Policy and reports

BBIA response to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations call for submissions to guide development of a Voluntary Code of Conduct on the sustainable use of plastics in agriculture.

Systemiq has published another report, in time for the UN negotiations on the Plastic Treaty and the UN Climate Week in New York last month, on how to affront and resolve the plastic waste crisis.

BBIA has published a critique of the Biomass Strategy which we have posted on our website here.

BBIA has published its responses to the Call for Evidence launched by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee into DEFRA meeting its targets for resource and waste policy reforms, including EPR.

So-called eco-friendly paper straws may not be so friendly after all. A report finds that they often contain PFAS known as forever chemicals because of their toxic persistence in the environment.

A critique of the circular economy, and how it has become a marketing tool rather than a real instrument of ecological change, is published in this American review.

An analysis of the US policies which are ‘driving the bioeconomy forward’ is made in this interesting interview /article which should be a guide also for policymakers in the UK struggling to create a coherent focus on the UK bioeconomy.

plants and their results are published here. They are extremely important because they show, in several geographies and in differing types of composting technologies, that their PLA yoghurt pots fully biodegrade in very short times and leave zero residues or microplastics. Thus another myth that bioplastics do not biodegrade, is busted.

A Chinese review of the scientific evidence illustrating the levels of microplastic pollution of soils has been published this summer and it makes interesting reading, both for those claiming that the use of plastics in agriculture is not a problem (spoiler alert, it is) and for those of us, like BBIA members, who propose benign alternatives. It adds another piece of evidence to the many that show the worrying scale of soil pollution from plastics and the damage this creates to ecosystems.

A peer-reviewed paper on why bioplastics should be the preferred choice of policymakers trying to resolve issues of plastics pollution has been published here. It makes the case that bioplastics, while not perfect, offer immediate solutions in many applications which help reduce plastic waste and therefore should be a priority for policymakers.

A research study undertaken by the pressure group Earth Actions claims that around 250,000 tons of plastics waste are mismanaged in the UK annually by which they mean plastic waste is not correctly processed or is exported.

The Royal Society of Chemistry has released its 2040 roadmap for sustainable polymers in liquid formulations.