A Plastic Planet

On Wednesday, the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP delivered Labour’s first budget in 15 years. While the Chancellor promised an end to “short-termism”, the can has been firmly kicked down the road with the environment. Indeed, the government funded their plans for Great British Energy; £400 million has been allocated for tree planting and peatland restoration, and there were some nods to the role of electric vehicles. However, the government has also given Big Oil an easy ride instead of moving toward more sustainable spending, as promised in the manifesto. Predictably, measures to address the plastic crisis were missing, and the government’s investment in carbon capture technology is nothing more than a fig leaf for the oil giants. The government also hopes that Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging will bring in over £1billion per annum in revenue to improve recycling outcomes. The real outcome of recycling however is a greenwashing smokescreen, propping up a “business as usual” mindset that fuels plastic pollution and drives us towards a global health catastrophe. Funding for innovation, standards to ensure materials are truly plastic-free, regulation to ensure accountability for the biggest polluters – these are some of the steps that must be taken if the government wishes to see change. Where is the balance sheet that proves it’s possible to have a healthy economy on a dying planet? Prime Minister Starmer pledged his government would ‘choose a different path’ to rescue the years of Conservative derailment, yet we have seen more short-sighted policy choices which keep us in a cycle of planetary vandalism. Our government needs to decide who it is elected to protect - the profits of the fossil fuel giants or the healthy future of their citizens. If we do not adopt stronger environmental policies, incentivising business to do better, we will see devastation that eclipses the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. For global businesses continuing to use plastic alone presents a $100 billion annual financial risk by 2040. We have had yet another glimpse into the future with the tragic impact of floods in Spain this week, scientists warning the climate crisis exacerbated the impact. Have a look at Florida real estate that is uninsurable from rising sea levels. We must recognise our existence is connected to one huge system of life and if we disconnect ourselves from that system, we disconnect ourselves from not just fiscal security but life itself.

A ban on single-use vapes across England will come into force on 1st June 2025, Minister Mary Creagh has confirmed today. Almost five million disposable vapes were littered or discarded in general waste each week last year, the equivalent of 8 per second. There is something symbolic about the disposable vape, that has seen a boom in the last two years. It is not only reflective of the throwaway culture that the world has adopted but of the health risks we are now willing to put ourselves through. Industries have managed to persuade people to inhale from an object that is made of toxic, indestructible materials, and that is leaving aside the potential risks of breathing in atomised e-liquid. For Labour Conference, a Plastic Planet presented an entire roadmap to a prosperous post-plastic economy, and this inevitably comprises a number of bans on plastics. We pointed to a ban on single-use vapes and e-cigarettes for March 2024 to tackle the distribution crisis of these. The ban on single-use vapes is really encouraging news, but we are still miles away from fundamental shifts in legislation that will force industries to embrace innovative materials and abandon plastic production. We need more of these bans to end the spread of the plastic disease once and for all.

Plastic is a relic of the dinosaur age—the future of beauty is plastic-free. Today, our co-founder, Sian Sutherland, took the stage at The Plastic Solutions Summit, hosted by the British Beauty Council in collaboration with PlasticFree.com and Made Thought. Her message was clear: the solutions for a plastic-free future are already in our hands. The era of excuses is over—no one should be fooled by the status quo. Trailblazing innovators including RyPax, Shellworks, Xampla, Reposit, Beauty Kitchen UK Ltd | B Corp and Notpla are shattering expectations and proving that a beauty industry free from plastic waste is not just a dream—it’s a reality unfolding before our eyes. We have the solutions at our fingertips, now industry needs to collaborate with innovators like never before to make plastic history, and protect our planet and health from its harm.

Yet another report proves why we don’t need single-use plastic packaging. Analysis by DS Smith has unveiled that more than half of food and drink items in UK supermarkets are packed in entirely unnecessary packaging, amounting to nearly 30 billion avoidable pieces of packaging annually. These findings were compared with those of the most popular European supermarkets and disappointingly uncovered that the UK is the most reliant on plastic packaging. Also this week, WRAP called on the Government to ban packaging on 21 fruit and vegetables sold in supermarkets. After decades of telling us that more plastic = less food waste, it’s great to see WRAP's latest report calling for an outright ban. Our founder, Sian Sutherland comments: “It’s almost a decade since the world woke up to the plastic crisis and still shoppers are given little choice with over half of all food and drink still packaged with this incredible but toxic and indestructible material. “Industry seems to think there are no alternatives but they are fundamentally wrong. There are countless solutions already available, using nature-friendly materials that do not leach thousands of microplastics and chemicals into our food. “But the brands and retailers that persist with plastic will not change quickly without strong policy, catalysing them to move investment into new systems and materials. “We need governments to step up, create a simple plastic-reduction roadmap that helps industry plan ahead and move investment into a post-plastic thriving economy.” Read the DS Smith report here: https://lnkd.in/efxX6zUy Find out more about WRAP's campaign here: https://lnkd.in/eSuKYP6h

