There's no excuse for single-use

(sources: Sky News, BBC, The Guardian, Packaging News, The Independent)

Removing plastic from the oceans is all well and good but we must prevent it getting there in the first place. Put perfectly by Boyan Slat:

"If a cleanup started today, it would be a bit like mopping up the floor while the tap is still running. Prevention is absolutely essential.” (Coco Eco Magazine, 2016)

The biggest issue is the use of single-use plastics since this makes up roughly half of all plastic produced. This include items like straws (see this great post from Elizabeth House on what has been done in JD Wetherspoons to eliminate plastic straws), bags and food packaging. Packaging is the biggest single-use plastic produced so it is here that efforts should be focused.

I recently attended a talk at the House of Lords entitled 'Packaging Design and Resource Efficiency' where speakers from the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN), WRAP and Marks & Spencer addressed the issues on the amount of plastic used in food packaging and gave their views on how to improve the system as to reduce the amount of waste.

I learnt that in the UK 6 of the 10 million tonnes of recycling this year was packaging, but what is the government doing to reduce these single-use plastics?

(source: City AM)

As can be seen from their tweet above, it was announced last month that they are looking to put a tax on them. Previous efforts to curb the use of single-use plastics involve the 5p plastic bag charge across England. This initiative was a huge success and saw an 85% reduction in their use in one year after its announcement in 2015. The gross profit from this levy totalled £52.8 million, with over £29 million being donated to good causes like education and charities. Although that's still over 1 billion plastic bags sold across that one year, so whilst it has significantly reduced the issue, the problem still persists. However, as of August this year, Tesco have scrapped the 5p charge all together, instead imposing a 10p charge on a "Bag for Life" which contains 94% recycled plastic. This could further increase the reduction in use.

In other places in the world, the plastic bag levy has not proved a success. In South Africa, the levy was imposed in 2003 and whilst there was an initial drop in use, there has since been a steady increase. This is due to a 36% drop in the charge price and consumers got used to paying for plastic bags.

A ban on plastic bags was introduced in San Francisco in 2007 (the first US city to do so) because they were concerned about the environmental impact during production. For example in the US alone, 12 million barrels of oil each year are needed to make their plastic bags. It was hoped that San Francisco would pioneer the plastic bag ban for the rest of the US but the major plastic manufacturers crushed these hopes. An association of plastic bag manufacturers who, after hearing of a similar law being proposed in Oakland, formed the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling (CSPBR) and sued Oakland for putting a ban in place. Their argument was:

"[it] could potentially have significant adverse impacts on the environment" (Romer and Foley, 2012) 

They argued paper bags take up more space in landfills than plastic ones. CSPBR won the case. This goes to show how much power these major corporations have over governments.

Using these case studies as proxies, I believe a tax on single-use plastic is pivotal but it will not completely solve the issue and may be met with strong opposition from the manufacturing world. Organisations are currently compiling the evidence on the effects of a single-use plastic tax on the environment which will hopefully be released early next year.