There's life beyond the plastic bag!

Late last month, Foodstuffs NZ announced they would start charging 5 cents for plastic bags in their New World and Pak’N Save stores from August.  That’s a step in the right direction. Even better, a conversation is starting around the wider packaging issues.

This week both Professor Spellerberg from Lincoln University and some Australian politicians have made the giant leap from talking about plastic bags to wondering about the packaging we carry home inside them.

It doesn’t take a university education to realise that it was never really about the bags.

We all know that some packaging is useful and necessary. And we know that avocados wrapped in plastic on a polystyrene tray don’t make much sense.

Our troubles start when we trade a few minutes convenience off against making and using some object that ends up lasting longer than we do.

That can of drink we devour in a few moments was months in the making. Going through an elaborate process of extraction, shipping, processing, manufacturing, shaping, painting, filling, trucking, wholesaling, cooling, advertising and selling before the drink is scoffed and the can tossed in the nearest (recycling) bin.

Packaging up stuff is big business. There’s a whole industry based on bottling and selling us water that we can pour from the tap for free.

The systems we have developed for spinning goods out to the furthest reaches of the globe are fabulous. We can get almost anything, anywhere, anytime; if we have the cash to pay for it. But the systems we have for gathering up all the leftovers are pretty much the same as the ones we used in the dark ages. We collect the stuff up and throw most of it in a hole.

We tinker around the edges doing a bit of recycling but all too often the outcomes are unsatisfying. Paper recycled in England turns up in a dump in rural India. Glass put out for recycling in NZ ends up as gravel substitute. Some processes for collecting recycling damage and mix the materials together making them useless as feedstock for remanufacturing facilities.

We pay for the packaging that comes along with a product, then pay again (through our rates) to recycle it or dump it in the landfill. Hi-tech, thinner, lighter packaging reduces the total weight but often these packets are less practical to recycle so end up in the landfill anyway.

An annual survey of supermarket packaging in the UK found that 38% of packaging in an average shopping basket of goods could not be easily recycled and while packaging is getting lighter, the proportion of it going to landfill has remained about the same. Tesco’s and other big UK supermarkets are starting to look for feedback from their customers about the packaging on their shelves as they realise the marketing power associated with sustainability.

We all want to do the right thing but the best efforts of people in one part of the chain are often undone by the next person along.

With the implementation of the Waste Minimisation Act (2008) we have the chance to create systems where everyone involved in the long chain of a product’s life can help make better outcomes. The idea of stewardship is familiar to most of us nowadays; we talk about guardianship and Kaitiakitanga.

But putting it into practice will take co-operation across the supply chain and beyond, into the consumption and recovery process.  At the moment there is no real incentive to do this.

The Product Stewardship provisions of the Waste Minimisation Act have the potential to take us to the next level. Packaging is a perfect product to practise on. It has a short life and a fast turnaround so the feedback loops operate in real time. We all handle it every day and the consumer responsibility to choose wisely comes along with the right to expect good design and labelling so we can choose products that deliver value rather than going on costing people and the planet right down the line.

Ends

The GetReal campaign is collecting signatures for an open letter to the Minister for the Environment, asking him to put packaging back on the Priority Products List. That would mean that an accredited Product Stewardship scheme would have to be set up for packaging. Anyone who wants to see all companies take responsibility for their packaging choices can sign the open letter at www.getreal.org.nz. The letter will be presented to Dr Nick Smith at Parliament at high noon Thursday 14th May.


Contact; Sue Coutts 027 322 9675 or sue@wanakawastebusters.co.nz


References to items cited;

Ian Spellerberg - http://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/2385541/Say-no-to-plastic-bags/

SA bans bags - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/04/2559631.htm?section=australia

Uk study - http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/29/recycling.supermarkets

Tescos - http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/01/tesco-packaging-waste-trial