Plastic bags
To be offered a plastic shopping bag free-of-charge a few years ago in England was a given. This all changed in October 2015, however, when a 5p charge per bag was introduced. Official figures from last July show the levy is working - the number of single-use plastic bags used by shoppers went down by 85%. Now, a trial at three Tesco stores in Aberdeen, Norwich and Dundee is removing the option to buy a 5p bag completely. Only more durable, 10p bags will be available. If successful, the scheme could be rolled out to other stores.
Straws
By 2050, there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish. Straws are among the small bits of plastic that often find their way into waterways. Campaigns to reduce straw consumption are emerging, for example UK pub chain Oakman Inns has stopped offering straws automatically, instead only giving them out when specifically requested. Other companies are producing straws from alternative materials such as glass, paper or, in strawfree.org’s case, bamboo. Strawfree.org founder Diana Lofflin says they harvest the bamboo from homeowners in California who have an excess supply on their properties.
Tubes and packets
Thin, aluminium coated plastic often used for cat food pouches and toothpaste tubes is hard to recycle and normally chucked in the bin. But two new studies suggest that much of this material can be recycled. One of the studies, entitled REFLEX and conducted by consultants Axion in partnership with Suez and companies such as Unilever and Dow, concluded that two new bespoke centres could handle all of the UK’s flexible plastic packaging – and make a profit. A successor initiative, CEFLEX, comprising a consortium of companies including brands, raw materials producers, and packaging and recycling companies, has now launched and aims to facilitate the development of recycling infrastructure for flexible packaging across Europe by 2025.
Sachets
Single use plastic sachets, made from a type of flexible laminated packaging and containing small amounts of product such as conditioner or toothpaste, are popular in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines. For low-income consumers sachets are often convenient and affordable. Without a viable method to recycle them, however, these small packets present a waste nightmare, often ending up as litter or sent to landfill. In 2014 Unilever experimented with turning used sachets into bricks in the Philippines and now has unveiled a new recycling technology which it’s piloting in Indonesia. It will work with local waste pickers, retailers and government to recover the sachets and turn them into new ones.
Black plastic
Many materials sorting facilities in the UK cannot effectively sort out black plastics – often used in food packaging – because the pigment used in them, carbon black, is not identifiable by their infrared sensors. Plastics and resource consultancy Nextek has come up with a new pigment to replace carbon black and has trialled it at a plastics recycling facility in Rochester, Kent. Edward Kosior, managing director of Nextek, says a lot of work has been going on to bring the use of these new pigments into the marketplace with supermarkets such as Tesco, the Co-op and Marks and Spencer expressing interest.
Microplastics
Microbeads found in cosmetics such as toothpastes and facial scrubs measure less than 0.5 millimetres wide and can make their way into waterways, harming marine life. The proposed UK ban on the sale of cosmetic products with microbeads in them won’t happen until July 2018.
In the meantime, scientists from the University of Bath have developed a process to produce biodegradable microbeads made from cellulose which they hope in future could replace those made from plastic. There are also lots of scrubs and product lines available now which do not contain microbeads or any type of microplastic. Fauna and Flora International’s Good Scrub guide is a helpful resource as is the Beat the Microbead app, which you can use to scan barcodes. Some facial scrubs free of microplastics include Boots’ Botanics all bright purifying facial scrub, Burt’s Bees citrus facial scrub and Lush’s angels on bare skin.
Content on this page is paid for and produced to a brief agreed by Suez, sponsor of the circular economy hub
