant. Discarded bubble wrap, take-out containers and single-use shopping bags have become one of the fastest-growing sources of energy for the world’s cement industry.
The Indonesian project, funded in part by Unilever PLC, maker of Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, is part of a worldwide effort by big multinationals to