The wide array of plastic cartons, trays and films developed to keep products intact and food safe are often too complex to recycle – with grave environmental consequences.
According to a recent report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, “without fundamental redesign, about 30% of plastic packaging will never be reused or recycled.” And that means ever more plastic into landfill, and into our oceans.
Researchers are working on all kinds of alternatives, including shopping bags made from shrimp shells, which a team from Nottingham University believes could ease pollution of Egypt’s water supply. Everything from milk to mushrooms has been touted as a replacement for conventional plastic’s oil base: Dutch sugar producers, for instance, say increased sugar beet production could feed an emerging bioplastics industry.
But while materials of the future are in development, experts are calling for urgent action on plastic packaging now.
More plastic than fish
“Just 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling globally, one third ends up in the natural environment and if current trends continue, by 2050 our oceans could contain more plastics than fish, by weight,” says Rob Opsomer, lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new plastics economy initiative. “We need to fundamentally rethink the way we produce, use and recover plastics, redesign plastic packaging and adopt common standards.”
Some firms are starting to do that. Consumer goods giant Unilever, whose brands include Dove, Magnum and Surf, has pledged to make all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. At present the company estimates that 70% of its plastic packaging is recyclable.
Part of its strategy is to improve recycling technology. Finding a way to process multi-layered sachets, for example, which are used for fluids and powders, and constitute the largest proportion of non-recyclable plastic packaging, is one priority. The company also plans to redesign some of its packaging.
Until now, Unilever has focused on so-called lightweighting, or reducing the overall amount of plastic used in specific pieces of packaging. By inserting a foamed layer into Dove body wash bottles, for example, it claims to have cut plastic content by 15%.
The company’s record is not entirely positive, however. Last year it was one of several brands criticised by the Recycling Association for failing to use recycling labels consistently.
UK supermarket M&S, like other retailers, uses a lot of plastic packaging. But it now says it plans to develop one recyclable, plastic polymer for use across all its plastic packaging.
“We know there’s an issue with customers being a little confused about what you do with different types of plastic: from the tray with your meat to the light films around vegetables,” says Kevin Vyse, senior packaging technologist and innovation lead. “With plastic, we are giving them a lot of things to do and certain local authorities don’t even want to handle multiple plastics.”
What’s stopping change?
Vyse reckons M&S might be able to switch to a single polymer for all its recyclable plastic within three or four years, but admits that redesign is a challenge.
“Plastic is incredibly valuable in delivering food through supply chains and keeping it fresh,” he says. “The challenge is lightweighting to a point where we might be in danger of creating food waste [...] If you get too light, the plastic will also deteriorate before it gets to the recycling process and you start getting leakage.”
The plastics problem may improve as regulatory pressure grows: last week, as part of its Circular Economy Package, the European Parliament approved a target to recycle at least 70% of waste by 2030.
However, Opsomer cautions that economic constraints are still a major barrier to change. “Black packaging coloured with the carbon black pigment, for example, is often unrecyclable but remains prevalent due to branding and cost reasons,” he says.
His initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, of which Unilever is a partner, seeks to create a coalition of industry players to rethink the future of plastics.
Jenna Jambeck, associate professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia, says cooperation is key. “If industry can collaborate on this,” she says, “there can be economy of scale incentives.”
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