Recent research entitled ‘Plastic promises: what the grocery sector is really doing about plastic packaging’ by the UK-based Circular Economy Task Force, has attracted comment from a number of environmental and media organisations agreeing with much of the report’s content.
The gist of this is that current genuine public concern about the way plastic packaging is being disposed of, has led to a mis-informed knee-jerk reaction. In the absence of government direction based on proper understanding of the issues, disjointed and potentially counterproductive ‘alternative solutions’ are being put in place. The report warns that these could actually lead to higher carbon emissions and lower packaging recyclability.
Hallelujah! People are starting to wake up to the fact that plastics are not the real issue. It’s the way they are being mis-used and carelessly disposed of that is causing the problem. Simply replacing plastics with other materials will in many cases not solve anything – and could in fact lead to greater environmental problems.
Check out this article on the Foodnavigator website.
…and here’s a link to a previous blog of ours, discussing the environmental benefits of plastics.