What's recyclable packaging?Updated 2 years ago
We define recyclable packaging as the types of materials that can be placed in household recycling. Some materials can be recycled at local refuse centres or through specialist centres but this isn’t widespread and from our research it doesn’t improve the adoption rate for recycling. It’s likely that some of this material is sent to landfill, is sent abroad or is burnt.
We have experimented with compostable material and used it for our energy balls when they first launched. It sounds like a dream solution but unfortunately, as we came to learn, the vast majority of compostable packaging can’t decompose in home compost bins. It requires high levels of heat and humidity to break down (and that isn’t possible in the UK), so it needs to go to an industrial composting plant, which we don’t currently have access to as consumers. There’s also research to show that any plastic that’s contained in the packaging could enter the ecosystem through microplastics when it eventually breaks down. If compostable packaging enters the recycling stream, it can also contaminate ‘good’ recyclable materials and can result in those being sent to landfill or being burnt. As a result of this, we moved away from that material. It sounded great, but the realities didn’t match up to the dream.
There’s quite a lot of confusion surrounding plastic. Some plastic is better for the environment than comparable materials e.g. glass, because it’s light (and doesn’t take much carbon to transport it) and can be easily recycled e.g. juice bottles or trays that things like soft fruit come in. There are some plastics which cannot be recycled (currently) and the facilities don’t exist commercially to recycle them e.g. plastic straws or plastic film. The role of these plastics can be important in the food industry but they have to be used sparingly, and only when they will make a difference to the carbon impact of that product. If there’s no alternative, industry, government and society need to apply pressure to make better options available. Pass on plastic is a great example of this.