All things plastic waste
by Emma Mundy at 16:03 in Circular Economy, Environmental, Packaging

​As we enter the new year it seems, and rightly so, that plastic and its waste is in the spotlight now. In a bid to cut plastic waste many initiatives are being brought in, not just in the UK and the EU but globally. But are these initiatives good enough, Can we do more, and how exactly do we go about implementing all these great ideas? There is always an argument that more can be done, but it's a start. Here's a rundown of what's happening in the world of plastics at the moment.

The Prime Minister's Speech on the Environment

On 11 January Prime Minister Theresa May gave her speech on the environment and set out the 25-year environment plan. From Beatrix Potter to David Attenborough, May used lots of iconic figures from past and present to get her views on the environment across.

On the topic of plastic, she said: 'we look back in horror at some of the damage done to our environment in the past and wonder how anyone could have thought that, for example, dumping toxic chemicals untreated into rivers was ever the right thing to do. In years to come, I think people will be shocked at how today we allow so much plastic to be produced needlessly.'

She wants to take action at every stage of the plastics value chain from production to consumption and she was clear that Brexit will not mean a lowering of environmental standards.

May talked about animal welfare and the natural environment including ocean plastics which was highlighted to the public most recently by the BBCs Blue Planet and the Daily Mail's campaign on plastic waste. The 25-year environment plan aims to tackle these issues.

She stated that she wanted the UK to become a global leader when it comes to tackling the plastic problem and that we must reduce the demand for plastic, reduce the number of plastics in circulation and improve our recycling rates. She's pledged to lead the way by ensuring that the government removes all single use plastic in central government offices and wants to encourage big businesses to do the same.

The Prime Minister wants to see supermarkets introduce plastic free aisles. She also said that supermarkets need to do much more to cut down on unnecessary plastic packaging, and the government will work with them to explore introducing plastic free aisles, where all the food is sold loose.

Although Theresa May's actions on plastic waste are a positive step, the question remains as to how any policy will be managed.

Plastics are not just the focus of the UK Government. The EU has a strategy to reduce the amount of plastic waste we are currently producing.

EU strategy to reduce the environmental impact of plastics

On the 16 January an EU wide strategy on plastic waste was adopted as part of the transition towards a circular economy. They want Europe to lead the way on what is a global problem and believe they have an economically viable solution. The plan is to start phasing out certain types of plastics and products with a comprehensive strategy, that deals with product design and all stages of the value chain.

The Plastics Strategy was prepared by a project team, which included, First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Vice-President Jyrki Katainen and Commissioners Karmenu Vella and Elżbieta Bieńkowska. Many other Commissioners were also involved in its preparation.

Plastic packaging accounts for 60% of packaging waste generated in Europe every year and, Europeans generate 25 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, but less than 30% is collected for recycling. ​​That is why packaging will be addressed as a priority. The discussion covered the fact that we need plastics, but we need better plastics and habits need to change in order to increase awareness on the issues surrounding packaging waste and how consumers can help tackle this.

The Commission have said that they don't believe a European wide tax would work. The plan is that all plastic packaging will be recyclable by 2030. First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, responsible for sustainable development, said: 'If we don't change the way we produce and use plastics, there will be more plastics than fish in our oceans by 2050. We must stop plastics getting into our water, our food, and even our bodies. The only long-term solution is to reduce plastic waste by recycling and reusing more. This is a challenge that citizens, industry and governments must tackle together. With the EU Plastics Strategy we are also driving a new and more circular business model. We need to invest in innovative new technologies that keep our citizens and our environment safe whilst keeping our industry competitive.'

The subject of exporting our waste to China was a topic of conversation as the EU export plastic waste mostly to Asian countries. It was noted that it doesn't make any sense in economic terms that we are throwing away 90% of the value of plastic packages. The Chinese decision is a challenge, but it needs to be viewed as an opportunity and use this decision to look and ask ourselves are we as Europeans not capable of recycling our own waste?

The EU doesn't currently have specified quality standards for recycling plastics and they don't have a well-functioning single market for plastics. Therefore, it is not profitable. The Commission believe that there might be demand if there was supply so essentially the EU needs better quality standards. The EU wants defined rules for a standard product that can be sold across the board.

A positive outcome from the Chinese ban is that the EU are at least not lacking in raw material. Instead of subsidising everything, what matters the most is to create a market for this raw material.

Under the new strategy, the European Union will:

• Make recycling profitable for business: by developing new rules on packaging to improve the recyclability of plastics used on the market and increase the demand for recycled plastic content. ​
  
• Curb plastic waste: European legislation has already led to a significant reduction in plastic bag use in several Member States. The new plans will now turn to other single-use plastics and fishing gear. ​The Commission will also take measures to restrict the use of microplastics in products, and fix labels for biodegradable and compostable plastics.
  
• Stop littering at sea: New rules on port reception facilities will tackle sea-based marine litter, with measures to ensure that waste generated on ships or gathered at sea is not left behind but returned to land and adequately managed there.
  
• Drive investment and innovation: The Commission will provide guidance for national authorities and European businesses on how to minimise plastic waste at source. They will support innovation with additional finance to develop better materials and more efficicient recycling processes.
  
• ​Spur change across the world: The European Union will also work with partners from around the world to come up with global solutions and develop international standards. (Source http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-5_en.htm)
  

The commission will present the proposal on single use plastics later in 2018.

Stakeholders have until 12 February 2018 to contribute to the ongoing public consultation which can be viewed here.

