Our houses, the objects that we carry round every day, even our clothes are largely made with plastic. Most of us don’t even give it a thought. It’s part of a world of plenty, one of the benefits of technology and cheap oil. We can’t identify the plastics we use, and know even less about the fillers, plasticizers, stabilisers, and colourings added to plastics to enhance their properties.
There is increasing concern about the food we eat but much less about the health impacts of packaging, the leakage of phthalates and bisphenol A. Plastic debris litters our streets, our shores, the oceans, and accumulates in landfill. No-one really knows how much there is, or the extent of the environmental hazard it represents.
Are the deaths of wildlife due to ingestion, or fouling and the possible contamination of the food chain just the price we have to pay for the convenience of plastic? We try to use less but plastics production increases every year using. Some plastics get recycled, but with so many types and little thought given to designing in recyclability, it’s expensive and often results in degraded materials. Plastic packaging is the poster boy of our throwaway society.
What are the solutions?
Find out at Emerge’s public meeting on “The Future of Plastic Packaging” on Nov 24th at 5.45pm at Brazenose House, Brazenose St, M2 5BP
Richard Thompson, Professor of Marine Biology will be talking about the broad picture, the impact of plastic packaging, the environmental and health impacts, the overall trajectory of plastic packaging across the world and how the UK fits into that, and the priorities for change.
Stuart Foster, Director of RECOUP, will be talking about the different properties/characteristics of plastics, new developments in plastics and progress in the UK and Europe.
Nick Cliffe, Marketing Manager at Closed Loop Recycling, will be talking about the challenges of sorting packaging, and how smart packaging could make this easier.
Iain Ferguson, Environment Manager at The Co-operative Food, will be talking about the journey taken by the Co-op in reducing packaging, where it’s come from, where it’s going, the obstacles and what needs to change to make it possible for the Coop to move forward.
Nigel Rose
