Written evidence submitted by A Plastic Planet (PPP0025)

WHO WE ARE

A Plastic Planet is an international campaign organisation with a single aim: to ignite and inspire the world to turn off the plastic tap.

A Plastic Planet was founded in 2017 by Sian Sutherland, co-founder and former CEO of Mio and Mamma Mio and Frederikke Magnussen, co-founder of Being Human.

QUESTION RESPONSES

1. What progress have packaging manufacturers, food producers and retailers made in developing and using alternatives to, and reducing consumers’ use of plastic food and drink packaging?

1. After decades of chronic inaction, the last 24 months have seen a flurry of positive activity from retailers and producers. But there is still an awfully long way to go.

2. Forward-thinking retailers like Iceland have made giant steps forward in addressing their plastic footprint, both vowing to eliminate plastic from their own-brand ranges and adopting A Plastic Planet’s Plastic Free Consumer Trust Mark.

3. We passionately believe there needs to be a much greater uptake of plastic-free materials – from conventional solutions like carton board and aluminium to new compostable biomaterials. Innovative biomaterials made from wood pulp, plant cellulose, food waste, grass, algae and mushrooms can all be made into trays, punnets and clear, flexible films which can be used in packaging.

4. These materials are sustainably sourced at the start of their lives and once composted can be used to create rich, fertile soils.

2. What are the barriers to and opportunities for further innovation?

1. In short, the biggest barrier to progress is the prevailing idea that plastic can be made more sustainable and less harmful. No matter how much money is thrown at achieving this, plastic will almost always end up in the environment, regardless of manufacturers’ dubious claims about recyclability.

2. In addition, the UK’s lack of industrial composting infrastructure acts as an obstacle to seeing innovative plastic-free biomaterials used consistently in food and drink packaging. In the UK we are collecting for processing 765,000 tonnes out of a potential 7.3 million tonnes of household food waste. This is an opportunity to create rich compost to nurture soils that the UK is missing.

3. How do alternatives to plastic perform compared to plastic food and drink packaging?

1. A wealth of plastic-free alternatives to conventional packaging are ready to use today. These materials provide similar levels of protection to food and drink and are just as affordable. Crucially, however, they can easily be handled by nature.

2. Compostable biomaterials represent a superb alternative to plastic. Made from cellulose, they can be used to form biofilms, paper and card packaging which are renewable, versatile, moldable and highly recyclable.

3. Biomaterials made from trees, plants and grass all perform to the same level as plastic, but with the key difference that they are sustainably sourced and can be composted into biomass. A perfect example of a biomaterial is a tomato punnet, which is made from dried leaves and stalks of the tomato plant with recycled cardboard pulp.

4. Are there food and drink products for which it is essential to use plastic, or for which it is more difficult to develop and use alternatives?

1. No. There is no need to wrap something as fleeting as food and drink in something as indestructible and long-lasting as plastic. Approximately 40 percent of plastic is used for packaging which we believe, given the host of readily available alternatives, is the wrong use of the material. We cannot continue to use plastic in food and drink packaging if we are to tackle the crisis head on.

2. We do not believe in demonising plastic however and note that plastics have completely legitimate applications in fields like healthcare.

5. What impact will the following two Government proposals have on reducing plastic food and drink packaging?
1. An extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging to ensure the costs of collection and recycling are borne by those that produce packaging and place it on the market, and

2. A tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic, to encourage manufacturers to produce more sustainable packaging and create greater demand for recycled material?

3. We are concerned that an extended producer responsibility scheme and plastic tax will see the cost of collection and recycling filter down to consumers from producers. It is not the sole solution.

4. But if a tax is to be introduced we believe an all-encompassing approach with a tax which tackles all plastic, rather than applying to materials below a 30 per cent threshold for recycled content, should be introduced.

5. The UK is facing mounting pressure on its recycling infrastructure due to the volume of discarded single-use plastics. As a result the UK now exports two-thirds of its plastic waste separated for recycling abroad to alleviate the strain it is under. The majority of this waste is sent to countries in the developing world who have high rates of plastic waste mismanagement, resulting in it being dumped in landfill or incinerated. Some 105,000 tonnes of UK plastic waste was imported by Malaysia alone in 2017-18, for example.

6. Instead of placing the onus on recycling, we should look to create an industrial composting infrastructure which can process innovative compostable materials. By taxing all plastic, as opposed to setting an arbitrary threshold on virgin/recycled content, we can steer market demand towards these materials which can be recycled in the organic bio-cycle. Revenues raised from the tax should be invested in creating infrastructure which allows for the processing of these materials.

7. Companies which choose to use alternatives to single-use plastics should be rewarded with tax relief. Supermarkets can be a testbed for a range of new materials such as Plastic Free Aisles and zones. We passionately believe that positive incentives rather than punitive regulations act as the most powerful levers for change.

6. Is there adequate research and development funding and support for alternatives to plastic food and drink packaging?

1. No. Hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on making the impact of plastic pollution less negative, with very little being channelled to fund the mainstream use of alternatives which are readily available. Recycling is too often touted as the solution to the plastic crisis and is used to excuse our continued use of plastic packaging.

2. Revenues raised through taxation should be put to use developing the UK’s industrial composting infrastructure. In addition, we need sustained Government investment in infrastructure for materials that are highly recyclable and can easily be kept in the economy and outside of the environment.

May 2019