Nestle just pledged to cut its use of plastic made from fossil fuels by 1/3 in 5 years and said it would invest $2 billion to find more recycled material, a particularly big challenge for the food industry. Sellers of everything from soap to soft drinks are under pressure from consumers and regulators to use less fossil-fuel-based plastic, as well as prevent plastic trash ending up in the ocean. In response, some big consumer-goods firms, like P&G and Unilever, have rushed to promise reductions in plastic, saying they will switch to recycled material, use refillable containers or scrap packaging entirely.
But changing to recycled plastic is especially challenging for companies that need high-quality material that is safe for direct contact with food, writes The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 16, 2020). Recycling the packaging typically used for coffee, instant noodles or candy bars is difficult and expensive because it is often made from multiple types of material, like plastic melded with aluminum or paper. Sellers of fresh food also rely on plastic film—used to wrap cucumber and broccoli—and thin plastic bags for loose items, that often can’t be recycled.
Even when plastic is technically recyclable, it often isn’t collected and recycled. That is partly because, until recently, there has been little demand for recycled plastic, so even highly recyclable plastic—like drinks bottles—leak into the environment. Nestlé’s target of reducing the 1.67 million tons of plastic it uses is a challenge. Just 2% of its plastic packaging is currently made from recycled material.
To date, there is almost no market for the hard-to-recycle material often used in food packaging. Recycling efforts are being further challenged by China’s ban on scrap imports. For decades, the country took many of the world’s recyclables and turned them into new products. Its absence from the market has hit demand and raised costs for municipalities, propelling some to scrap their recycling programs entirely. This important topic is discussed in detail in Supp. 5 in your text, Sustainability in the Supply Chain.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Why has China reversed its position vis a vis importing plastics?
- What suggestions do students have for dealing with this serious issue?
