Plastic's place in society

Ciarán Ferrin

Recent reports from the UK government of a future ban on single-use plastics (SUPs) in England have reemphasised the need to tackle plastic pollution. The ban is expected to take effect from October 2023 with rollouts already taking place.

This follows steps Wales and Scotland have already made in dispensing with unnecessary plastic waste in the last few years by committing to similar bans and restrictions of SUPs. But is this a positive development for sustainability or a grandstanding proposal that has missed the mark?

According to a Greenpeace and Everyday Plastics report, the UK throws away almost 100 billion pieces of plastic a year. The UK has a 98.66kg per capita of plastic waste generation per year, the second worst in the world, second only to the United States.

Plastics are incredibly useful and have made preservation of things like food and medicines much more convenient. However, there is a pervasive-amount of plastic throughout the world, with plastics found in the remotest parts of Antarctica, the bottom of the Mariana trench and even in our blood! With the added disadvantages of clogging natural ecosystems, leaching toxic chemicals, and taking hundreds of years to break down, namely into micro and nano plastics that enter our food cycles.

So now just think about how much might be in cities, for example.

Notably, concerns about a now seemingly UK-wide ban on SUPs seem to be shared among many members of the hospitality industry especially, as they have seen significant price increases of all materials in recent years.

An immediate ban would devastate small businesses, as the environmentally friendly alternatives are usually more expensive, with SUPs being the only real viable option for keeping their businesses operational.

This lack of adaptation is not necessarily the businesses’ fault, but rather a pronounced lack of government-incentivised investment and strategies to use alternatives over the traditional forms of SUPs.

However, test cases have shown that previous bans on microbeads, plastic straws, stirrers, etc. have not necessarily been ‘make or break’ for many businesses, despite similar concerns about such measures.

The purpose of these measures is to prevent plastic litter from happening in the first place, whilst containing more resources in the system and drastically reducing what goes to landfill.

One exciting innovation in the form of a plastic alternative is NotplaTM, which was among one of the £1m Earthshot Prize winners in December 2022, as well as a winner of the UK Packaging Awards 2022. Notpla make their packaging from seaweed and originally started with the edible seaweed ‘bubble’ called ‘Ooho’, which has now evolved into a plastic alternative that can hold water and food safely.

New innovations and technologies will play an essential role in helping ween us off the current systems that still utilise SUPs, such as milkshake and takeaway drink bottles.

And to have an even more comprehensive model of circularity, there will need to be more resources and overhauls of the recycling systems that only see 44 per cent of plastics being recycled in the UK, despite many people’s best intentions.

So, what does all this mean for Northern Ireland? Well, there is a proposed bill making its way through government that plans to be rolled out in 2023 and onwards; however, due to the current political impasse at Stormont, essential pieces of legislation like this, as well as the recently passed climate bill, will take a long time in becoming a reality. Delays in implementation can lead to a slowing down of momentum as these laws lose traction during the process.

Ciarán Ferrin is a Science and Environment reporter for The Scoop. He has an MSc in Leadership for Sustainable Development and is currently working as a support provider at Ulster University.