The plastic challenge: Our final verdict

By Sapphire Jones and Zomo S Y Fisher

Welcome to the final blog in our three-part series on the plastic packaging challenge! In our first blog (Life in plastic, not so fantastic?), we saw how overwhelming the problem with plastic was, and we were ready to ditch plastic from the supply chain and our lives. Then in our second blog (Has the ‘war’ on plastic gone too far?), we flipped the coin and de-demonised plastic, looking at the benefits and the need to examine the full picture before making any rash decisions.

So, what is the solution then?

There is a clear opportunity for transformation. As explored in the earlier blogs in this series, the creation of virgin plastic from fossil fuels is not the ideal solution, but neither are bio-plastics due to their many other potentially negative impacts. But what would happen if we considered a future where existing boundaries didn’t constrain opportunities for innovation?

In this third and final blog of the series, we look forwards and debate whether plastic packaging should be maintained or eliminated from supply chains, looking at three possible future realities. We also present our final verdict on the plastic challenge.

1. What if recyclability was always built in by design?

Imagine if we could trust the certainty of plastic waste streams. All plastic would be 100% easily recyclable, eliminating the need for carbon-intensive production of virgin plastic. Sounds great, but how can we achieve this? By integrating ‘minimum viable product’ principles to packaging design, we would be able to close the loop in plastic recycling, such as:

· Using single-walled, single-material plastic packaging (i.e. eliminating complexity)

· Using digital printing or water-soluble label adhesives, instead of sleeves or pulp (i.e. removing the hard-to-recycle parts)

· Only producing plastic in the one colour, such as clear, allowing for technology to easily sort material, and enable cross-product recycling of the same colour (i.e. massively driving up supply of usable recyclate)

With the likes of UK supermarket Tesco announcing their ban on all non-recyclable plastic packaging by 2019, those pesky black plastic trays, PVC films and polystyrene pizza trays will soon be a thing of the past. And once the loop is closed using these simple yet effective design principles, what would stop us treating plastic waste as a currency, as seen in Ecover’s pop-up rubbish cafe? If all plastic waste can be easily repurposed, governments will be empowered to act collectively rather than at country level. Corporate packaging design has implications beyond national boundaries, and so should go hand-in-hand with international policy incentives. Maybe one day we could even see potential developments like a truly global, standardised roll out of container deposit schemes.

2. Even better, what if we could eliminate single use plastic?

Recycling is all well and good, but it does cost money, time and energy. Imagine a world where we could reduce or remove this waste altogether. If we moved to more durable, genuinely reusable plastic, we could prevent significant carbon emissions and other environmental impacts. In fact, recent analysis has shown that refillable bottles have 50–60% lower global warmingpotential than one-way beverage containers. Never before has this been more relevant, with China’s refusal to accept any more foreign waste forcing us to reconsider our attitudes towards waste creation as a whole. The world could follow a similar model to that used in Canada and Germany where the vast majority of bottles are in similar shapes and sizes, allowing for an effective bottle return scheme. So how can we achieve this?

· Consumer products companies selling refillable products, following Ecover’s market-leading #RefillNotLandfill stations, allowing refill of their cleaning products up to 50 times

· Utilising innovative recycling solutions, such as Banyan Nation’s plastic cleaning technology — a well-deserved winner of The Circulars 2018 People’s Choice award, this Indian market leader is able to convert post-consumer and post-industrial plastic waste into recycled granules comparable in quality and performance to virgin plastic, meaning that we can re-use it time and time again

· Rolling out clear product labels, with UK supermarket Iceland once again leading the way with their ‘Plastic Free’ trust mark, allowing customers to make more environmentally-friendly choices on packaging and reducing demand for single-use plastic

3. And whilst we’re at it, what’s stopping us eliminating plastic waste altogether?

If we know that plastics have so many issues across their lifecycle, couldn’t companies take collective action and eradicate them entirely? You might be thinking “what about the stuff we said in our second blog (Has the ‘war’ on plastic gone too far?) and the benefits of plastic in slowing down food decay?” — well…

· With the likes of It’s Fresh pioneering a filter with an ‘e+ active’ layer, designed to be placed with food to absorb the ethylene hormone that triggers food ripening, the need for plastic to prolong food lifespans is eliminated

· In another innovative example, London-based company Delta has designed a machine that produces and fills sachets which are biodegradable and edible. The compact machines can be used on-site, such as in restaurants and hotels, eliminating the sachet waste problem whilst allowing decentralized scale that is accessible to the masses

· This, combined with a rise in BYOC (Bring Your Own Container) developments, such as UK supermarket Morrisons’ announcement allowing BYOC at their butcher and fishmonger counters, and a trend in reverting back to local produce, reduces the need for extended shelf lives altogether, and cuts the need for plastic food packaging

The next question posed by a world without plastic is: What would happen to all the existing plastic in circulation across the globe? This is where advanced technologies could be used to generate positive externalities whilst disposing of existing plastic. Powerhouse Energy are a great example of this: They operate a highly efficient waste-to-energy system, transforming plastic into useful energy products for industrial use, capturing over 90% of the energy value of waste from instantaneous thermal degradation and transforming it into hydrogen, electricity, syngas and liquid fuels — all this with zero emissions.

Our verdict

So, without further ado, it’s time for our long-awaited verdict. Our exploration of the plastic challenge in our blog series has shown that there is no simple solution. But, if companies follow these three key principles, industries can be transformed away from plastic waste and towards sustainable production and consumption:

1. First of all, eliminate flimsy and low-value single use plastics and replace them with durable materials that are designed for reuse;

2. Ensure that your remaining hard-to-eliminate plastic packaging is 100% easily recyclable by design, considering minimum viable product rules and what is needed to enable wide recyclability — like colour and complexity;

3. Utilise new technologies and transformative solutions that could champion the ‘war’ on waste and accelerate the elimination of plastic waste, such innovations that extend food shelf life or enable local and sustainable packaging production.

If we follow these simple principles, then why couldn’t the world imagined in this blog be possible in the not too distant future?

Written by Sapphire Jones and Zomo S Y Fisher

All thoughts expressed are our own and no reflection of our employer.