It’s time for governments to work with industry to reduce the environmental impact of plastic products, says Michael Laurier, CEO, Symphony Environmental.
It’s estimated that UK households throw away a staggering 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging a year, and in 2021, 2.5 million metric tons of plastic packaging waste were generated in the country.
We all have a role to play as individuals but also as businesses to ensure that plastic doesn’t end up accumulating in the natural environment, but we cannot simply ban plastic products (which incidentally have the lowest carbon footprint in a wide range of applications).
Nor can we expect environmentally conscious consumers to alter their consumption behavior immediately, and in any event, a significant amount of plastic waste gets inadvertently released into the open environment by accident.
Even in Switzerland, which has probably the most effective waste management in the world, a report by the Federal government said: “Plastics have no place in the environment. Nevertheless, around 14,000 tonnes of plastics end up in Switzerland’s soil and waters every year – primarily due to the abrasion and decomposition of plastic products and improper disposal of plastic waste. Plastics then accumulate in the environment because they only degrade very slowly.”
This is happening despite well-intentioned policies advocating ‘Reduce, redesign, re-use and recycle’ and is the fundamental reason why oxo-biodegradable plastic was invented.
It is a very sophisticated technology, which tackles the problem at the molecular level by ensuring that the plastic does not just break up into smaller pieces. It dismantles the molecular chains within the polymer so that it ceases to be a plastic and becomes a biodegradable material which is consumed by bacteria and fungi and cleaned out of the eco-system by them.
This is not a truly ‘problematic’ plastic but is in fact the only scientifically proven way to ensure that plastic in the environment does not accumulate there for decades.
Oxo-biodegradable plastic is not designed to end up in nature. It is designed to be used and recycled and disposed of in the same way as ordinary plastic, and there is no need to label the product as degradable. It is designed to biodegrade only if at the end of its useful life it escapes into the open environment deliberately or by accident.
We have noticed that many people, including the European Union, have confused this amazing technology with oxo-degradation. Oxo-degradation is what happens to ordinary plastic, and it is this which creates most of the microplastics which are being found in the environment.
Confusing these two technologies perpetuates the pollution of the environment, because if ordinary plastic continues in use for products most likely to be littered, they will accumulate in the environment, and especially the oceans and watercourses, for decades instead of quickly biodegrading, leaving no microplastics or harmful residues.
Symphony is aware of publications such as the Ellen MacArthur paper, written by a non-scientist, and the BPA has commented on it.
Oxo-biodegradable technology has been in use for 25 years, and for the past 15 years it has been used by Grupo Bimbo for their bread-wrappers. As the largest bread manufacturers in the western world, they have a policy of recycling this plastic. Much of it has been recycled and no problems have been reported. Also, the technology has been compulsory in the Middle East since 2009 for a wide range of plastic products.
To test and certify plastic which Degrades in the Environment by a Combination of Oxidation and Biodegradation, an international standard was developed by ASTM in accordance with internationally recognised principles established by the World Trade Organization. This Standard is explained by one of its authors in evidence to the government and has been replicated in many jurisdictions around the world, including the UK.
The technology has been studied by scientists for more than 50 years since it was invented by Professor Gerald Scott and other polymer scientists in the 1970’s. The most recent scientific publication is the report of a four-year study called “Oxomar” sponsored by the French government at their marine laboratory. The scientists reported (at C5): “We have obtained congruent results from our multidisciplinary approach that clearly shows that Oxo-biodegradable plastics biodegrade in seawater and do so with a significantly higher efficiency than conventional plastics. The oxidation level obtained due to the d2w prodegradant catalyst was found to be of crucial importance in the degradation process.”
For further reading by those who are not polymer scientists, the BPA has prepared a briefing note “Why Biodegradable” which explains the technology and deals with the arguments made against it, including by the EU.
It points out that in making the SUP Directive, the EU Parliament acted without advice from their own scientific experts, the European Chemicals Agency, who have never produced a dossier recommending any restriction of oxo-biodegradable plastic. Further, Symphony has advice from specialist lawyers that Art 5 of the Single-use Plastics Directive 2019/904 does not apply to oxo-biodegradable plastic.
