More Plastic Than Fish – Industry group pledges $1B to end plastic waste
Welcome to this week’s More Plastic Than Fish sustainable packaging update from ThePackHub.
2019 promises to be another busy year for the sustainable packaging industry and we have some interesting news articles selected for you to start the year. There is news of a moth that can consume plastic as well as an alternative view on the growth of paper straws. We hope you enjoy.
Share your thoughts in our More Plastic Than Fish Facebook group.
Keep up to date on the latest sustainable packaging news here. We hope you enjoy.
Stay up to date with the latest sustainable packaging news by subscribing to our More Plastic Than Fish blog.
You can click here to subscribe.
#1 Industry group pledges $1B to end plastic waste
The new Alliance to End Plastic Waste already has a $1 billion commitment from alliance members and wants to up that total to $1.5 billion to work on the problem during the next five years.
#2 Three in 10 Britons admit to throwing away plastic to make life easier, study claims
Britons admit to ignoring environmental concerns to make their lives easier, a study has found.
A poll of 2,000 adults found that although 87 per cent agree with the importance of being green, more than half believe it is often ‘inconvenient’.
Meanwhile, three in 10 admit they throw away plastic food containers instead of washing and reusing or recycling.
Marks & Spencer (M&S) has begun trialling dozens of plastic-free fruit and vegetable lines without ‘best-before’ date stickers, in a bid to reduce consumer packaging and food waste outputs.
#4 The UK will burn more than half its rubbish as it doubles the number of incinerators over next 10 years
The UK faces a wave of protests as the number of incinerators used to burn rubbish is set to more than double within a decade. The waste incineration boom will increase air pollution, exacerbate climate change and threaten much-needed recycling, opponents claim. The 44 waste incinerators across the UK burned 10.9 million tonnes of rubbish last year, much of it in England, where it accounted for 42 per cent of rubbish disposal.
#5 The Future Of Plastic Lies In Its Reinvention As Bioplastics
The amount of plastic we produce to package consumer goods, especially fast moving consumer goods — packaged foods, beverages, toiletries — has reached an unprecedented level. We are draining our planet to produce these packages: plastics are made from fossil fuels and 8% of the worlds annual petroleum production is converted into making plastics.
Sustainable Packaging Innovations from the Innovation Zone
Recyclable milk cap uses 13% less plastic
More info: Innovation Zone
Cardboard beverage bottle is completely recyclable
More info: Innovation Zone
100% compostable and recyclable sandwich pack reduces shopper confusion
More info: Innovation Zone
Recycled plastic tube makes market debut
More info: Innovation Zone
More information on these and over 2,900 other packaging innovations at ThePackHub Innovation Zone.
ThePackHub is collaborating with PIQET, a global business tool to assess packaging’s environmental impact. PIQET is a streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool designed to assess the environmental impacts and resource consumption profiles of different packaging options. Designed to be intuitive and easy to use, using PIQET, a complete assessment can be undertaken in less than 30 minutes.
Contact us to find out more.
Please visit ThePackHub website to find out more about the range of packaging innovation services we offer. We’ve delivered projects for a number of brand owner, retailer and packaging suppliers.
Until next time. We hope you have enjoyed this sustainable packaging update.
Denver, Colorado headquartered sustainable hemp-based packaging firm Sana Packaging has established a partnership with Los Angeles based Oceanworks to introduce a new line of reclaimed ocean plastic cannabis packaging. Oceanworks aims to clean oceans by removing plastic waste and collects the materials for brands and packaging converters to use. Their initiatives so far help capture around two million tonnes of ocean plastic. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Economic Forum have warned that there will be more waste plastic in the sea than fish by 2050. The new product line is made using 100% plant-based and chemical-free hemp plastic.
Country: Poland
Scientists from Tel Aviv University are working on a new bio-plastic derived from marine microorganisms in an attempt to reduce the environmental impact of biodegradable plastics. The new process does not rely on fertile soil and fresh water to grow the plant matter, which is in short supply in many parts of the world. This also puts demands on farming capacity that needs to be used to grow food crops. Researchers from Tel Aviv University have been developing a sea lettuce algae called Ulva lactuca to help create a new bio-material. It is cultivated in the sea, and then fed to single-celled Haloferax mediterranei microorganisms, which excrete a PHA bioplastic polymer. This can then be used to produce biodegradable plastics. Work is ongoing accessing alternative bacteria and algae to find combinations capable of producing bio-plastics with different functional properties. A research paper has been published in the Bioresource Technology journal.