Talking Trash
by Sonam VelaniI bet you’ll engage in a relay race through the chaotic streets of New York this evening, jumping across big black bags of trash as you try to make it to the subway before the doors close. My hunch is that you’re probably not thinking about where all 12,000 tons of a day’s trash came from, where it’s going, or frankly, who it’s feeding (everyone in this city has a favorite neighborhood pizza rat, let’s be honest).
I’ll do a much longer post about the “Voyage of Gross” as our friends at Curbed so aptly describe, but today we’ll focus on the role governments can play in shifting how much trash is produced in the first place. And for this, we’ll head across the pond to Europe to learn a thing or two on how policy-makers can be market-makers when it comes to talking trash.
Last year, the EU proposed regulations that would require companies to make their packaging easier to reuse, recycle, or compost - complete with better materials, better design, and better labeling for consumers. All takeout food, drinks, and alcohol would need to be in reusable packaging by 2030, and say goodbye to half empty containers with tons of space fillers! This is on top of a complete ban on single-use plastics, cutlery, straws, and the like that went into effect in 2019. The aim: reduce packaging waste by 15% and especially curb plastic waste, which makes up 80% of all marine debris found near surface waters. The goal is to shift the onus on the producers of plastic rather than the consumers who are traditionally left with limited choices.
Extended Producer Responsibility ensures that producers bear responsibility for the environmental impacts of the products they bring to market and are incentivized to reduce those impacts through better design and regulation. Source: Zero Waste Scotland.
And all this is just the beginning. The EU is working in partnership with the UN High Ambition Coalition, a group of countries that includes the EU member states, the UK, Ghana, Senegal, Australia, Canada, and small island states such as Kiribati and Tonga that suffer the bulk of negative consequences of marine plastics washing up on their shores. Together, they hope to create a global set of rules for the redesign of packaging materials, and more importantly, strict controls on plastic production.
Each kilogram of plastic that comes on the market has already caused 3 kilograms of GHG emissions through its production process. This is a global business with thousands of nodes - and no clear standards on what can be degraded, composted, reused, or recycled. Every country has had its own set of piecemeal regulations, with Bangladesh being the first country in the world to ban plastic bags back in 2002 while France has banned plastic packaging for all produce. A comprehensive, global standard is what’s missing and that’s where the EU is stepping into a leadership void.
The goal for the EU is to utilize ‘green diplomacy’ to influence global environmental negotiations, and become both a policy leader and market leader. And a plethora of sustainable packaging startups are ready for the action! From Germany’s Circleback building deposit-return systems to the UK’s B2B startup Sourceful providing sourcing and supply chain platform to Estonia’s Woola that is creating compostable packaging made of sheep wool, there’s no shortage of creative ideas to make a dent in our global plastics ecosystem.
Woola’s sheep wool packaging not only reduces the use of plastic bubble wrap, but also reuses the 200,000 tons of sheep wool that is left unused in Europe every year! Source: Woola
Want to close the loop? Learn more about circular economy startups and ecosystems from our friends at the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, check out the amazing work New York City’s Closed Loop Partners is doing to build and invest in circular systems, and stay tuned for our upcoming NY Climate Tech visit to my favorite place to talk trash, the Sims Municipal Recycling facility in Brooklyn!
by Sonam Velani