Thermoformer LVF Packaging is urging the UK government to ringfence money raised through the country’s Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) to develop joined-up recycling facilities across the UK.
The family-owned company warned that ‘a lot of time and money’ had been spent seeking out alternative food packaging materials without the perceived drawbacks of plastics, yet little progress had been made almost 10 years later.
The Leeds-based business claimed the reason for the ‘decade-long deadlock’ is that there ‘simply isn’t a suitable alternative’ for fresh items.
“Plastics, and in particularly the clear rPET mono that is used the vast majority of the time, is the only viable material – especially for meat,” said Dan Coates, LVF’s business development director.
‘No alternative material has been found’
“It’s highly recycled, highly recyclable, has great barrier properties and keeps the food fresh for longest. Everyone knows those facts, which is very much why no alternative material has been found.”
Coates argued that plastics waste had been “public enemy number one” ever since Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II documentary series was first broadcast back in 2017.
“The greenwashing, anti-plastics wagon has been trundling along noisily ever since,” Coates said.
“The big problem though is that plastics waste was put there by human hands, which would have been far better served working out a properly thought-out recycling strategy and joining together to create circular economies for plastics packaging.”
Coates claimed that the PPT raises almost £300 million ($403m) every year, but “is doing nothing to improve recycling in the UK, which is still an absolute mess”.
Coloured bin confusion
He also cautioned against many different coloured recycling bins, which create “confusion” for householders and can lead to products being disposed of in the wrong bins, contaminating the recycling streams.
“The government needs to rectify this by ringfencing funds raised through the PPT and investing them in a UK-wide Recycling Plan,” Coates suggested.
“If we as a country can afford to spend upwards of £100 billion [$134.3bn] on [rail project] HS2, then surely we can afford to invest a fraction of that in creating a recycling programme that ensures all plastics packaging is recycled and fed back to the manufacturers – a step that will eradicate future plastics waste and greatly help future generations.”
The UK government’s treasury department was approached for a comment.
