Acting on plastic: what your company can do today

The food and beverage sector uses more single use plastic than any other industry

Plastic has long been the world's favourite packaging material. Lightweight, flexible and inexpensive, plastic promotes shelf life and emits less CO2 than typical alternatives during production.

However, despite the widespread usability of plastic, its environmental impact is highly problematic

Policymakers in the EU and other parts of the world are busy developing policies to combat the ever-increasing amount of plastic waste generated and leaked into the environment. Despite this, plastic waste management costs are still not borne by the brands creating the waste. While plastic remains a cheap packaging material, there is a serious lack of funding available to build and scale the necessary global recycling infrastructure. The problem is not plastic so much as its management: our current system does not adequately account for plastic's recovery.

Mismanaged plastic waste often ends up in the ocean where it endangers nature and wildlife

We need real action – and a holistic approach

Recycling alone won't do the trick: while recycling is a fundamental stepping stone towards solving the plastic crisis, recycled plastic is often not suitable for its original use. Food safety legislation, for example, requires high-quality, food-grade plastic – a standard that recycled plastic often does not fulfil.

Plastic is not infinitely recyclable since the material becomes toxic after a limited number of cycles. The main material that currently meets regulations on food-grade recycled content is recycled PET which is made out of returnable bottles, often through a deposit return scheme (DRS). This is possible since the DRS systems allow the plastic to be collected separately in a concentrated stream, then crushed, cleaned and processed into new, high-quality packaging. The infrastructure that would enable other plastic types to become fully circular is simply not available in most parts of the world.

The risks and negative impacts associated with plastic are powerful incentives for taking a
holistic approach, including using less plastic packaging and recycled materials in those plastics that are necessary.

What can companies do?

Industries need to (re)design their products so they are fit for the systems in which they operate. To reduce and improve plastic packaging, businesses need to create a strategy with measurable goals at a company level. They need to review their packaging on a case-by-case basis and be able to justify their choice of packaging both to their customers and health-and-safety regulators.

No single solution is up to the task of solving the plastic problem by itself. A combination of interlinked actions is required:

Reduce the total amount of plastic packaging

Reduce the total amount of plastic packaging by eliminating packaging components or lightweighting your packaging.

• Identify non-mandatory packaging components.
• Critically rethink your product delivery: does it need packaging? Could it be delivered another way by removing the packaging altogether?
• For unavoidable packaging, make sure it is as lightweight as possible.
• Substitute plastic with other materials where possible
• Instead of plastic, see whether the more-likely-to-be-recycled and sometimes compostable materials glass, paper or metal can be used instead.
• Understand the overall impact of this switch and find the right balance: while glass, paper and metal are usually more recyclable and cause less leakage, they often have higher CO2 emissions.

Use only recyclable materials

Use only recyclable materials in your packaging – and understand its actual fate at its end-of-life.

• Companies should design their packaging in such a way that it supports the recycling conditions in their end-of-life markets. Do not just consider the theoretical ability to recycle.
• Switch from multi- to mono-material and recyclable packaging. When different plastics or even materials are mixed together in one package, this makes it difficult or impossible to sort it into homogenous streams. This means the packaging is landfilled or incinerated, if not dumped directly into the environment.

Use maximum recycled content

Use maximum recycled content in your operations as well as in your packaging.

• Using as much recycled content as possible increases market demand, which in turn accelerates the development of recycling infrastructure, reducing pressure on the environment.
• Using recycled plastic decreases the overall CO2 balance of your product and decouples your costs from ever-increasing virgin prices, which fluctuate with oil prices, making you less dependent on primary plastic producers.
• Contribute to the development of sustainable practices, for instance by supporting policies such as deposit return schemes in the markets where you operate.

Switch from single-use to reusable packaging.

• Truly circular solutions are reusable. Take an honest look at your products and business model and invest in refillable and reusable packaging wherever possible.

Refill and reusable packaging options are becoming more widely available – the only truly circular solution

Use bio-based and/or biodegradable plastics

Use bio-based and/or biodegradable plastics, but beware of greenwashing!

• New innovations such as bio-based and biodegradable plastics are appealing but can bring new challenges. Ask yourself: “Can the plastic be degraded and composted in practice, in the environment that they will end up in?" and only use it if you are also investing in the management of its waste after usage.
• While bio-based plastics are not based on fossil-fuels but biomass (e.g. from wood, sugar) and sound sustainable to the consumer, they do not solve the recycling problem – sometimes, they even confuse consumers and recyclers on how to handle them correctly. The same is true of biodegradable plastic that might motivate consumers to litter while the degrading process often can actually only happen in very controlled conditions. In most cases, the infrastructure to compost or biodegrade such innovative plastics is not yet widely available.

Taking action in the meantime

Plastic won't disappear anytime soon – avoiding plastics altogether is unlikely. Even after taking the measures outlined above, a small amount of plastics will probably remain and become waste.

What you can do despite this is
invest in plastic collection and recycling projects: through so-called "plastic credits", companies can support environmental clean-up and build the infrastructure for the waste they put into the environment. By doing this, funds are moved to where they are needed most while companies can claim "zero waste to nature" or "all plastics repurposed". More on this concept here.

You can also
invest in educating your consumers about the right way to recycle, and motivate them to sort their waste correctly. Use marketing channels and product packaging to do this: ensure the recycling process is smooth and that the recycled content feedstock is high quality.

Finally, it is important to
build accountability inside and outside your company. Disclose your material footprint yearly and report on your progress publicly in your annual statement and on other reporting channels. Joining global initiatives, such as the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, can help you stay on top of your plastics mission and communicate this mission to the public. There are a lot of other regional initiatives to look at, for instance the Plastics Pact which is in numerous countries.

The plastic crisis affects both the planet and its people. What is needed are circular solutions and a holistic approach. By taking a stand as a contributor to the plastic problem – scrutinising your operations, product packaging and the actual end-of-life fate of your plastics – your company can make a difference while saving costs, improving your consumer relationships and building customer loyalty.