I met up with an old, Totnesian, friend from back in the day, now Associate (soon to be Full – hurray hurray) Professor in Arts and Sustainability at the University of Portsmouth. She’s also deputy director of the Revolution Plastics Institute at the university and, recently, much of her time has been taken up by the long awaited and still not here, Global Plastics Treaty – apparently set to ‘cover the entire life cycle of plastics, from production to waste management and seen as a crucial step in combating the global plastic crisis’. That’s what Google AI told me anyway. So, in the year BP8 (eight years on from Blue Planet II), maybe, just maybe, we might have some sort of blueprint for sustainable, ongoing, use of plastics. I say maybe because, as usual, getting everyone on board isn’t that simple. Primary producers (ie oil producing nations) won’t accept the obvious – that there needs to be some limit on the amount of virgin plastic produced. Not surprisingly, the USA under Trump has moved from being a ‘high ambition’ nation to the blocker camp and as we’re finding out; what ‘the Donald’ wants, ‘the Donald’ gets or he throws his toys out of the pram and refuses to play anymore. And he does love his plastic straws.
If the price of virgin plastic doesn’t go up there’s no incentive to commit to using less – or more recycled. I’m sure you’ve all heard the stories of clothing, sunglasses, etc supposedly made from recycled plastic. Apparently, more often than not, it’s easier and cheaper to buy container loads of unused plastic water bottles so, technically, it’s recycled but also virgin, unused plastic. That’s some sweet spot!
I’m not sure what the Global Plastics Treaty will have to say about the whole world of food packaging ‘coatings’ (PFAS, forever chemicals). As one of our customers emailed me; they could be the next asbestosis just waiting to happen.
Anyway, potential progress at least but viewed in isolation, pretty useless. It was a warm day and Cressida, for that was her name (the professor not the customer) produced a bottle of apple juice (ours of course) and suggested that glass was a better option. I mentioned BP2 because it was the clip of the whale with her dying calf that, I suspect, really kick started the Global Plastics Treaty. If we were to swap all single use plastic for glass we’d run out of sand and the carbon emissions would probably be so high that that baby whale would be dead from heat stroke.
Unless you’re in the business, you probably wouldn’t know, but the government has just slapped a £250 a tonne tax on all new glass – apparently to pay for curb side collections for recycling. I’m struggling to see what was wrong with the old, now extinct, bottle banks but it’s going to add about 20p to a bottle of BFS apple juice. I don’t think anyone has a clue how it’s going to work but I, for one, am dubious about the benefits of recycling glass. It’s always better to recycle virgin materials but, given unavoidable carbon emission of both producing and recycling glass, other options might be better. Washing out and refilling, for example, but judging from our trials, there seems to be some sort of innate resistance to that degree of being told what to do.
Growth, growth and more growth might bring in more taxes but, with the way in which the powers that be are going about it, it feels inevitable that an unwanted consequence is going to be more plastic and glass packaging and rubbish. I just can’t see a global plastics treaty or glass tax stopping white van man from chucking his garage forecourt bought Red Bull can, sandwich wrappers and crisp packets out of the window. They also seem to consume an alarming amount of aspirin and paracetamol.
The bottom line is that there are too many of us, all consuming, or aspiring to consume, too many consumables. I can’t see them bringing in compulsory euthanasia for anyone whose surname doesn’t begin with ‘W’ so we just have to learn to consume less and reuse more. Isn’t it about time that the ‘powers that be’ actually acknowledged it rather than continue with this Gaza-esque (if you’ll excuse the analogy) denial of where we actually are.
For more information on the gargantuan problem, and possible solution the Global Plastic Treaty is trying to solve have a look at the Global Plastic Policies Centre.