The tragedy of food packaging waste: plasticThe problem: plastic food packaging The global packaging market is estimated to reach $975 billion dollars profit in 2018 (Smithers Pira, 2017). Almost one third constitutes the use of plastics (Smithers Pira, 2017). However, at the same time plastic is also the packaging material with the largest environmental impact. Table 1 shows that plastic has the highest score in The Packaging League, meaning it has the largest impact on the environment of all packaging materials (Bryn Jones, 1991).

Table 1. The Packaging League Table. (Bryn Jones, 1991)

On average, one plastic bag is used for only 12 minutes before we throw it away. However, the same plastic bag takes 500 years or more to break down in the environment. Besides, the bag does not even break down completely, so it continues to pollute the environment (Single-use Plastic Bag Facts, 2017). Unfortunately, the vast majority of plastics used for food packaging are not biodegradable. The disposal of conventional plastic is very difficult, because there are many kinds of plastics with different chemical compositions resulting in different recycling processes. Additionally, burning plastic produces toxic chemicals, such as dioxins. This is why currently most of the plastic packaging waste ends up at landfill and even as plastic soup (Cohen, 2015).

Plastic soup. (Cohen, 2015).

The European Commission already set some targets to reduce packaging waste. The European waste and recycling target is set at recycling 75% of packaging waste by 2030 (European Commission, 2017).

At Erasmus University College (EUC) and Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) students also make use of a lot of packaging materials. Most of this packaging material used by students comes from the canteens, restaurants and the SPAR supermarket. In this way students are unfortunately also largely contributing to this environmental problem. Supermarkets are the main source of food packaging, such as the SPAR at the EUR.

SolutionsDue to the size of the issue, it is not easily prevented or mitigated by the actions of just a few students alone. Creative actions need to be undertaken along the whole value chain: from producers to suppliers to consumers. This is why we propose a double-edged solution: a change in infrastructure as well as a change in student’s consumer behaviour. One will not succeed without the help of the other.

Change in infrastructureA solution for this problem is to use (biodegradable) bioplastics instead of normal plastics. Bioplastics are “polymer materials that consist of bio-based (renewable) materials and/or can be biologically degraded” (Siebert-Raths & Endres, 2011). According to this definition bioplastics do not necessarily have to be biodegradable. In fact, currently more than 50% of the bioplastics are not biodegradable. Biodegradable means that the plastic “can be broken down into its constituent monomers and metabolised through the action of naturally occurring micro-organisms (International Solid Waste Association, 2015).

The main advantage of bioplastics is that they are environmentally friendly compared to conventional plastics. Switching to bioplastics leads to reduced CO2 emissions, less waste, and less use of fossil fuels. Besides, when the oil prices continue to rise, bioplastics may even become cheaper than conventional plastics. An added bonus is that by using biodegradable plastics, nutrients are returned to the soil when they are thrown away.

However, there are also some disadvantages. A common argument against the use of bioplastics is that the feedstocks for bioplastics could compete with the food industry. However, this turns out not to be the case, as feedstock for bioplastics only use a small part of the arable land. Figure 2 shows that bioplastics only use 0.01% of all arable land, meaning it actually does not compete with the food industry (European Bioplastics, 2017).

Figure 2. Land use for bioplastics. (European Bioplastics, 2017).

Another disadvantage is that there is still a need for composters for certain bioplastics. Currently the technology for composting bioplastics is not fully available. Some biodegradable plastics produce methane gas when they decompose, which is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2 (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2001). Additionally, some bioplastics still need relatively high temperatures to degrade.  A challenge facing the food industry is to create durable bioplastics for food products. Temperature, humidity and the presence of microorganisms can not only affect the quality of the food, but at the same time also the quality of the bioplastic. These factors can influence the degradation of the bioplastics. Therefore, packaging producers should invest in technologies to create bioplastics that have the optimal properties for food packaging (Liu, 2006).

Currently only 1% of all plastics used is biobased. However, with growing technology around 85% of plastics could be replaced by biobased plastics, as illustrated in figure 3 (ProBIP, 2009).

              Figure 3. Percentage of bioplastics used and percentage of bioplastics that could be used.

We suggest that bioplastics should replace conventional plastics in the food industry, since it is the largest packaging sector. As shown in figure 1, most of the packaging used in 2014 and 2015 was used for food and drinks. Supermarkets have the biggest share in the sale of these products. We therefore propose that the SPAR at campus Woudestein starts to replace their packaging materials with biodegradable bioplastics. The SPAR can then function as a pioneer and testing facility, in order to convince other supermarkets to follow their lead.

Figure 1. Global Retail Packaging Demand in 2015 and Volume Growth. (Downey, 2016).

Another reason for using bioplastics in the food industry is that conventional plastics used in the food industry often cannot be recycled, as they are contaminated with the food. Using bioplastics in the food industry would thus largely contribute to stopping the amount of plastic waste from growing. Besides, since we only use food packaging for a very short time, we want the packaging material to be biodegradable.

Changing student’s consumer behaviour: what can you do?As a student, you have the power to make a big change. There are several actions which you can easily undertake to help prevent this problem from growing bigger. This section will discuss these actions.

It all starts with becoming more conscious of the way you and your fellow students make use of packaging materials. Try to pay attention to what kinds of packaging you use and throw away during a day, or even a week. Start to take notice of what other students around you are throwing away as well. The first step in changing your behaviour is to realize what the behaviour is you want to change in the first place.

After having carefully reconsidered the way you make use of packaging materials, the first thing you can do to change your behaviour is to start creating less waste by using less. One way to cut down on your packaging consumption is to avoid buying packaged food. For instance, when you buy some bread at the SPAR, don’t take a plastic bag.

The next step is to reuse. An example of a material which could be reused is plastic bags, however, to really start reusing food packaging you should upgrade to higher quality, durable materials. For instance, instead of using the paper coffee cup at the SPAR start taking your own durable mug and bring your own durable bag when you go shopping.Although these examples seem quite obvious or even cliché, the amount of students and consumers in general who really do this remains to be quite low.

Another way to contribute to solving the issue is to recycle. The best way to contribute to recycling is to carefully separate the packaging you throw away. Without packaging material being carefully separated by consumers it is harder, or sometimes even impossible, to recycle. Many bioplastics look very similar to conventional plastics. The difference between bioplastics PLA and conventional PET is hardly noticeable. However, when these two kinds of plastics are put in the same recycling bin, they become impossible to recycle. Therefore bioplastics need extra effort in recycling, so that the bioplastics are separated from conventional plastics.

While applying this ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ strategy would constitute for a great part to reducing your ecological footprint, it is not yet enough to completely mitigate your contribution to the waste issue. An additional action you can undertake is buying packaged food with a logo that says ‘compostable’, or ‘bio-based’. Not only would this reduce your own ecological footprint, you’re also showing the supermarkets that there is a demand for these kinds of packaging. As the demand for these products rises, supermarkets will be motivated to make use of these packaging materials.

Below are some examples of logos that indicate that the product is compostable or bio-based.

A Belgian inspection and certification organization called Vincotte even uses a biobased certification called OK biobased. This certification uses a star system to indicate the biobased content of a product (Vincotte, 2017). This is a clear way in which consumers can see how biobased their product actually is.

Conclusion Packaging waste is a major environmental problem in our society, with plastic having the largest environmental impact of all packaging materials. Using bioplastics instead of conventional plastics for food packaging could be a good way to solve the problem of plastic packaging waste. However, this change has to be implemented along the entire value chain. The manufacturer and the supermarket as well as the consumer should all work on the replacement of conventional plastics by bioplastics.

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