Degradable alternatives

This year will be remembered for the convergence of two pressing issues: the credit crunch and resulting global recession, and the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of global warming. While a pessimist might look at the world economy and wring his hands over the unhappy timing of these two events, an optimist would see an opportunity amid all the doom and gloom.

For the plastics packaging industry there has always been a silver lining to the grey cloud of economic downturn: polyethylene, in recessionary times, is a more cost effective method of packaging products, and certainly a cheaper alternative to metals or paper.

Environmentally, too, plastics has a significant advantage over other materials in that the production of PE releases less CO2 into the atmosphere than the production of metal or paper.

Now, though, plastics manufacturers have an extra string to their bow. The latest generation of degradable PE products means retailers and producers can have their cake and eat it because degradable PE is a flexible, low cost packaging solution that also meets an environmental need at a time when all businesses are reassessing their impact on the planet and its resources.

Ironically, the credit crunch and the subsequent economic downturn could give an unexpected boost to the take-up of biodegradable plastics for packaging, as firms all over the world begin to look at how to do things differently.

Even if you disregard the environmental benefits of a PE product, which degrades harmlessly in landfill within 12-18 months, there is still a pure economic argument in favour of bioplastics.

Paper bags are not as eco-friendly as many people think, either. The effects of logging, the extensive use of clean water and the chemical processes required to produce and recycle paper are often overlooked by environmentalists.

By contrast, the production of plastics is efficient and uses comparatively little energy, and it is easily and efficiently recycled. If it were to be replaced in its uses by other materials, rubbish weight would increase by 150 per cent, packaging would weigh 300 per cent more and energy consumed by the packaging industry would increase by 100 per cent.

While I applaud all attempts to increase recycling of both plastics and paper, recycling alone can never be the complete answer to the growing landfill crisis. Householders are faced with a perennial problem when recycling: which kind of plastics can I recycle and which kind will the council refuse to take away?

Plastics bottles, shrinkwrap, plastics containers for vegetables, yoghurt pots… all are made from different kinds of plastics and there is no consistency across the UK in what can or cannot be recycled by any particular local authority. Consumers are unclear about the difference between one type of plastics and another, and at present there is no clear labelling scheme to help them.

While steps have been taken in recent years to increase the amount of PE being recycled through various schemes, there is still no co-ordinated UK recycling scheme in place for LDPE and HDPE for UK households. Training the general public to learn how to separate LDPE, HDPE, PP and all the others into different recycling streams is a monumental task, and most probably an impossible one.

A universal domestic PE recycling scheme would be very complex, and for this reason it is unlikely ever to happen. So while recycling can offer some environmental benefits and should be strongly encouraged, it is not of itself a complete solution.

To effectively diminish the amount of waste left in landfill, we must embrace degradables as a low cost solution. Degradable PE products such as Biothene are an economical and environmentally responsible alternative which can complement the global effort to recycle more.

More and more consumers are turning away from single-use disposable carrier bags and towards alternatives such as paper bags because they are incorrectly considered to be kinder to the environment.

A better alternative would be bags made from degradable PE. Sales of Biothene increased by 250 per cent last year as customers, mindful of cost savings during the recession, switched from heavy paper bags to lighter, more economical degradable plastics bags.

Food retailers, too, are seeing the benefits of switching to greener packaging. Research shows that, given the option, consumers prefer to buy products if they come in minimal packaging that’s environmentally friendly.

We cannot give up plastics overnight; nor can we ever hope to recycle 100 per cent of the plastics and paper we use. But what we can do is embrace new technologies, which ensures that PE products no longer remain in the environment for hundreds of years.

Jayson Clark is a director of the CFN Packaging Group