Moving away from plastic is a necessity, and both the public and private sectors are taking active steps towards the reduction of plastic production and distribution. However, for an effective, long-lasting impact and to avoid the unintended consequences of plastic-free policies, efforts need to happen across all sectors.
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Plastic: A Global Issue
Plastic, single-use plastic, recyclable plastic, bioplastic, biodegradable plastic… You have surely come across one of these materials on your way to work this morning, whilst buying your take-away on your lunch break, or during your daily grocery run. Or maybe you are actively trying to reduce your plastic consumption and have managed to avoid all these plastic temptations.
Whilst plastic has changed a good deal the way we pack, transport, and use food and other commodities, it is now at the centre of many conversations around environmental pollution and our global waste crisis.
The product is toxic, in every sense of the word. It is estimated that humans could be ingesting the equivalent of a credit card’s worth of plastic each week. Besides having detrimental effects on humans, plastic also directly impacts our planets’ health, with about 8.4 million tonnes of plastic waste polluting the oceans each year. Marine wildlife is one of the main victims of such pollution, with approximately 200 species of marine animals likely to ingest plastic in their life, and about 17% of them listed as endangered. Additionally, plastic production uses up huge amounts of energy and water.
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The negative impacts of our plastic economy have been widely reported and accepted, and plastic is now being targeted in many policies aimed at reducing its production and usage as well as finding more sustainable alternatives. Yet, in a society that has developed a dependent relationship with this “sacred” material, the efforts required to get away from it need to be multiplied.
The overwhelming amount of plastic generation significantly contributes to our global overwhelming waste production. Some of the most littered products worldwide are drinking bottles, carrier bags, and food wrappers, all of which can be found at your local grocery shop.
Plastic-Free Policies
To tackle the plastic crisis, many policies and regulations have been put in place to reduce its production and consumption.
In 2019, the European Commission set out a target to make all plastic packaging reusable, recycled, or sold in a cost-effectively way by 2030. Many countries today have bans on carrier bags used. France, India, and Madagascar, for example, are banning the use of plastic carrier bags, while countries such as the UK, China, and Colombia are imposing a price on their use, to reduce overall consumption rates.
Moreover, in response to consumer concerns, retailers as well as individual brands are trying to reduce their plastic packaging and present themselves as environmentally conscious.
Alternative plastics, such as bio-based plastic – or biodegradable plastic – which are compostable or degrade safely in the environment, are being introduced as new packaging methods. Some prefer to switch to paper, or other recyclable materials. Some decide to remove packaging altogether, whenever possible.
Yet to what extent are these plastic regulations effective? And what are the possible negative impacts of the alternative solutions to plastic? The plastic problem is more complex than it seems.
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Environmental Assessment of Alternative Packaging Materials
It can be easy to accept any alternative as being a better option to plastic. After all, plastic is the harmful material targeted by policies, thus the more we reduce it, the better. Yet making the best socio-environmental decisions requires a more nuanced understanding of plastic alternatives.
For instance, paper bags have been found to require four times the amount of energy needed to produce a plastic bag. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions might thus be more significant for their production, increasing the overall carbon footprint of the product. However, the footprint decreases if the paper is recycled. This goes to show that the overall emissions of a product depend on many factors throughout its lifecycle.
Considering all the aspects of a material lifespan to calculate its footprint is known as to the life-cycle analysis (LCA), which allows to measure the environmental impact related to the full supply chain of a product, including raw material acquisition, production, energy usage, transport, end-use. This type of analysis – which also takes the social health impact of these stages into account – is crucial when rethinking our plastic economy.
For instance, given the current limited support and regulatory framework on how to move away from plastic, decisions taken by private actors might be uncoordinated, risky, and end up creating more harm than good.
Grocery retailers have voiced their concerns and mentioned that they were aware that, by switching from plastic to non-plastic materials, they might add up to their carbon footprint. These trade-offs must be considered to find the best alternative possible. Moreover, greenwashing can also affect the plastic-free movement. Retailers will be more concerned by their ability to say they reduced plastic, without double thinking the strategy they take to move away from it. This can be to decisions producing other harmful environmental and social impacts, and thus cancelling all the benefits made by reducing plastic in the first place.
