trees are cut down a year just to
7m
make disposable nappies
different parties, including packaging manufacturers, distributors,
retailers, local authorities, waste management companies and, of
course, households.
Alongside this there is huge complexity of materials that can be
45kg
of plastic is thrown away by the
average family every year
recycled, and it is the separation of materials that seems to be the
greatest challenge today. A good example of this is Polylactic Acid
(PLA), or corn starch.
The smoothie brand Innocent began using PLA on some bottles.
5m
aluminium cans are used every
year, enough to reach to the moon
and back
PLA is a material with similar properties to PET and other plastics, but
as it is grown from a renewable source (corn) it can be composted
88%
of shoppers currently put all their
as opposed to recycled. It is a material that is increasingly used
shopping into free carrier bags
in numerous industries. Yet Innocent has withdrawn PLA and is
now using recycled PET for the simple reason that PLA and PET
cannot be separated at waste centres. A compostable material
is not being composted and is polluting the PET waste stream.
Furthermore, few users know how to identify PLA, and there are
few commercial facilities able to separate and then compost the
purchases at the till point. In France it has become customary for
material.
supermarkets not to provide carrier bags at all. Consumers have to
remember to take them with them every time. In comparison 17.5
Whilst Innocent now trumpets the fact that its bottles are 100%
billion carriers are handed out for free every year in the UK, though
recyclable, you could argue that they are no more
efforts are at last being made to reverse this trend.
or less environmentally friendly than the PET
Still, a 20 mile channel of water hides a million
bottles it used previously. However,
different cultural and social differences.
the PET bottles, despite their green
credentials, were not a practical
The challenge of change
solution because of the issues
raised above. Solutions need
Here is an idea - the glass, paper
to be designed from scratch
and clothing recycling containers
with a lifecycle in mind, safe in
seen in supermarket, local
the knowledge that the start
library car parks and elsewhere
to end solution is the most
should be developed to
efficient use of resources.
provide a better facility and
service, and not just by
The human challenge
making them more appealing
or easy to use…
One of the challenges for
the environmental lobby is
The technology exists today that
the problem that recycling and
can turn anything with a calorific
other forms of sustainable activity
value, which is pretty much most
are divorced from our lives. Once
things, into heat and power using
the bottles, tins and paper are placed
pyrolysis. So, a system could be
in the boxes or bins outside of the
created whereby heating, and/or power,
house, they are forgotten – out of sight, out
can be provided for schools or libraries from
of mind.
waste, and best of all it could earn the recycler a
tax credit.
An interesting point here is that some of the highest rates of
household recycling in Europe can be found in the urban areas
The facility need not be larger than a standard shipping container,
of Italy. The reason for this is that they have been provided with
and would be able to process large amounts of waste with
facilities at the end of every street and within many large blocks
almost no emissions - one of which is oxygen. These could be
of flats. One of the many University studies in Italy showed that
sited near supermarkets or schools, or even on an old landfill
people recycled because it was about local pride and a sense of
site upon which it could ‘feed’, thereby actually disposing of old
community.
waste and generating heat and power. Such an approach is a
far more beneficial, than say offsetting by planting trees at an
Unfortunately, it is not possible to simply import what works
unspecified location, which most would agree is little more than
elsewhere – for example a German high street bin could not be
a way of assuaging a guilty corporate conscience.
imported into a UK location and be expected to be used correctly.
Historically the mindset is quite different. In Germany, shoppers
The technology exists, the idea is there, and surely the willingness
can ask supermarkets to remove unnecessary packaging from
of people to participate is there – so what is missing?
ecoexecutive | 94
Design.indd 94 18/4/08 17:00:44
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