Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution - Arhive

We are currently in a race against time to solve the crisis of plastic pollution.

Increasingly we’re learning that our natural world is quite literally drowning in a sea of the throwaway packaging for things we consume every day.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

This ubiquitous man-made material is now being found in some of the most remote places on earth, where humans rarely venture. At the depths of our deepest oceans, in Antarctica, in rainwater, in the air we breathe.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

In response, we are now also witnessing a tide of public concern, following widespread media coverage and dedicated television programs, such as David Attenborough’s Blue Planet series.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

Slowly but surely, governments around the world are responding to this concern with bans and new policies and support, to regulate how companies package their products and to help change consumer behaviour.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

Some industry voices have suggested bioplastics are the answer to the crisis, with reports of leading consumer companies urgently researching polymers from bio-based or plant-based sources as a way to package their products in a less environmentally damaging way.

While bioplastics may play a role, simply swapping petroleum-based plastics for bioplastics is a dangerous conclusion for the planet.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

Firstly, how do we define this new material?

Bioplastics is a catch-all term for a range of polymers derived from bio-based sources. However, the name itself is contentious given concerns that it can mislead people into thinking it is always environmentally friendly.

Bioplastics can be made from a range of biomass sources, including plants and vegetables, as well as agricultural by-products, from sugar derivatives including starch, cellulose and lactic acid.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

Some are more environmentally friendly than others, when you consider the different metrics for ‘green-ness’. Some still require petroleum in their manufacture and there are concerns from environmentalists regarding deforestation if all plastics were to be replaced with plastics made from trees.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

But where it really starts getting messy is when we consider bioplastics as waste.

Some can be recycled, some cannot. Some bioplastics fully degrade while others only degrade into small fragments. Some can biodegrade but at different rates – some claim to be compostable but only in an industrial composting unit.

If product packaging made from bioplastics is marketed as being biodegradable and then put into the council compost by a well-meaning consumer, the compost is contaminated.

Many bioplastics would also contaminate council-collected plastic recycling batches, which would quite often result in more landfill being created.

Some bioplastics are designed to break down in the ocean but not soil and vice versa. So what will happen when plastics that are biodegradable under one situation escape to other environments where they do not biodegrade?Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

The risk here is more microplastic to be released into the environment.

This is not an argument for the status quo. On the contrary, petroleum-based plastic has, while delivering many efficiencies and advantages to modern life, created an environmental catastrophe.

Plastic makes up 85 per cent of the litter on European beaches, and half of this is ‘single-use plastic’ that is used only once for a short time.

Of course, it would be impossible to rid the planet of all single-use plastic items. In some cases, especially in the medical field, even single use plastics are vital to keep things sanitary and safe.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

However, the vast majority of these items are not those littering the world’s beaches. Surely, the solution is not to swap a throwaway plastic item with a throwaway bioplastic one.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

Take the plastic shopping bag as an example.

Following raging public debate about the number of bags washing up beaches around the world – permanent reminders of a shopping trip that may have only taken minutes to complete – some bioplastics companies made a fuss about how they could replace plastic shopping bags with bioplastic ones and try to limit the waste.

Meanwhile governments around the world have moved to ban them or tax them to change consumer behaviour. And change they did. In Britain plastic bag usage dropped by 85 per cent since a 5p charge was introduced.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

Faced with an extra cost, people brought their own.

If we had listened to those bioplastic companies, it would just be bioplastic bags washing up on our beaches instead.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

The point of externalities is an important one to make.

The current business model for many companies is to sell their products, with little or no concern for where their product packaging ends up. Their profits are based on selling these products but with society and the natural world bearing the cost for the disposal of their waste.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

To fix the plastic crisis, we can’t rely on technological fixes alone. Instead, we will need strong regulation and increased behavioural change.

You can only really expect behavioural change when people have another option, but currently most people have no other option. Plastic-free options must be affordable and available for all.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

Supported by strong public policy and have concerted efforts to end the use of unnecessary products.Waste concerned bioplastics plastics crisis plastic pollution  

We need to rethink how we use materials in our daily lives and start valuing the resources that go into them. The old maxim promoting the need to reduce first, re-use second, and recycle third has never been more apt.

Tatiana Lujan is a wildlife lawyer at ClientEarth

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