Top panel 🚨 alert. 🔔 Hope to see y’all at Blue Earth Summit My first panel kicks off at 10am in the Futures Stage where we have a fast and furious solutions focused session with founders who are MAKING THE FUTURE. Followed rapidly by the Agents of Change Panel on main Blue stage. Come and say 👋 Emily Penn Nick Doman Prof Sally Beken, Fellow IOM3 Amir Afshar Alvin Lim Roni GamZon Benjamin Droguet Notpla

ONE DAY TO GO. Tomorrow at 10am, Blue Earth Summit presents OUR THRIVING POST PLASTIC FUTURE – How we will make stuff. The fast-paced discussion will explore what can replace the incredible but toxic and indestructible material that is plastic. It will give us a glimpse into a very exciting and hope-filled future of truly circular materials. Moderated by Sian Sutherland, the talk will kick off with wonderful footage from X Trillion’s Emily Penn, industry insights from Nick Doman and Salley Beken, wrapping up with five extraordinary founders leading us into a PlasticFree future. If you haven’t already booked, use the discount code [SPEAKER25] to get your tickets: https://lnkd.in/dHC7sYwd Alvin Lim Benjamin Droguet Amir Afshar Roni GamZon

We already have the solutions to the plastic crisis right at our fingertips. Today, our co-founder Sian Sutherland is at the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt Responsible Leaders Summit in Berlin, where she’s engaging with innovators who are shaping a plastic-free future. One of these trailblazers is Sparxell, the creators of plastic-free glitter, who are making headlines in The Guardian this week. Sparxell is among many start-ups at the summit that are driving the shift from plastic to nutrient-based alternatives, showing how interconnected and solvable this crisis truly is. The tools for change are in our hands—we can make this happen. Benjamin Droguet Julian Ellis-Brown Ponda Leena Al Olaimy Symbaiosys https://lnkd.in/g5tk3uYf

We can no longer ignore the devastating health impacts of plastics and their toxic chemicals. The evidence is undeniable. In 2019 and 2020, scientists at UCR and Duke University in Southern California uncovered a disturbing reality: the average urban resident’s daily exposure to plasticizers is off the charts. Through an experiment involving 137 students wearing wristbands over several days, researchers proved that these individuals were continuously surrounded by highly carcinogenic chemicals, lurking in the very air they breathed. The results are nothing short of alarming: up to 97 percent of these hazardous plasticizers were traced back to DEHP and DiNP—two chemicals that pose serious threats to human health. DEHP, which California has only recently banned in medical devices, is just one of many culprits. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to raise the alarm, pointing to overwhelming evidence linking these plasticizers to cancer, developmental disorders in children, and reproductive health issues. This is a crisis we can no longer afford to downplay. It’s time for decisive action—a sweeping ban on these toxic plasticizers in everything from cosmetics to packaging and everyday products. The stakes are too high to wait any longer. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gTRPPvXn

“The corporate zeitgeist believes increased recycling and improved “eco-design” will save their day, but such wishful thinking will result in a 43 percent rise in plastic waste from their supply chain by 2040.” In her latest piece for Resource, Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, lays bare the harsh truth: recycling is nothing more than a greenwashing smokescreen, propping up a “business as usual” mindset that fuels plastic pollution and drives us toward a global health catastrophe. Sian urges consumers to not be fooled by fake recycling statistics and demands that businesses “wake up, move the money to the materials and systems of the future, and protect the health of their customers rather than the healthy bottom line of the fossil fuel industry.” With the final negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty on the horizon, governments stand at a pivotal moment to dismantle the status quo and lead the charge towards a post-plastic economy. Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/e5gTW66W

Recycling is the fig leaf of consumption, as proved by yet another shameful report. Research by Everyday Plastic and the Environmental Investigation Agency demonstrates how UK supermarkets attempt to fool the British public with soft plastic “recycling schemes”. Trackers were placed on 40 pieces of soft plastic that were supposed to be recycled under the “return to store” recycling scheme by leading supermarkets, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. However, none of the items that were tracked to their end destination were recycled. 70% of these soft plastics were burnt, and others were downcycled to be used as unrecyclable materials. These alarming but unsurprising findings are just one of many demonstrations that plastic waste is unmanageable, and that industries are tricking consumers under the guise of recycling. People are bothering to take their bread bags and food wrappers back to their supermarket for what? Ritual burning? This is tantamount to fraud.   We have learnt from the case of ExonMobil that corporations will increasingly be facing litigations around misleading recycling claims and plastic pollution. With the UN Plastics Treaty on the horizon, there is a real opportunity for governments to introduce ambitious legislation that cuts the production of plastic at the source, so businesses have no choice but to play ball.