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Several reports over recent months have highlighted the less than stellar headway companies are making in pushing back against the ongoing use of single-use plastic and continuing build up of plastic waste.

In the autumn, a report from not-for-profit As You Sow produced its Corporate Plastic Pollution Scorecard, 2021 report. This showed that whilst companies are starting to take steps to deal with plastic pollution, only one company earned the highest grade and all companies must do significantly more to reduce, if not eliminate, the environmental and financial impact of plastic pollution. The report also noted a large increase in calls for plastic reduction goals and support for expanded manufacturer responsibility.  

In November, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation released its latest annual Global Commitment 2021 Progress Report. The study found that brands and retailers are reducing the use of virgin plastic packaging but says that this has been achieved by replacing it with recycled plastic rather than any progress in reducing the volume of plastic packaging. The authors noted there was very little evidence of “ambitious efforts to reduce the need for single-use packaging in the first place”, with under 2% of signatories’ plastic packaging reusable. For most, the figure is zero.

Dame Ellen MacArthur was quoted saying:

“We won't recycle our way out of plastic pollution, eliminating single-use packaging is a vital part of the solution. Alarmingly, our report shows little investment in this…Shifting just 20% of plastic packaging from single-use to reuse is an opportunity estimated to be worth USD 10 billion.”

You can read more and access the report here.  

In December last year, industry analyst and market research company Gartner, Inc. predicted that nine in 10 companies will fail to meet their 2025 sustainable packaging commitments and said that dependence on plastic and single-use packaging is the main factor preventing enterprises from meeting their public sustainability pledges. Gartner also called for companies to take action to address the raft of Extended Producer Responsibility legislation that has been or will be enacted in countries around the world.

You can read more here. 

[Image Credit: © As You Sow]

Several reports and studies highlighted the problems linked to the plastic industry and plastic pollution in 2021.

Google released a report showing that a “status quo” plastic industry would result in 7.7 gigatons of plastic waste ending up in landfills, incinerated, or polluting the environment by year 2040. Read the Google report here.

Beyond Plastics published a study predicting that greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production will overtake those from coal powerplants by 2030. You can read more, and access the report here.

The American Chemical Society said that about 24% of the 10,400 chemicals identified in plastics are potentially toxic.

[Image Credit: © Google]

Amazon generated a total of 599 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2020, a 29% increase from 2019.

Data from Oceana estimates the amount of plastic waste, in the form of air pillows, can circle Earth more than 600 times.

Also, Oceana estimates that as much as 23.5 million pounds of the total waste entered the world’s waterways and seas, and adds that the online retailer’s recycling pledges and claims do not add up and do not lessen Amazon’s huge plastic packaging waste footprint.

In India, however, Amazon’s recycling programs and efforts to remove single-use plastic packaging are helping the company reduce its plastic pollution problem.

You can read the report here.

[Image Credit: © Amazon]

Our plastics newsletter covered a number of stories in Autumn 2021 that raise doubts about how committed Unilever really is to abating plastic:

• It is helping finance a project that aims to recycle plastic waste by burning it to provide power to a cement manufacturing facility in Indonesia. The project is part of a trend involving multinational corporations and their efforts to burn more plastic waste in cement kilns. Environmentalists and other critics have asserted that burning plastic waste is harmful to the planet and sustainability efforts. Supporters claim, however, that burning plastic waste is environment-friendly and helps the cement industry reduce harmful impacts on the environment. Read the article here.

• For the fourth consecutive year, Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo are the world’s top sources of plastic pollution, according to the environmentalist group Break Free From Plastic. Details of the organization’s global Brand Audit report revealed Coca-Cola accounted for more plastic pollution than the next top 2 polluters combined. Also, for the first time since the annual audits began in 2018, Unilever is ranked as the number 3 top polluter, trading places with Nestlé, which moved to fourth. Results of the study also highlighted the shortcomings of the companies’ plastic recycling efforts and other sustainability initiatives, and Unilever’s position is a significant source of embarrassment as a principal partner for COP26. Read the report here.

• Greenpeace USA said consumer goods companies, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever and Nestlé, are pushing the growth of plastic production and endangering the global climate and communities worldwide. The group’s report, The Climate Emergency Unpacked: How Consumer Goods Companies are Fueling Big Oil’s Plastic Expansion, highlights the business relationships between giant consumer goods companies and fossil fuel companies. The report highlights industry estimates that plastic production could triple by 2050. It also looks at the general absence of transparency regarding emissions from plastic packaging. Read the more here.

[Image Credit: © Greenpeace USA]

Boris Johnson told a group of eight to 12-year-olds that recycling ‘doesn’t work’, and that has angered some, including The Recycling Association and even members of his own Government. His comments have been described as "strangely timed" and in conflict with Government messaging. The CEO of the Local Authority Recycling Association Committee said that the work of local authority communications officers has been put back five years.

His comments, however, did receive support from anti-plastic campaigners, who highlight the poor rate of recycling in the UK - less than 10%, according to some sources - and how recycling justifies the overproduction of plastic.

[Image Credit: © Wiki Commons]

The plastic industry produces planet-warming emissions at every step of the life cycle of its main product and at volumes that could become bigger than those produced by coal-fired power plants by the end of the current decade.

Data from the report, “The New Coal: Plastics & Climate Change,” from the environmental advocacy group Beyond Plastics, revealed plastic brings about greenhouse emissions that threaten climate goals and hurt socio-economically disadvantaged communities.

The report also reveals that plastic manufacturing produces gas emissions of at least 114 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent in the US, equal to those produced by 57 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.

Also, the petrochemical industry’s plastics manufacturing infrastructure is expected to continue expanding.

Read the report here

[Image Credit: © Beyond Plastics]

Researchers using Raman microspectroscopy have detected microplastics in human placentas for the first time. Results of the study revealed that 12 microplastic fragments were discovered in all placental portions: maternal, fetal, and amniochorial membranes. Microplastics contain substances, which can act as endocrine disruptors and cause long-term impact on human health.

[Image Credit: © Skitterphoto]