The uncontrolled production of plastic bottles and other forms of plastic packaging is seriously harming our planet. 70 per cent of the plastic pollution in our oceans comes from plastic packaging. Plastic is undermining the ocean’s ability to absorb and keep carbon, killing marine creatures, filling seafood with microplastics and making seascapes unsightly. Steps can be made by individuals to reduce the amount of plastic they use, but ultimately concerted government action is needed to address the problem in the UK and abroad. The use of other materials should be explored, with a view to scaling up production, so that plastic packaging footprints are significantly reduced. Tackling the plastic packaging pollution problem with zest will help to address climate change, help nature, improve food quality and potentially recreate the liberty to see seascapes in their awe-inspiring state once again.
Virtually all plastic is made from materials that are derived from fossil fuels (mostly oil and gas). It can only be recycled a few times because the recycling process gives rise to a lower-grade polymer. Approximately, 4 per cent of the world’s petroleum is used to make plastics and another 4 per cent is used during the refining process. The sheer volume of plastic packaging produced today is too much for many waste management systems to deal with. Landfilling stores up a problem for later, and incineration produces greenhouse emissions (although it is better to generate electricity from plastic, rather than extract yet more fossil fuels from the ground). At the same time, allowing plastic to disintegrate in the natural environment gives rise to far more grievous problems.
If plastic gets into the ocean it slowly breaks down releasing greenhouse emissions and producing microplastics. Microplastics contaminate seafood and enter the human body when it is eaten. They also interfere with living organisms, such as phytoplankton and plankton, which cumulatively extract a lot of carbon dioxide from the air, hence, they undermine the ability of our oceans to produce oxygen and transfer carbon to the ocean floor. The oceans are estimated to have absorbed between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution, but this process is being undermined by global warming and microplastics. By turning a blind eye to plastic packaging pollution, businesses, and those governments who rubber stamp their behaviour, are threatening one of our main allies in our fight against climate change.
Plastic packaging isn’t as deadly to sea-dwelling creatures as ghost netting but it is deadly to a wide spectrum of sea-based creatures, from seagulls to sea turtles. For example, sea turtles mistake plastic film for jellyfish, so they eat it which can lead to horrific deaths. Unfortunately, a lot of UK plastic waste is going overseas and littering less developed countries. The UK is a signatory to the UN Basel Convention, which states that plastic waste must be managed in an environmentally sound manner. The UK government should invest more in its underfunded monitoring and enforcement procedures to ensure that it fully complies with its obligations under the convention. At present, opportunistic criminal gangs often export mixed waste abroad so that they can avoid UK landfill charges. Using other materials with better environmental credentials, reusing plastic routinely and recycling more plastic will enable the UK to take full responsibility for its plastic packaging waste.
A deposit return scheme is a recycling system where buyers pay a small fee for drinks containers (e.g. 30 pence) that contains the drink they buy. When the container is returned in person, or via a return machine, the charge for the container is returned. Once collected the containers can be either refilled or recycled. In Germany, which has a well-established deposit return scheme, reusable plastic bottles are refilled and sold up to 30 times, and, similarly, reusable glass bottles are refilled and sold up to 50 times. Deposit return schemes increase recycling rates, help with waste segregation, reduce contamination, decrease litter and kickstart communities to gear up towards establishing a circular economy. The Scottish Government has designed a deposit return scheme which will go live for consumers in August 2023. England, Wales and Northern Ireland should follow suit as quickly as possible.
The Plastic Packaging tax came into force in April of this year. Tax at a rate of £200 per tonne has to be paid by manufacturers of plastic packaging components or importers of plastic packaging components which contain less than 30 per cent recycled plastic. The tax was introduced so that more plastic ends up being recycled and less plastic ends up being incinerated or going to landfill sites. Virtually all plastics can only be recycled a few times, after which it needs to be disposed of, so recycling alone won’t solve the plastic packaging waste problem. More localised trade will reduce the need for packaging, but in the modern world people like to acquire goods from far afield so plastic packaging alternatives should be turned to in order to ease the plastic packaging waste management problem we have.
Good alternatives to plastic packaging are available so they should be used more widely, with a view to scaling up use. Glass is inexpensive and infinitely recyclable. Indeed, it has been suggested that glass will be a star of the net-zero economy because manufacturing glass structures from end-of-life glass is mostly a carbon-free process. Glass bottles could be used instead of plastic bottles and glass jars could be used instead of tubes (where deemed appropriate). Packaging made from mushrooms is biodegradable and can be used instead of polystyrene to fulfil the function of supporting valuable goods during transit. Seaweed-based packaging is a biodegradable form of packaging that could be used more widely to coat cardboard with a protective coat and to create eco-friendly wrappers, bags and sachets.
In March 2022 the 5th session of the UN Environmental Assembly took place in Kenya. At the assembly, 175 countries agreed on a UN framework to counter plastic pollution. The wording of the treaty will be finalised by 2025. Countries will be obligated to reduce, recycle and manage plastic pollution, through national goals and strategies. Negotiations on a global plastic pollution treaty will begin in Uruguay on 28 November. It is expected that the treaty will encourage engagement from regional and international corporations, which is vital as countries in the Global South are struggling to cope with plastic packaging pollution – largely because international companies rarely think of the long-term interests of customers. Restrictions on the amount of plastic produced by signatory countries are likely to be in the final terms of the agreement. This is good news because the interests of humanity and nature should trump vested interests. Ideally, the treaty will include ambitious plans to clear up plastic that has already entered the biosphere.
Resolutely sorting out the plastic packaging waste management problem will enable us to regain the liberty to see natural seascapes and landscapes without significant amounts of plastic, reacquire the liberty to eat food without microplastics and counter climate change. Acting now to improve matters will surely be politically popular with everyone apart from those who are blinkered consumerists or those who cannot stand the wheels of the economy moving a little slower, while a sensible transition is underway. The UK can only be a formidable leader in countering plastic pollution if it is a leader on this issue domestically – inconsistency undermines dignity.
The oceans are one of our greatest allies in our fight against climate change, but plastic packaging pollution is leading to their demise. The problem of plastic pollution is a global problem, so a UN treaty on plastic pollution is a good step forward, but, ultimately, only by making concrete steps domestically can countries address this pressing modern-day issue. Countries should steer away from isolationism, especially on such serious issues as this, and cooperate to counter it in an educated way. England, Wales and Northern Ireland should follow Scotland as it adopts a deposit return scheme, as soon as possible. The plastic packaging tax is a good start, but much more action needs to be taken to create the right sustainable packaging framework, within the UK and abroad