Part 2 - Packaging and Sustainability: can they go together?
IS THE PANIC JUSTIFIED? Continued from part 1.
“Nah! The European Union has lots of technology and capabilities, right?? After all, Western Europe is indeed the modern world panacea” … This is what I thought when I first started to deep dive into this topic.
Due to my work I had to read the latest regulatory documents on packaging waste and recycling (a few times actually, as published regulations are very difficult documents to understand).
Governments have noticed the waste management and recycling gap and are trying to figure out ways to close it. But in my angry opinion: “Too little and it feels like too late”.
Only people deep into the Packaging industry are able to know that in 2019 the German government has re-written its “Greendot” law (Google something like this: “German + Verpackungsgesetz” and you will be directed to a website that has an English translation) that somehow targets to put hurdles on industries using packaging that cannot be recycled. I wonder if people in the UK are aware that their government had a consultation early 2019 to issue a one-of-a-kind “Plastic tax” law, that hopes to see the light by 2022 (Google: “plastic tax consultation + HM Treasury”). Sounds great! Right?
But on the other hand: I wonder on general public awareness that the most environmentally conscious state in the US just chucked its only law proposal that would have made single-use plastic a little bit more difficult to spread…One step advancement, three steps back.
It is vox-populi that the main EC directive on Single-use plastic is extremely “polite” when it comes to hard reduction targets as it seems only the Cocacolas or Pepsis of this world will have to come up with true measures to meet them. My point is: it is great to think about soda bottles, but what about the rest?
There are some documents that are on the right direction being really strenuous and aiming for a true environmental improvement, but they are somewhat “optional” (Google: “European commission Ecolabel requirements 2017”).
Besides a burning Amazon because of corporate greed and unconscious meat-eaters, besides the collapsing ecosystems for sakes of “fairy tales of eternal economic growth”, we are heading for a mass extinction also because of our own garbage.
I´m quoting Greta Thunberg´s speech, you might have noticed. More about that later, please keep reading.
I get frustrated and very emotional every time I think about this… What are we going to do, like, for real?!
I need to unlearn this. There must be something we can do.
BESIDES GARBAGE, THERE IS ONE MORE TOPIC, AND IT DOES GET A BIT SCARIER…
Scientific moment here: Biopersistant and Bioaccumulative.
This means that for a particular substance, there is no known biological system able to deal with it, and I am talking about microorganisms, enzymes or metabolic pathways that on their level have no clue what to do with this modern stuff. Therefore “it” cannot be broken down, it persists and gradually accumulates in the most vulnerable tissues of living beings.
What is that accumulation doing to our bodies? For example: what are these traces in our blood (persistent and accumulative) of halogenated compounds (ie. Teflon) doing to our livers? Immune systems? Reproductive systems? Our brains? Ok, forget Teflon, probably not relatable enough… think about stuff coming out of that plastic tray you put into the microwave for your weekday dinner or the stuff coming out of the glue used to strongly hold together anything...
BPA (Bisphenol A) got fantastic visibility in the last decade since it was advertised way over the top, but at least it got the job done: baby bottles are no longer made of that particular plastic that contains it. The truth? most plastics will NOT contain BPA as it is only used in a handful of materials. No, your 1€ water bottle will not contain BPA, and marketeers around the globe are using it as a vantage point that makes plastic safe sounding, front panel in your face: “BPA free”.
Sadly, it seems that the train stopped there: what about the rest?
Again, not many people outside of the Packaging world will voluntarily wander into the European Commission website and download the (free) 100+page EC Directive document from 2011 about all the restricted substances that come out of everyday household plastics.
If you are anything like me, you will click on the link out of sheer curiosity.
Follow this link to the EC 10/2011 Regulation for plastic materials intended to come in contact with food.
This is not a drill, this is reality!
People: this document is from 8 years ago! Don’t you think that almost a decade later there are a whole bunch of new restricted substances with more data that proves their harm? And I´m talking beyond “simple” biopersistant or bioaccumulative substances, I´m talking here about hardcore stuff like mutagenic substances (molecules that bind to your DNA and mutates it) or endocrine disruptors (substances that act like our own hormones; this might sound familiar: “estrogenic effect” is not only limited to Monsanto´s evil doings).
I wonder if the general public will be really willing to have the whole truth that lies behind every day plastic.
While I write this rant, this difficult topic feels a lot like becoming a vegan. Only a fraction of people will be brave enough to face the truth, the rest will continue to mindlessly consume meat, sorry, to mindlessly consume single-use plastic and throw it in the garbage hoping that it “goes away”.
Beyond Meat? Now we need something like “Beyond Plastic”!!
FELT IN MY BONES: GRETA´S MESSAGE
Last week (20th September, link here to my post) I was part of the #Fridaysforfuture strike in an almost clandestine fashion, as I was officially told not to attend in working hours. It was a fantastic experience. The diversity of age astonished me as I was expecting to see a bunch of kids playing hookie from school. It was a democratic mixture of old, medium and young people with creative angry banners and lots of purposeful energy. The German coal mines and carbon emissions were the center of the march and speeches. There was Greenpeace around, Youth protection organizations and a few Animal´s rights and vegans here and there… But there was almost nothing on plastic and recycling…It made me confused to the point of uncomfortable.
As a plantbased eater I am able to minimize my daily impact and not support animal agriculture´s destructive wake. As a consumer in a developed country I am able to make mindful choices with a better footprint (a post on my experience with #lessplastic substitutions will come up soon). This is good, right?
However, here is the unlearning part: as a 9-to-5 Research and Development person from a +14bio$ turnover company, I am yet to convince myself that I am able to make a true positive impact as far as Packaging Sustainability goes.
My cynicism is taking the best of me. I need to unlearn this.
Greta Thunberg made on the UN Climate Summit (23.09.2019 to be precise) a passionate speech that will go down in history as one of the great ones. A humble teenager that stood in front of the most powerful people in the world and for four minutes straight, in behalf of her entire generation, basically threatened the whole UN committee that are “thinking only on money” and on their “empty words (…) and fairytales of eternal economic growth”, while “entire ecosystems are collapsing” and in the midst of “a mass extinction”.
Talking only about money, empty words and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. These words made me cry so bad in a mixture of anger, frustration and despair… as they are all SO true and I am living them on a day to day basis. She is 16, she has never worked in a corporate environment and she fucking nailed it.
So, I truly felt it on my bones when Greta stood up to threaten world politicians. There are -some- laws out there and as a starting point: we need a tougher enforcement of them, to demand action and results beyond shareholder profits…Laws are the only way to make a corporation understand that there will be no eternal economic growth if all our ecosystems will collapse due to that same greed that is making them deaf and blind!
Will I be able at 40 years old, from my small corner, to create some awareness on Packaging Sustainability while doing the courageous thing, refusing to get stuck on empty front-panel marketing-driven luring-claims, only developing truthful engineering and hopefully creating consumer value?
One wise former boss once told me: “the true nature of R&D (Research and Development) is to be willing to try and fail… and then try again”.
So here it goes, my manifesto.
This has become the only reason that fuels me to go to work every day.