Scotland proposes a ban on plastic stemmed cotton buds

The Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham announced that Scotland plans to introduce legislation to ban the manufacture and sale of plastic cotton buds. Tackling marine plastics has been made a priority in the current Programme for Government. In the programme they plan to commit £500,000 to address marine litter and develop policy to address marine plastics.

The proposal to ban plastic cotton buds will be put to public consultation and if successful would make Scotland the first country in the UK to legislate against such an item. It will be interesting to see how in practice this will be managed and enforced if such a ban does take place.

Its no wonder that action needs to be taken, The Marine Conservation Society report that plastic cotton buds are consistently listed in the top 10 items found by volunteers during MCS beach cleans and litter surveys.

Some retailers have already made the move to use alternatives to plastic in their cotton buds such as Waitrose and Sainsbury. Sainsbury have committed to remove 100% of plastics from their own brand cotton buds. According to their website they are in talks to find the right glue to hold the bud to the stem which is a biodegradable substance. They have said when they find it they will share it so other producers can follow suit.

Increase plastic carrier bag charge

Proposals to extend the 5p plastic carrier bag charge could be extended to cover most retailers, including small businesses, according to government environment plans. Currently the 5p charge is only applicable to shops with 250 or more full time employees since the charge was introduced in October 2015. The ban has seen significant reduction in the usage of plastic carrier bags and its associated litter.

However, a large number of single use plastic bags are still sold in the UK so the move to capture more businesses will hopefully reduce this number even further.

In other countries, Turkey has made amendments to its packaging waste regulations which include the ban of free plastic bags from 2019. Chile has also signed a bill which prohibits the sale of single use plastic bags in 102 coastal villages and towns in order to protect marine life.

Ban on microbeads

Microbeads are commonly found in cosmetics and personal care products. They are small particles of plastic that are too small to be filtered out of sewage treatment systems and therefore they end up in our oceans where marine life ingest them.

Back in December 2016 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) opened a consultation on proposals to ban the use of plastic microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products in the UK and a call for evidence on other sources of marine plastics entering the marine environment. The consultation closed at the end of February 2017. The purpose of the consultation was to gain views on the ban to manufacture and sell cosmetics and personal care products containing microbeads that can harm our marine environment.

Last week the UK banned the manufacture of certain products containing microbeads. The ban on sales will start from July 2018. More information on the ban can be found here.

China

It was last summer that China announced they would stop the importation of certain types of waste by the end of 2017. This included mixed paper and 24 types of plastic waste. They were making a stand against what they call foreign garbage. According to the UK parliament website the UK has shipped more than 2.7 million tonnes of plastic waste to China.

The ban came into effect 1 January 2018. This means the UK faces a problem of where to send their waste plastics. However, some people see this as an opportunity for the UK to really improve its recycling infrastructure and have higher standards for its recyclate.

Just this week it has been reported that plastics exports are rising to destinations other than China. Increased volume of exports to Turkey, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia. It's early days but it currently remains to be seen as to whether this opportunity will be taken to improve the UK recycling structure.

The Environmental Audit Committee has launched an inquiry into the Chinese Waste import ban. Environmental Audit Committee Chair, Mary Creagh MP said: 'The UK has been relying on China to recycle its excess of waste for years, but that market is now drying up. The UK will now have to deal with millions of tonnes of extra plastic and paper waste leading to fears it will be landfilled or incinerated instead of recycled. We will examine the environmental impact of the ban, whether the Government has made adequate preparations and what the Government can do to ensure the UK's waste is managed sustainably.'

Recycling infrastructures with regards to plastic waste are a problem across the EU and something which was discussed at the EU Plastics strategy session. How this will be managed will be interesting to follow.

Retailers

Media coverage on the issue has covered what many retailers are and aren't doing to tackle this issue. Supermarkets are high on the target list due to the huge amount of plastic packaging they provide to consumers.

The Tesco little helps plan sets targets for their packaging and its environmental impact. Action one is that their 'packaging will be fully recyclable or compostable by 2025.' They plan to halve packaging weight by 2025.

Tesco has also already taken steps to cut down on its plastic packaging, in their Little Helps Plan they detail how they have removed polystyrene from their fish packaging and replaced with a more environmentally friendly plastic, avoiding 653 tonnes of polystyrene being used.

Sainsbury also plan to reduce their packaging by 2025 by 50% compared to 2005 and want to make sure that the material is recyclable wherever possible. This action will remove approximately 55 tonnes of plastic from production.

Waitrose are currently working towards a solution to enable in store take away coffee cups to be recycled. They are a founding signatory or the Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling group.

The Supermarket chain Iceland aims to be plastic free. The plan is to eliminate or drastically reduce the amount of packaging in their own brand products by 2023. They also support the idea of a deposit return scheme.

Whilst these supermarket pledges and goals are fantasitc it does beg the question as to how they will actually achieve such targets. Retailers are often telling us that they want to reduce their reliance on plastics so lets hope that with the changed plans to recycling infrastructure and investment in innovation that these targets and more are achievable.

What do Lorax Compliance do?

So as you can see from everything going on at the moment there is quite a buzz about plastic and its waste. Here at Lorax Compliance we help companies calculate their packaging waste data, and our software has a clever little thing called business intelligence. We can tell you if you are using too much packaging on your products and suggest ways to reduce your compliance bill whilst also reducing your impact on the environment. If you need any help with your packaging submissions or would like to chat about plastic please drop us a message here.

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