The Fragmented Approach
A root cause of this is the cost to manage such a standardisation process, and in the absence of government direction setting, both public and private investment has taken a fragmented approach; there is no standard colour to our bin system, or standardised collection and sorting facilities across the UK.
Lack of clear direction from the government has resulted in the evolvement of many well-intentioned initiatives, including ‘Keep Britain Tidy’, a clean-up scheme that works with local authorities and volunteers, and organisations labelling plastic packaging with recycling information. Whilst these initiatives are great at encouraging better waste management, there is very little focus on the carbon emissions released in the initial production process of waste. After all, increasing carbon emissions are the root cause of climate change!
Benchmark wholly supports any initiative that would standardise waste collection and sorting facilities, but attention also needs to be drawn to CO2 emissions in the packaging production process.
We believe that consumer on-pack labelling needs to indicate:
- CO2e value
- Not Recyclable
- Recyclable (how?)
CO2e Value
Please visit our blog for more information on CO2.
Not recyclable
Some materials once manufactured, especially if laminated, e.g., PET to LDPE, cannot be easily recycled. This is because separating these materials is more than challenging and may well drive more CO2e and commercial cost than it is worth.
Going forward, Benchmark supports the utilisation of mono materials to ease downstream recycling wherever possible, but we also recognise that some products require complex structures to ensure a product is protected; protection is needed from moisture, temperature, humidity, odour, and taint. This is why in a selection of chocolates or biscuits some products are wrapped in foil or plastic.
In these circumstances it is likely that recovering and cultivating the energy from managed incineration would be the appropriate way forward.
It is important to recognise that whilst biodegradable and compostable materials seem attractive from a sustainability perspective, this waste could not enter the recycling process as the quality of the recycled materials would significantly diminish. One should also recognise composting of ‘plastic’ substitution.
Recyclable
The term ‘packaging material’ recognises that some processes have been applied to the source matter, e.g., paper comes from trees.
Packaging materials do not all originate from the same source, they vary for many reasons, but the most common material sources are:
- Pulp based (paper and board) originating from trees.
- Glass, coming from sand.
- Metal which can vary as there is steel, tin plate, etc., and is extracted as raw material.
- Plastic which is most commonly developed from fossil fuels, typically oil and gas.
Plastic has seen the most innovation and as a result sees the largest amount of fragmentation, there are several different types of plastic for different purposes.
Recycling Infographic
We have designed an infographic to guide you through the supply chain of plastic packaging. This infographic is best used, interactively, when downloaded as a PDF and viewed within Adobe Acrobat (free) Reader. The infographic touches on post consumption and the repurposing and reuse of materials at end-of-life, which are methods we can employ rather than sending waste to landfill sites.
To use the interactive infographic, once downloaded, you can walk through the supply chain process by clicking on the lozenges, starting with extraction of raw material, all the way through to when the product is used by the consumer. Click on any of the lozenges in the post consumption panel to see how method of disposal at end-of-life relates to the supply chain. Note that carbon emissions are released throughout the whole process!
Re-purpose
A great method is repurposing materials, for example the biscuit tin which is often repurposed from storing biscuits to storing needlecraft or nuts, bolts and screws.
Once the tin has been sorted by the consumer from the other packaging materials, like the plastic insert tray, it can be re-purposed. Alternatively, materials like a glass, for example a glass bottle can be redesigned and manufactured into a lamp.
Re-use
Reusing, such as a reusing a carrier bag, can help reduce both waste and carbon emissions. A carrier bag can be re-used many times in its primary purpose and finally used as a bin liner!
Damaged or discarded materials
Damaged or discarded materials can be converted back into material, for example a dented can, which can be recycled, sorted into aluminium or steel, melted into liquid metal, and re-used.
Please contact us for further details
Access our latest case study
The aim of this case study is to investigate whether accuracy, granularity and transparency, delivered by an independent source, are key to delivering ‘Carbon Footprint Modelling’ to ultimately drive the correct behaviour to reduce carbon emissions in the packaging industry.