Lobbyist Swamp in Brussels, Failed SUP Ban in India, Deliveroo (FREE)

“LOBBYIST SWAMP” IN BRUSSELS

Following the corruption scandal in the European Parliament revealed in December, when the police found suitcases stuffed with banknotes, the Dutch socialist MEP Paul Tang has said that “MEPs’ assistants, EU Commission officials, and industry insiders should help drain the lobbyist swamp in Brussels by tipping off a new “early-alert” system.”

He spoke after a secure drop-box for potential whistleblowers went online on Thursday (2 February).

This he said is designed to expose abuse such as “astroturfing” in which industry giants lobby via front organisations.

One of the most active campaigners against oxo-biodegradable plastic is the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.  On 14th May 2018 lawyers acting for Symphony Environmental wrote to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as follows:

Your 2017 Report [commonly referred to as “the oxo statement”] indicates that it is endorsed by a number of companies and organisations, some of which, our client informs us, are aggressively promoting a different plastic technology, whilst others are themselves producers of many of the plastic articles which are found as litter in the environment. EMF has not declared the amounts of money which it has received from those companies and organisations and we request that it does so.” [it failed to declare these amounts].

Other “Front Organisations” lobbying against oxo-biodegradable plastic include the BBIA, the BPI, and European Bioplastics.

INDIA – FAILED SUP BAN

India imposed a single-use plastics ban in July 2022, but it has been a very visible failure, because the mass of the population are simply not willing to do without their plastic products.  There is a cost difference between a PE bag and an alternative, and vendors get penalized for not having carry bags for the consumer. If they don’t provide one, the consumer moves on to the next shop.

Large amounts of these plastic products find their way into the open environment as litter, where they can lie or float around for decades, especially beside the roads and railway tracks.  The only way to deal with this is for the government to require all these products to be made with oxo-biodegradable technology, which can be done very quickly, at little or no extra cost. They will then biodegrade much more quickly.

Bio-based alternatives are much more expensive, and do not solve the problem anyway.  This is because they are designed to biodegrade in an industrial composting facility, not in the open environment, and cannot be recycled. India has very few industrial composting facilities, and if you can collect the plastic it makes no sense to take it to a composting facility, where it will simply convert into CO2 – not into compost or anything remotely useful for the soil. There is nothing circular about that.

DELIVEROO

In November 2022 the British online food service company Deliveroo announced a £2.5 million investment to subsidize the cost of more environmentally sustainable packaging and to encourage restaurant partners to move away from more polluting options.

If they were thinking of moving to the type of plastic marketed as compostable, they would have been disappointed when in January 2023 the UK government announced that it  is no longer supporting “compostable” plastic.  It said that “Compostable plastics must be sent to an industrial composter for them to compost, so if littered in the open environment they will act much like any other plastic. In addition, because they are visibly indistinguishable from non-compostable plastics, even when they are sent to industrial composters there is no guarantee that they will not be stripped out at the start of the process and sent to landfill or incineration plants.”

If Deliveroo had in mind fibre-based materials, they need to be aware that this has raised the usage of chemicals like PFAS, which act as grease-proof barriers for cardboard or paper packaging. These chemicals have been linked to cancer, fertility damage and hormone disruption. Efforts to diminish their use in the EU were recently postponed by the European Commission due to political and economic instability caused by the Ukraine war.

The best option for Deliveroo is in fact ordinary plastic, because it is very lightweight, cheap, and versatile, and can be re-used and recycled. It also has a better LCA than the alternatives LCA

If it is made with oxo-biodegradable technology it will not lie or float around for decades if it ends up in the environment as litter.

