HOW TO ELIMINATE We’d generate even more packaging if we switched from plastic to alternatives.

This could be about 8 million more tonnes per year in the UK if we swapped WHY DO WE USE
PLASTIC WASTE? PLASTIC FOR
to non-plastic substitutes.

This means that using plastic helps to ensure we have fewer trucks on the

2 billion people have no access

road, use less energy, emit less greenhouse gas, and results in less material
that we have to recover and recycle. PACKAGING?
to regular waste collection Effect of substituting plastic packaging
Some countries around the world do not have with alternatives
sufficient waste collection and recycling
Total masses Energy consumption GHG emissions
Plastic works to keep
infrastructure, resulting in plastic ending up in our
environment. Urgent action is required to remedy
for same functional units in total life-cycle in total life-cycle our carbon footprint low.
this situation, and prevent plastic waste from x 3.6 x 2.2 x 2.7
polluting our rivers and oceans. Plastic CO2

The plastics industry recently pledged

$1 billion towards this effort. Alternative materials CO2

Alternative materials would result in 2.7 times

INDUSTRY’S
more greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetime.

Plastic typically uses less land, less water, and

VISION Plastic Packaging Alternative materials

less energy to manufacture than alternatives,
and because it’s so lightweight it means much
less fuel is needed to move it around.

• Reform PRN System In acknowledgement of such important factors, over 40 academics It’s not so easy to see, but plastic is doing an
from across the UK have come out in support of the environmental important job to keep our greenhouse gas
• Improve On-the-go Collection benefits of plastics.1 emissions low.

• Reduce Costs to human health and ecosystems would

“Plastics are a vital part of the drive to ‘lightweight’ be over 5 times higher if we switched away
• Promote Re-use products to save energy across all industry sectors. It from plastics.
makes sense to exploit their range of physical properties
• Deposit Return Scheme and processability, combined with lightweighting
Plastic: £48 billion
capabilities, enabling many valuable products”
• Standardise Collections
Alternative materials: £263 billion
• Increase Recycled Content Professor Phil Coates, FREng
Director of the Polymer Interdisciplinary Research Centre,
University of Bradford Scientists have warned that switching away
• Promote Eco-design
from plastics will be significantly worse for
the environment.
 BBC (2018), PoliticsHome (2019)
1
Sources: bpf.co.uk/sources
 WHAT ABOUT WHY IS PLASTIC IT’S POSSIBLE TO RECYCLE
FOOD WASTE? SO POPULAR? ALL THE PLASTIC WE USE
“Food waste is a vastly overlooked
driver of climate change”

The technology exists to recycle 100% of plastic.

Lightweight Easier to Transport Less CO2 Recycling rates have been improving for over 20 years,
1 2 3 but we still need to do much more.

What needs to happen next?

If food wastage were a country, it would be the

third largest greenhouse gas emitting in the world.

Food waste in developing countries where packaging is not used Shatterproof Hygienic & Safe Recyclable
effectively can be extremely high, with food loss at production and transport
accounting for two-thirds of global food waste. Simplify Collection Apply Eco-Design

Simplify UK collection systems Design easy-to-recycle packaging

to remove consumer confusion
Plastic Packaging Helps Prevent Food Waste

Adaptable Easy to Use Resealable

Invest in British Recycling Consumer Education

Plastic has always been used to replace heavier, less flexible, less safe Build up UK infrastructure, and invest Educate to instil the value
27% more apples are Cucumbers extend Advanced plastic materials. Modern plastic is designed to be hygienic as well as light, and in technologies like new sorting of recycling across UK culture
wasted when they their life when wrapped packaging extends the adheres to strict legislation ensuring it is extremely safe. We must however methods and chemical recycling
are sold loose vs. in film by up to life of steak by up to work together and call on governments and all stakeholders to prevent
in plastic packaging 14 days 10 days it from ever ending up as waste.

Produced by the British Plastics Federation | bpf.co.uk