Shaping Consumer Behaviour
Another crucial element to consider when adopting a plastic-free strategy is the response to consumers to alternative packaging methods. Indeed, transitions need all stakeholders to be involved in order to be successful. For instance, whilst providing paper bags rather than plastic bags is a common option, such a solution will only have a positive impact if consumers actively participate in recycling. Effective communication around plastic and waste-free behaviour should thus be used to effectively reduce consumption and promote circular waste practices.
A study reported that, whilst consumers were highly concerned about plastic consumption and willing for the system to change, only 23% affirmed that plastic packaging would be a barrier to buying a product. Indeed, despite consumers’ interest in and awareness of the issue, price and quality are often higher priorities when choosing their groceries. Efforts by policies and retailers should thus provide the best alternative solution considering both consumers’ willingness to change and their conflicting priorities.
Moreover, miscommunication over plastic-free alternatives can lead to a lack of understanding by consumers on how to behave with different materials. A 2020 report affirmed that retailers were concerned that “compostable” plastic might be treated by consumers as normal plastic, or discarded as general waste, potentially ending up harming the environment more than reducing its impact.
Whilst an important goal is to move away from plastic, an even more important one is to reduce our overall global consumption and waste behaviours. Thus, a more important message to consumers, perhaps, is to reuse packaging and bags and take additional care when storing fresh products, to extend their product storage life.
Alternatively, increasing packaging-free behaviour is one of the most effective ways to prevent waste and plastic use. This can be done by increasing access to refill methods and packaging-free shops. In the Philippines, for example, 60% of supermarkets had refill stations in 2019. These types of initiatives can nudge consumers to make more sustainable decisions.
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The Issue of Bio-Based and Biodegradable Plastics
The word “bio” is attractive, it sounds environmentally friendly, and immediately makes us feel better about our purchase. But do we truly understand its meaning?
Bioplastic, also called bio-based plastic, is a plastic produced using renewable plant-based sources such as lignin, oils, starch, and cellulose, contrary to traditional plastic, which is made from fossil fuels. Bioplastic differs from “biodegradable plastic” or “compostable plastics”, which refer to plastics made of molecules having the capacity to break down naturally, like decomposition.
Similar terms for significantly different materials can make it confusing for consumers to differentiate and can also lead to a mismanagement of waste due to a lack of knowledge on how to deal with alternative materials. Consumers aside, even scientists are still lacking some understanding on these new materials. For instance, biodegradable plastics can often take many years to decompose and require specific waste treatment conditions, which are necessary to release their biodegradable abilities. A recent study revealed that if biodegradable plastic was thrown away in the environment, it could end up being as harmful to the environment as normal plastic.
Additionally, current low demand for these plastics, high costs, and the waste treatment requirements needed to manufacture them disencourage large-scale usage. These issues also highlight the current gap in knowledge on how to remove traditional plastic from packaging, and the need for new adaptive waste management methods.
More on the topic: Can We Rely on Bioplastics to Save the Planet?
Food Waste and Conservation of Food in a Non-Plastic World
When discussing food and packaging, one last important factor to consider is the potential change in food waste rates in response to alternative packaging methods.
Indeed, one of the functions of plastic packaging for food products is to extend their shelf life and prolong the freshness. Indeed, plastic acts as a barrier to oxygen and air moisture, preventing food contamination by biological bodies found in the environment. By optimising product quality and usability, plastic can contribute to a reduction in household food waste. This is why removing it needs to be coupled with adaptive behaviour change by consumers and increased awareness on food waste.
Whilst food can be safely and adequately stored without plastic, this requires an understanding of food storage, notably for consumers who have been used to this type of packaging for a long time and are not aware of how to properly store food otherwise.
Ways Forward Towards a Non-Plastic World
One of the main issues to tackle according to retailers is the lack of common practices or methodology to tackle with plastic-free strategies. This lack of coordination and guidance might be at the heart of the problem. Thus, future actions should not only focus on removing plastic from grocery stores but on creating an effective system where consumers, waste management systems, governance and private companies are all synchronised to minimise plastic use and waste. Additionally, emphasis should be put on consumer awareness, promoting behavioural change.
Moving away from plastic is a necessity, and both the public and private sectors are taking active steps towards the reduction of plastic production and distribution. However, for an effective, long-lasting impact and to avoid the unintended consequences of plastic-free policies, efforts need to happen across all sectors.
A plastic-free world is possible, and slowly, efforts are being gathered to tackle the plastic crisis. Yet plastic is not the only enemy, and all environmental and social impacts need to be accounted for.
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