Plastic, an influential part of modern society, is under increasing scrutiny for its polluting presence in the global environment. There are visible and invisible pollutants. Greater awareness and growing ethical concerns about plastic waste is evident with circular thinking initiatives to design out surplus plastics, improve recovery and re-use widely apparent.
The current pressures also represent an opportunity to be harnessed, to tackle plastic waste and progress sustainable development with circular thinking and so advance towards zero-litter.
PLASTIC’S INFLUENCE IN SHAPING MODERN SOCIETY
The global plastics industry has expanded at a phenomenal rate since its commercial inception in 1940s, bringing rapid innovation to modernise society and public health, from uses in medicine (from prosthetics to IV bags to syringes and so much more), construction, transportation, to consumer goods including provision of safe drinking water to developing world. More than 300 million metric tonnes of plastics were produced in the world in 2015 with China the largest producer (accounting for over a quarter of global production). Aligned with its leading place in production of plastic, Asia Pacific is also the world-leading regional consumer of plastic. Asia Pacific demand for products packed in plastic surpassed one billion packs in 2017.
Largest onward gains for plastic packaging are set to be derived from consumers’ purchases in Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa supported by a growing, organised retail infrastructure enabling consumers to buy packaged. This is alongside a broader global trend of consumers opting to buy smaller packs for health (for example, chocolate portioning), as the right fit for consumers’ onthe-go lifestyle (soft drinks) and for affordability.
PLASTIC PROTECTS AND SAVES RESOURCES
The importance of plastic to the packaging industry is vast with its myriad of applications across the consumer goods marketplace. From food to soft drinks to beauty and home care products, the rise of plastics over competing pack types is largely thanks to its resource-efficiency. Within the global packaging industry, flexible plastics, PET bottles and thin wall plastic containers rank among the top five most common pack types for retail grocery purchases.
Packaging holds a valuable and sustainable role in guarding against waste, especially important for the food industry where plastic holds strongest presence. The United Nations estimates that food waste represents about a third of all food produced for human consumption (1.3 billion tonnes) and amounts to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is of wide concern, a problem notable in developing countries where, for example there is inadequate processing/packaging of seasonal produce. The rise in use of packaging, including plastic, is widely recognised as a remedy to tackle the problem of food waste by providing product protection and shelf life.
Furthermore, lightweighting has long been and remains a tool of efficiency used in the packaging industry, such as in neck, bottle and closure re-designs. New designing-out innovations push the bar on what can be achieved. Lighter weight packaging proffers an additional benefit when it comes to ageing populations. Japan, for example, is witnessing growing demand for lighter packaging types, such as refill plastic pouches. Shiseido, for example, the second largest beauty and personal care company in Japan and within the top 10 players globally, changed the packaging of its well-established Auslese brand of men’s grooming products in 2017 from a 200ml glass bottle to 220ml PET bottle, taking this opportunity to also slightly change the bottle’s shape for an easier grip, keeping its older customers in mind.
EUROPEAN POLICYMAKERS LAUNCH STRATEGIES TO TARGET PLASTIC WASTE
Despite the widespread success of plastic, evident in the scales of plastic production and growth across industries, the recovery of said material for re-use has not progressed at the same rate.
Concerns about plastic’s sustainability credentials have shot into sharp public focus since end-2017, elevated by learnings and concern that more than eight million tonnes of plastics end up as marine waste and the detrimental impact of such pollution. Visible, commonly single-use, plastic waste polluting the global environment range from plastic beverage bottles and closures to food wrappers, grocery bags, and straws, to coffee cups/lids and takeaway containers. There are also invisible plastic pollutants including microbeads and microfibres.
The issue of plastic waste, particularly single-use plastic, is being addressed in several ways, including via 2018-launched strategies, as governments also look to re-think design to avoid waste at the outset and maximise recovery for reuse, to minimise its environmental and economic impact.
In January 2018, the European Commission, in the release of its Plastic Strategy, indicated that the potential annual energy savings that could be achieved by recycling all global plastic waste equates to 3.5 billion barrels of oil per year - that would be surely no small gain for society.
The UK government’s environment strategy similarly aims to reduce waste, with a 2042 target for plastic packaging. Its strategy seeks to reduce the number of types of plastics in circulation. It will be important in the review of alternatives for difficult-torecycle plastics to consider the whole lifecycle for sustainability and so ensure that neither product safety nor environmental impact is compromised.
PLASTICS’ RECOVERY AND RECYCLING RATES ARE IMPROVING BUT MORE TO DO
Globally plastic recycling is increasing but tends to lag behind other materials. In part, the ability to produce virgin plastic so economically has thwarted the development of recycled plastics. However, with a growing sense of environmental stewardship, creating capacity of recycled plastics and brands’ uses of them looks set to rise.
Currently, around 30% of plastics in Europe, 25% in China and 9% in the US are recycled. Recycling varies considerably by polymer and country. Germany, Japan and South Korea are among the best recyclers in the world.
PlasticsEurope announced that, in 2016, plastic waste recycled surpassed volumes sent to landfill for the first time in Europe, further indication of the positive moves that are taking place.
In October 2017, a consortium of flexible packaging associations petitioned the European Commission and Council of the EU in October 2017 for separate collection of all used packaging, showing there is certainly will on behalf of the packaging industry to further improve on collection and recycling across materials.
WASTE CONCERN LENDS GRAVITAS TO THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY MODEL
There are positive signs of an increasing shift from a linear model to one that is more circular. Innovation in plastics, following circular economy principles, is one that reduces reliance on the finite supply of petroleum-based plastics by optimising plastics through responsible design and sourcing to ensure complete recovery and zero litter and re-use or through alternative renewable materials to minimise environmental footprint. This design optimisation helps address material scarcity and environmental impact, can deliver cost savings for manufacturers and taps into consumer demand for ethically-sourced products and services.
Leading consumer brands are updating their packaging sustainability commitments, also evident from industry-wide pledges such as from the European Federation of Bottled Waters, on PET collection and re-use.
Innovative, ethical re-thinking of design is already in practice within the plastics industry will continue to rise in importance across all materials and industries as the spotlight on waste continues to grow. Altering consumer behaviour with regards to littering to one of waste recovery via recycling or return postuse, such as via a deposit system will also aid plastics recovery and reduce waste. The voluminous sources of plastic pollution in developing countries further importantly require a globallysupported recovery action plan.
Mindful consumption is a global duty of all; consumers have their part to play to help realise a zero-litter society, as do corporate players in their use and handling and governments in providing the necessary infrastructure, all to enable better collection of waste material and recovery for reuse. Creating additional capacity of recycled material for use in new packaging presents two-fold valuable benefits: to reduce reliance on virgin plastic materials and crucially help to prevent plastic waste ending up in the environment in the first place.
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