A Word About Recycling with Ollie Maier
Although I've touched on this subject before, I found this recent article in Resource Recycling newsletter so interesting and informative it caused me to want to talk about it again. It’s about single-use plastic packaging.
“In 2018, Collins Dictionary named 'single-use' its word of the year, and it’s not difficult to understand why,” the article said. It was probably because throughout 2018, some of the key themes were aimed at efforts to reduce marine litter and eliminate plastic waste, most of it single-use plastic packaging.
So much so that at the year’s end, the European Union (EU) Parliament and Council made a provisional agreement to phase out most single-use plastic items by 2021. Although, because of environmental concerns over the past 20 years, bans were placed on various plastic packaging in many cities and states, this EU directive on single-use plastic is the most comprehensive to date.
“The Directive will totally ban 10 single-use plastic products from the EU, including cotton bud sticks, plates, straws, stirrers, balloon sticks, oxo-degradable plastics and expanded polystyrene (EPS) food containers and cups,” the article said.
The new rules also stipulate that these EU Member States take necessary efforts to reduce the use of other single-use plastics that are not included in the ban. For example, in take-out containers and coffee cups and lids.
With this push by the European countries to ban most single-use plastic packaging items, other countries, including the United States are encouraged to do more also in that area. As an incentive, stats show reuse can be an economically attractive opportunity for at least 20 percent of plastic packaging (by weight), worth at least $9 billion.
Some leading brands, retailers and packaging companies are already realizing this and thus are capitalizing on it. One example is a U.K. company that uses reusable cups for both hot and cold drinks. When consumers finish their drink, they drop off the cups at a designated collection point. These cups are designed to be used 132 times before they are recycled. This service can reduce the use of single-use plastic packaging by up to 47 percent.
Another example of a business that went into the reuse market is the Switzerland company ReCircle. Starting in 2016, this company provides reusable lunchboxes to restaurants for take-out food, Since starting, the company has distributed over 70,000 of its reBoxes to a total of 412 restaurants.
Restaurants use this service primarily for economic reasons. By a restaurant using just 10 reBoxes a day, as opposed to using single-use containers which cost $0.20 each, it could save about $520 per year. There is also a potential saving from reduced waste management costs.
I found this article so interesting, and foresee the reuse of more containers increasing in our country because of the savings and environmental concerns, that I plan to continue with the subject next week.
Till next week, do have an enjoyable and safe one.
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Ollie is a local citizen concerned with the environment and helping others. A retired Air Force fighter and instructor pilot, he is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and received his degrees at Texas State University where he worked on staff before totally retiring. For questions or comments, he invites you to call him at 512-353-7432 or email omaier@txstate.edu.
