{"id":24617,"date":"2019-10-01T18:21:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T16:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=24617"},"modified":"2022-07-21T15:11:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T13:11:56","slug":"single-use-plastic-not-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/24617\/single-use-plastic-not-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Single Use is Not the Future Option"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Plastic pollution is a global threat. And thanks to <\/span>pressure from people all around the world<\/span><\/a>, brands and retailers know they need to take responsibility for creating it. We are increasingly being bombarded with corporate announcements on new packaging for products \u2014 things like \u201c100% recyclable packaging\u201d, \u201cmade with biodegradable plastic\u201d, and \u201csustainable paper packaging\u201d. But what do these efforts really entail, and are they the solution to the plastic pollution crisis<\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"Plastic
Plastic waste blown away from formerly open domestic waste landfill La Crau in Entressen France.<\/span>
\u00a9 Wolf Wichmann \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Let\u2019s start with a quick reminder of what put us in this situation in the first place: single-use plastic that is meant to be used for a very short period of time \u2014 even just seconds \u2014 and then thrown away. And now let\u2019s take a look at some of the most common \u201csolutions\u201d being touted by companies.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

  1. Paper.<\/b> At first glance, paper products might seem to be a good solution, and it is 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. <\/span>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. <\/span><\/li>
  2. Bioplastic.<\/b> Another very confusing trend is switching to \u201cbioplastics,\u201d a term that can refer to plastic that is bio-based, biodegradable or compostable and can even include fossil fuel\u2013based 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.<\/span> 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\u2014and not much better\u2014than conventional single-use plastic.<\/span><\/li>
  3. Recyclable plastic.<\/b> And last, but not least, packaging made from 100% recyclable plastic. This is mostly marketed to look good but in reality isn\u2019t 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 \u201crecycled,\u201d but \u201cdowncycled,\u201d which means that instead of making a new plastic package from an old one, the plastic is reprocessed into products of lesser quality or value which are not further recyclable and not possible to recycle. Each municipality has different capacity to recycle different types of plastic, so <\/span>what is recycl<\/b>able<\/i><\/b> is not necessarily recycl<\/b>ed<\/i><\/b>.<\/b> <\/span><\/li><\/ol>\n\n
    \"Floating
    Single use plastics are pushed into a small bay in the Mediterranean Sea floating just beneath the surface.<\/span>
    \u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Gavin Parsons<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

    Unfortunately, companies are not yet addressing this 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\u2019t digest. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

    So what is the solution? As plastic pollution keeps increasing, it is urgent that companies take action and move towards business models that do not involve wasting the planet\u2019s resources by turning them into disposable packaging. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

    \"Refill
    A growing movement calls for take-aways to reduce disposable packaging and switch to returnable containers.<\/span>
    \u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

    Companies must prioritise 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\u2014reuse.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

    Elvira Jim\u00e9nez is the <\/span><\/i>Global Project Lead for the plastics campaign at Greenpeace Spain.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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    Plastic pollution is a global threat. And thanks to pressure from people all around the world, brands and retailers know they need to take responsibility for creating it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":24581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[67],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-24617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-consumption","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24617"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54818,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617\/revisions\/54818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24617"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=24617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}