A clear plastic bottle is found drifting in the garbage patch. Living on this single bottle were bryozoans, nudibranchs, crabs, and barnacles.

Thanks to pressure from people all around the world, brands and retailers know they need to take responsibility for creating this global plastic waste and pollution epidemic. We are increasingly being bombarded with corporate announcements on new packaging for products — things like “100% recyclable packaging”, “made with biodegradable plastic”, and “sustainable paper packaging”. But what do these efforts really mean, and are they the solution to the plastic pollution crisis?

Let’s start with a quick reminder of what put us in this situation in the first place: single-use plastic that is part of a larger disposal-centric system we all operate in. Items and products are designed to be used for a very short period of time — even just seconds — and then thrown away. Created for convenience, but it’s not convenient for our planet or impacted communities.

And now let’s take a look at some of the most common “solutions” being touted by companies.

Paper straws among other paper debris found in Vancouver beach clean and brand audit, September 2019.

Paper. At first glance it might seem to be a good solution, and a relatively easy switch for companies to make. However, a massive switch by big corporations from plastic to paper will negatively impact global forests. Forests play a key role in environmental health by removing and storing carbon, sustaining indigenous communities and unique biodiversity, and providing many other ecological services. Given the current pressures on already limited forest resources, much larger areas need to be protected and restored, not transformed to feed our disposable packaging addiction.

Coca-Cola’s Dasani brand bottle made from 30% plant-based material found polluting Canadian shoreline.

Bioplastic. Another trend that has been causing confusion among consumers and causing waste management and more environmental problems are bioplastics. “Bioplastics” is a term that can refer to plastic that is bio-based, biodegradable or compostable and can even include fossil fuel–based plastic. The problem with bioplastics is two-fold. First is the origin; the majority of bio-based plastic is derived from agricultural crops, which compete with food crops, threatening food security and driving land-use change and agricultural emissions. The second problem is what happens when they are disposed of. Biodegradable plastics degrade only under very high temperatures and humidity conditions that are rarely, if ever, met in the natural environment. Biodegradable plastics can also break apart into smaller pieces (just like regular plastic) which can be ingested by animals and enter the food web. Compostable plastic, on the other hand, does fully decompose but again only under certain conditions that are met in either industrial composting facilities, or, less commonly, in home composting systems. Most municipalities do not have the needed equipment and thus compostable plastic is more likely to be landfilled or incinerated, making it not much different—and not much better—than conventional single-use plastic.

Recyclable plastic. Packaging made from 100% recyclable plastic is mostly marketed to look good but in reality isn’t so great. More than 90% of all the plastic ever produced has not been recycled. Recycling systems cannot keep up with the huge volume of plastic waste generated and facilities have become overwhelmed. So plastic is far more likely to end up in landfills, incinerators or in the environment than to be recycled. Also, plastic is not really “recycled” in the way many of us would think. Instead of making a new plastic package from an old one, the plastic is “downcycled,” which means that it is reprocessed into products often of lesser quality or value, which are not further recyclable. Each municipality has different capacity to recycle different types of plastic, so what is recyclable is not necessarily recycled.

Unfortunately, companies are not yet addressing the throwaway model with these strategies. They are simply shifting from one material to another, but the core of the model is the same: use and throw away, in huge quantities, at a global scale. Companies are still creating massive amounts of waste that the planet just can’t digest. 

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So what is the solution? As plastic pollution keeps increasing, and it takes over our lives, and apparently the air we breathe (!), it is essential that companies urgently take action and move towards business models that do not involve wasting the planet’s resources by turning them into disposable packaging and products. 

Bulk frozen goods available at The Soap Dispensary and Kitchen Staples.

Companies must prioritize reduction, to avoid creating waste in the first place, and invest in reuse and refill systems to distribute their products. They need to provide clear targets for reduction and plans for how they will meet them. People all over the world are already taking action and demanding these systems be put in place. It is time for companies to follow suit and deliver the real solution—reuse.

Companies need to feel the ever increasing pressure and to understand that consumers are not fooled by their false solutions. Here’s how you can join in growing the movement.

Share our False Solutions video on social media and tag the companies that, according to you, should work on reducing their plastic footprint: Nestlé, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Tim Hortons, McDonald’s……. 

 

 

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                                                               The video is also available on Youtube.