Policy and reports

Vegware, the Scottish compostable foodservice packaging company, has released its Sustainability Report 2021. The report details Vegware’s commitment to driving access to composting infrastructure, and how its waste consultancy has supported caterers to compost its used compostable containers, cutlery and cups.

BBIA’s MD gave a keynote address at the CHEMUK conference in Birmingham on 12 May, underlining the role of Green Chemistry in the UK’s drive towards a cleaner, low carbon industrial base.

BBIA’s MD gave a keynote speech at the IBIOIC conference in Glasgow on 6 June, highlighting the role of the bioeconomy in the transition to a low carbon economy.

An opinion piece published by BBIA MD David Newman, on the current positions and strategies of global governments and how we can navigate the ecological situation ‘in which we now find ourselves’.

This article, published in Nature, highlights the knowledge gaps on the long term impacts of plastics in the environment. Acknowledging this gap in the context of life cycle assessment methods, the article says, is critical to account for the long-term fate of plastics in the decision-making process.

Released in partnership with consulting firm AFARA, the report aims to identify a series of prioritised interventions to propel the world towards a circular economy. It follows Google’s past work on plastic recycling, such as its 2018 white paper on The Role of Safe Chemistry and Healthy Materials in Unlocking the Circular Economy, and its 2019 landscape assessment of chemical recycling technologies with investment firm Closed Loop Partners, AFARA and nonprofit group GreenBlue.

‘ReShaping Plastics: Pathways to a Circular, Climate Neutral System In Europe’ presents an evidence-based roadmap for a paradigm shift in the European Plastics system.
Commissioned by Plastics Europe, this report aims to help guide policymakers, industry executives, investors, and civil society leaders as they seek to understand the trade-offs and navigate through a highly contested and complex terrain toward a circular Europe plastics system.

Flexible packaging is the fastest-growing plastic packaging category. Because it is almost uniformly single-use, with very low recycling and high leakage rates, it is also by far the most challenging market segment to address on the journey towards a circular economy for plastics.
This work aims to support organisations in achieving their circular economy for plastics goals by providing a practical direction forwards for flexible packaging.
Note: the below file is the executive summary. To view all chapters, visit the report page on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s website.

This project aims to gather data on the flows of single-use cups and on-the-go fibre-composite food packaging placed on market and recycled in the UK. It also aims to identify options for managing these items to help reduce the environmental impact of single-use cups and on-the-go fibre-composite food packaging, including an assessment of potential policy measures.

This paper outlines the problems with the way UK greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Currently, emissions associated with waste treated through incineration are reported under the ‘energy’ inventory instead of ‘waste’.
Any emissions reductions delivered by waste recycling are also omitted, listed under the ‘industrial production and product use’ section. Defra’s reporting therefore only reflects what is reported to the UN under the ‘waste’ section – currently limited to emissions associated with landfilling and composting, with the former accounting for the majority of emissions.

Speaking at the IEA Technology Collaboration Programme webinar on the circular bioeconomy on 16 February, BBIA Managing Director David Newman highlights the need to align policies with ambitions.

This paper examines several strategies published by the UK Government since 2017, which relate to bio-based and compostable plastic. BBIA underlines the apparent strategic support for the production of bio-based materials in the UK and for the separate collection and treatment of certified biodegradable/compostable products post-consumption, highlighting the significant development of the industry in the UK since 2017 including as a result the funding for research, driven through UKRI.
BBIA finds, however, that the transposition of strategic direction into policies is often contradictory and detrimental to the bio-based and biodegradable industries sector. Policies so far, since 2020, have been implemented which either disregard Government strategies or are announced that intend to over-turn Government strategies. BBIA calls upon Ministers, the Civil Service and Parliamentarians, to respect the strategic trajectory laid down by Governments since 2017 when implementing policy decisions, thus supporting the industry and kick-starting major investments into the UK economy.