How did we create the plastic monster?
Photo taken by Greg Martin at Friends of Portheras Cove exhibition of plastics from Cornish beach cleans
How did we create the plastic monster? What can we do to reduce the amount of plastic in our lives and crucially, reduce what gets into our environment, including the sea? The Government have a consultation running (details below) and on Earth Day Cornwall (April 22) there is a protest or awareness raising event planned to leave plastic packaging behind at supermarkets. If you want to tell supermarkets how you feel about the excess plastic packaging, click the link! Earth Day Event How to involve your friends with the event Leave plastic packaging behind video
St Just is committing to becoming plastic free but do some shops/ businesses need a nudge? Let me know if you think they do through Facebook, twitter of text.
Well it seems the Government are wanting our thoughts and are posing the following questions:
Defining and assessing
1.How should the government define single-use plastics, and what items should be included and excluded, and why?
2.What are the most important problems associated with single-use plastics, and why?
•Which polymer types are particularly problematic?
•Which items are particularly problematic?
3.Are there more environmentally friendly alternatives, currently available or possible in the future, to these types of single-use plastic items or their manufacturing processes, and can they still offer similar benefits?
•Should the government encourage biodegradability in plastics, and if so, how?
4.Are there single-use plastic items that are deemed essential by their nature or application, which cannot be substituted or avoided?
Life cycle of single use plastics
5.What factors influence the choice of polymer, or combination of polymers, in the production of single-use items?
•Can you provide data on the production and use of single-use plastic items you produce?
•What proportion of the polymers you use or sell do you import and export,respectively?
•What proportion of the single-use plastics you produce do you export?
6.What proportion of the plastic that you produce is made of recycled plastic, and what are the barriers to increasing this?
7.What proportion of the plastic that you produce is commercially recyclable and what are the barriers to increasing this and improving the grade it can be recycled to?
8.In your opinion, how can the tax system or charges play a role in delivering better environmental outcomes at this stage?
•What interventions should be implemented, and why?
•What behavioural effect would these interventions have, both on this stage in the supply chain, and more broadly?
•What would be the impact on your business?
9.What factors influence the design and specifications you make for the single-use plastic items you sell, and what are the barriers to using alternatives?
•In what way, and to what extent, do the decisions of producers and consumers influence the choice of single-use plastics you use in the items you sell?
10.Can you provide data on the volumes and costs of different types of single-use plastic used?
11.Have you taken any steps to address the environmental impact of the single-use plastic items you sell, including their end-of-life?
•Can you provide evidence of the effect these actions have had?
12.In your opinion, how can the tax system or charges play a role in delivering better environmental outcomes at this stage?
•What interventions should be implemented, and why?
•What behavioural effect would these interventions have, both on this stage in the supply chain, and more broadly?
•What would be the impact on your business?
13.What factors influence consumers’ choices related to single-use plastic items?
•How can the government encourage the re-use of these items?
14.What are the barriers to consumers choosing alternatives to single-use plastic items, and how responsive would consumers be to price changes?
15.In what way, and to what extent, do the decisions of producers and retailers influence consumer choice?
16.In your opinion, how can the tax system or charges play a role in delivering better environmental outcomes at this stage?
•What interventions should be implemented, and why?
•What behavioural effect would these interventions have, both on this stage in the supply chain, and more broadly?
•What would be the impact on consumers?
•Are there specific items the government should be focussing on?
17.What are the barriers to the collection of single-use plastics and more environmentally friendly methods of waste treatment, including barriers to any existing technologies?
18.In your opinion, how can the tax system or charges play a role in delivering better environmental outcomes at this stage?
•What interventions should be implemented, and why?
•What behavioural effect would these interventions have, both on this stage in the supply chain, and more broadly?
•What would be the impact on Local Authorities and business?