Millions of Brits will soon be tucking into their Christmas dinners, with yule time feasts including sides of carrots, parsnips and potatoes accompanying the centrepiece varying from turkey, gammon or duck. Not to mention any number of salty and sweet snacks which will keep hungry chefs at bay throughout many hours spent standing over a hot oven.
If the above list is making you hungry, there is one ingredient you’re forgetting: plastic.
The side dish to all the above is one of the biggest polluters of our time. During the Christmas period alone, as much as 114,000 tonnes of plastic packaging goes to landfill[1]. This is the equivalent to 650,000 reindeer, which is also around the same population of Luxemburg[2].
With plastic pollution often dominating the news, this year many families will be looking to reduce their plastic footprint. Behaviour change among the public is critical to curb the crisis with many people already shifting habits, now carrying a reusable drinking cup, taking reuseable shopping bags to the supermarket and prioritising purchasing loose vegetables.
That is merely half the battle and retailers must offer consumers sustainable packaging solutions. A number of larger retailers do already promote in-store return points for plastic packaging to be collected for recycling, however, this is not enough.
Globally, only around nine percent of all plastic ever produced has been recycled[3]. Furthermore, thin plastic film which makes up most of the packaging around fruit and vegetables, is almost impossible to recycle due to its complex multi-layered plastic polymers.
To balance the need for essential packaging, and overcome the plastic packaging crisis, retailers must explore the plentiful alternatives. Paper packaging has become a popular alternative in many stores, but its properties can be compromised by frozen foods and the packaging often still requires a plastic sealant to keep products such as crisps fresh.
Alternatively, the developments with compostable packaging have made it an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic. Developed by leading scientists, compostable polymers make packaging durable, flexible, transparent and keep items just as fresh as plastic, but safely decompose at end of life.
The developments at TIPA allowed retailers globally to make positive changes from switching to compostable coffee pods and snack pouches, to most recently to a paddy straw tray which utilises rice waste products.
Sustainability can be incorporated throughout the supply chain when retailers invest in alternative packaging solutions. Currently, retailers are letting consumers down by failing to address the plastic problem with substantial change, burdening the consumer with never-ending plastic packaging.
To overcome the plastic problem, we must demand retailers make substantial packaging changes by next year. Here at TIPA, we can offer a plastic-free Christmas, we are just waiting for retailers to join us at the table.
[1] GWP Group (2023) Christmas packaging facts and waste statistics for 2023
[2] Worldometer (2023) Countries in the world by population 2023
[3] OCED (2022) Plastic pollution is growing relentlessly as waste management and recycling fall short, says OECD