Cromwell Polythene managing director James Lee encourages local authorities not to have a knee jerk reaction to anti-plastic media reports.
Local authorities often have it tough, with a myriad of responsibilities, taking directives from central government and simultaneous trying to reflect the will of their residents (even when their priorities conflict), all while working to constrained budgets and in as sustainable a way as possible.
So what are they to make of the recent commotion about plastic use following the broadcast of the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 and the government’s 25-year environment plan? Is it time to announce bans on plastic in council operations similar to that of supermarket chain Iceland? The frozen food retailer committed to becoming the first major retailer globally to eliminate plastic packaging from all of its own brand products by the end of 2023, just days after the government’s plan was announced.
In short, no. It’s easy to react to a headline and think you’re being sustainable. It can also look good for your public image to be so ‘in tune’ with the issues and the opinions of your customers. Of course, a few positive headlines of your own does no harm either, but maybe I’m being overly cynical.
However, there’s an old saying about ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ (or discharging one debt only to incur another) which is all too often overlooked when considering sustainability. For example, has anyone considered the role plastic plays in preventing food waste? If this type of waste increases then the reduction in packaging won’t have been the sustainability success many see it to be.
We’ve already seen it with the plastic bag tax. The government’s Environmental Audit Committee found that: “The environmental impact of an individual carrier bag reduces if people reuse it many times...some types of bag would need to be reused for shopping many times in order to avoid an emissions impact greater than that of a single-use bag. A reusable cotton bag, for example, would need to be reused over 130 times (equivalent to daily use for over 4 months) to have the same impact as a thin plastic bag used once. This would increase to 393 times if the plastic bag were used three times.”
We need to ensure the whole picture has been looked at before any new bans, taxes or policy changes are implemented in the name of sustainability.
Those working on the environmental/recycling-side of a local authority will know that plastic is highly recyclable when treated properly and can be used to generate energy at the end of its useful life. Crucially they will also know that plastic products are an integral part of the waste management and recycling infrastructure. They stay in the system to the eventual point of disposal, be it recycling, energy from waste, or landfill. Plastic refuse sacks play a vital role alongside plastic kerbside boxes and bins. Alternatives such as glass, metal or cardboard are either impractical, less sustainable or often both.
Before plastics hit the headlines, food waste was considered one of the major sustainability issues of our time. It’s not an issue that we’ve yet solved. In fact, Wrap recently revealed that an estimated 7.3m tonnes of household food waste was thrown away in 2015 – up from 7m tonnes in 2012. If we act impulsively and stop using plastic packaging and other plastic products unnecessarily then the problem will get much, much worse as even more food fails to make it from field to fork.
The problems of ocean plastics which have so grabbed the headlines certainly need tackling, but they come from littering or improperly managed waste. Removing plastic from the waste management process would make the problem worse not better.
http://cromwellpolythene.co.uk/