Earlier Postings in this Column

All articles of Michael Stephen can be found here

• 1/ 1/ 20 – Plastiphobia, Microplastics and A Throw-Away Society
• 7/ 1/ 20 – Recycling, Lab Testing, Bangladesh and the Right Bioplastic
• 14/1/20 – Plastiphobia and Bioplastics Definitions
• 21/1/20 – Composting, the European Union and Unemployment
• 30/1/20 – Plastiphobia, Malaysia and a Case Against Compostables and Paper
• 7/02/20 – Coronavirus, MPs Letter, Montreal, Australia and the Dominican Republic
• 14/02/20 – Oman, MacArthur Foundation, Stifling Innovation, South Africa and Compostable Plastics
• 24/02/20 – Serbia, India, Pakistan and European Bioplastics
• 03/03/20 – Plastic To Protect Health and Common Sense on Plastic
• 10/03/20 – Plastiphobia, Singapore, Compostable Plastics, Doorknobs and Carbios
• 17/03/20 – Greening our Way to Infection, Defra Warns Against Bioplastics and Montreal
• 24/03/20 – Ditch the Plastic Bag Ban and Inn-Probio
• 01/04/20 – The Come Back of Plastic Bags, Compostable Plastic Not Wanted and EASAC
• 16/04/20 – Coronavirus and Agricultural Plastics
• 11/05/20 – Coronavirus, Peru, Barbados and Recycling
• 18/05/20 – Say No to Plastiphobia, False Descriptions and the Recycling Myth
• 02/06/20 – Definitions and More Setbacks for Plastiphobia
• 11/06/20 – BBIA, Food Waste and Testing of OXO-Biodegradable Plastic
• 19/06/20 – Oxo Biodegradation, Independent Reports and Precautionary Principle
• 29/06/20 – Banana Republic, Why Turn Plastic into CO2 and Plastic Waste from Ships
• 13/07/20 – Running Scared, The Daily Telegraph and Market Report
• 20/07/20 – Tipa, Plastics Today and The American Genius
• 27/07/20 – Coronavirus, Plastic Litter, Bahrain and Polymateria
• 17/08/20 – Plastics Europe, Confusing Issues and Paper
• 25/08/20 – Professor Emo Chiellini, Plastics Today, Greenwashing and Coronavirus
• 28/09/20 – Kill the Virus, Marine Degradation, Airports, Brazil Retail, Plastic Growth and Face Mask
• 08/10/20 – Compostable vs Biodegradable, Covid 19 and New British Bioplastic Standard
• 27/10/20 – Power of Lobbying, Paper and Cotton Worse than Plastic
• 02/11/20 – Covid 19 and Five Myths About Plastic
• 09/11/20 – Support for OXO BIO, Westminster Forum, Euractiv and Covid
• 23/11/20 – Toxicity of Bio-based and Biodegradable Plastics, and Covid Scaremongering
• 15/12/20 – Recycling and An Article from Austria
• 21/12/20 – EU Scientific Advisers, China Chose Wrong Bioplastics and Covid Nonsense
• 05/01/20 – EU, Covid Lockdowns, WRAP, British Standards Institution and Polymateria
• 12/01/21 – Intertek and Composting
• 19/01/21 – Recycling and Exporting Plastic Waste
• 22/02/21 – Seaweed Plastic, Orange Peel and Xampla
• 02/03/31 – OXO Biodegradable Plastic
• 08/03/21 – EU Scientific Reports and Paper vs Plastic
• 15/03/21 – India, Australia and Dow Chemicals
• 14/04/21 – Oxomar, UK Government and Microplastics
• 26/04/21 – Plastic to the Rescue of Covid and More News from Brazil
• 04/05/21 – Packaging Digest
• 07/06/21 – Minderoo Report and Korea Herald
• 30/06/21 – Recycling, Is the Use of Biobased Plastics Increasing, Confused Australians and Biodegradable Future
• 12/07/21 – EU Flawed Directive, Thailand and Pakistan
• 21/07/21 – Directors Talk, Confusion, Stir Magazine and Dumping Plastic Waste
• 02/08/21 – Angry Farmers, DEFRA and Substitutes for Plastic
• 06/09/21 – Microplastics
• 13/09/21 – UK Government, Defra and David Newman
• 20/09/21 – Michael Stephen Video Interview on Antimicrobial and Biodegradable Packaging
• 05/10/21 – Freedom of Information and Plastic Waste Solutions
• 14/10/21 – Michael Stephen at Pack4Change Summit
• 22/10/21 – Plastic from Algae and Carbon Dioxide
• 15/11/21 – Defra
• 22/11/21 – Defra, India, Food Service Footprint Magazine and Waste 360
• 30/11/21 – RWM Digital Spotlight and Plastiphobia
• 17/12/21 – Disposal in the Right Way and Defra Consultation Responses
• 04/01/22 – Precautionary Principle, Anti Oxo Campaign and Defra
• 11/01/22 – Microplastics
• 17/01/22 – Michael Laurier, A Saucy Problem and Unilever
• 21/02 /22 – No Alternative for Plastic
• 08/03/22 – Sustainable Agriculture, Canada, Consequence of Banning, United Nations
• 14/03/22 – Plastiphobia
• 04/04/22 – Virgin Mobile, Defra, OXO, Microplastics, End of Life Options
• 11/04/22 – Ellen MacArthur Foundation
• 09/05/22 – Response to Association of Plastic Recyclers
• 16/05/22 – Wrap and More Bad News for Compostable Plastics in UK Parliament
• 30/05/22 – A Threat to Humanity and Market Research
• 13/06/22 – Recycling, OECD and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
• 27/06/22 – Recyclass, Unilever, UK Plastic Packaging Tax
• 04/07/22 – Korea, Carbon 13 Study, Defra, Food Shortages and Biobased Plastics
• 09/08/22 – Oxford Analytica, Indonesia, Paper is not the Answer
• 16/08/22 – Video, Canada, The Guardian, Food Waste, Recycled vs Virgin Polymer
• 22/08/22 – Defra and Plastics in Agriculture
• 30/08/22 – Recycling and Food Waste
• 07/09/22 – Microplastics, Environmental Footprints and Coffee Waste
• 21/09/22 – DEFRA
• 4/10/22 – Agricultural Film and Global Plastic Treaty
• 10/10/2022 – Anti-Plastic Zealots
• 17/10/22 – Innovation and the United Nations
• 31/10/22 – Defra Finally Complies with Disclosure Order
• 7/11/22 – Time to Ban Compostable Plastics? Also SUP Legislation in Wales and Scotland
• 12/12/22 – EU Talking About Biodegradable Plastic
• 19/12/22 – Corruption in the EU, Not so Compostable and Cry for Help
• 16/01/23 – Compostable Greenwashing, Home Composting – More Greenwashing
• 23/01/23 – Recycling Plastics, UK Government Will Not Support Compostable Plastic, Plastic Pacts Mislead Consumers
• 30/01/23 – Corruption in the EU Parliament, US Composting Consortium and Germany Rejects Crop-Based Biofuels

Interview with Michael Stephen

• Questions and Answers on OXO-Biodegradability

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed here by Michael Stephen and other columnists are their own, not those of Bioplasticsnews.com