Let’s talk bio-based and PPT

Should the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) be increased? That’s just one of the topics we discuss in this month’s issue of Looped In. We also caught up with FabLittleBag founder, Martha Silcott to learn about her innovative product that provides a solution to period product waste entering the water systems and we also heard from Braskem's Technical Advocacy Lead, Martin Clemesha on the role of bio-based plastics in achieving carbon neutrality.?

Happy reading, and, as ever, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the topics discussed or what you’d like to see covered in a future edition of LoopedIn.?

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Empowering communities through sustainable period product disposal

Looped In: Tell us about FabLittleBag and why you launched the business?

Martha: FabLittleBag is a sustainably sourced bag for disposing of tampons, pads and condoms. The idea came about following a personal experience, where I was without a bin to dispose of my tampon, so was forced to wrap it in tissue and do the ‘handbag smuggle’. After hearing one-too-many horror stories from other women, I knew I had to create a solution to the problem.

Little did I know that I would also uncover a shocking statistic: 40% of people flush their menstrual products - the tampon, applicator, plastic wrapper and even pads - the lot! The impact this has on the environment is incredibly damaging. Even the tampon alone is too risky to flush as it expands when in water and can clog narrow pipes. Unfortunately, there are also multiple ways for waste to get into rivers causing sanitary issues and pollution.?

Learning about these issues, as well as my own experiences of shame, embarrassment and inconvenience, all led me to this point. I wanted to create a product that would help the environment and allow women to feel more confident and relaxed when disposing of their period products.

Looped In: Tell us about the work you do in the community?

Martha: I’ve focussed on sports in the last two years because there’s lots of research from Sport England that shows periods are a big contributory factor for teenage girls dropping out of sports.?

Sports at grass-roots levels - many of which originate as male dominated sports - often have poor bathroom facilities and sometimes don’t offer separate toilets for women. Other issues can include no lock on the door, no loo roll and certainly no bin, so is there any wonder young girls are feeling uncomfortable? This experience can be compounded by the fact that many sports coaches are male, which can make it much harder to start a conversation. Instead, girls find it easier to make their excuses and go home, or not turn up to practice when they are due or on their period.

It’s because of this that I created the Coach’s Bag full of period products and FabLittleBags. Not only does it give girls easy access to products, but it also gives the coach an opportunity to break the taboo and start a conversation about periods. It also creates a safe space and encourages more girls to stay in sport. It’s easy for coaches to keep their bags topped up and become part of the period supportive movement.

Looped In: What material choices did you make for this product?

Martha: I don’t come from a materials or manufacturing background, meaning I had a lot to learn when I launched the business in 2016. I did huge amounts of research and after altering the product a few times, I decided I was most concerned about what the bag was made from and the impact it would have on the environment.?

I landed on biobased GreenPE (derived from sugar cane) as the core ingredient, as it is a renewable source and absorbs carbon as it grows. The bags also feature 30% recycled plastic, 10% renewable cornstarch to add softness of the bag for ease of use, and vegan glue. I wanted it to be as sustainably sourced and environmentally positive as possible.

Looped In: How important is it for manufacturers to consider environmental impact when designing products?

Martha: Absolutely crucial. The planet is at risk and it’s younger generations who are increasingly concerned about it. For businesses - especially those wanting to target this demographic - it’s so important to put this focus at the very core of manufacturing. As manufacturers, I believe we have a responsibility to make it as easy as possible for consumers to be able to do the right thing.

I’ve spent lots of time researching and learning, contacting suppliers for different types of film and pinning samples up on my wall, along with descriptions of the ingredients so I could visualise and feel them. I scrutinised the characteristics and the performance. It was a minefield. So I also talked to experts in the field, asked lots of questions and dug deep into the detail to really understand my options in order to produce an eco-friendly product.?

Looped In: Do you believe that negative press about plastic and consumer perceptions could stop progress towards a more circular economy?

Martha: I think there’s a huge amount of confusion and ignorance around plastic and people use sweeping statements to label plastic as bad. Plastic is an incredible material on which we all rely; it is such a problem because we as users don’t dispose of it properly and countries and governments have not and do not prioritise this. More time and investment is needed to help educate society as a whole.?

When you compare plastic to materials like paper, which requires lots of water to manufacture, is heavy and bulky, costly to transport across the globe and requires the use of chemicals and bleaches to make it white, plastic can come out on top.

It comes down to education and a coming together of society to make sensible choices for our one planet.

Looped In: It’s been our pleasure to hear Martha’s story and learn how her passion is helping so many young people and sports communities, as well as the environment.

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Are bio-based plastics the missing link to carbon neutrality?

The term ‘plastic’ has long had a bad reputation, but not all plastics are created equal. Looped In recently caught up with Martin Clemesha Technical Advocacy Lead at Braskem - a petrochemical company with sustainability at its core - who explained why bio-based plastics are such a powerful solution in the transition to a carbon neutral economy.

“It’s important to think about how plastics are being produced, shaped into products, used, and disposed of,” says Martin. “An approach that we follow at Braskem is the waste hierarchy: rethink, redesign, renew, reduce, reuse, recycle and recover. The first three ‘Rs’ of this hierarchy are the most important because it is during the design stage that a big part of the environmental impact of a product or service is defined. ‘Renew’ simply means opting for bio-based materials instead of the traditional fossil feedstock, a finite resource that needs to be phased out in the long run.”

Opting for a bio-based feedstock, such as ethanol from sugarcane, replaces fossil carbon currently extracted and instead removes carbon from the atmosphere. This occurs through photosynthesis, locking it into the polymer backbone, resulting in a significant positive contribution to carbon neutrality.?

Martin added: “Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions and miseducation in this area, and I believe it has a lot to do with our education system. If we want to build a society in which citizens are capable of understanding the impact of their lifestyles and consumption decisions, we need to start teaching them about how products are made and how each material has different environmental impacts. In other words, our kids need to be taught about product life cycle thinking at school.”?

One common misconception is that bio-based plastic made from plants will impact food availability and prices. In reports by Braskem and the Renewable Carbon Initiative - a multi-stakeholder think tank dedicated to promoting the transition of chemicals and materials away from fossil fuels - both found that maximising the value of a crop by producing multiple outputs, actually allows the agricultural sector to thrive. Brazilian sugarcane is a prime example of how well this works, as from just this crop, sugar, fuel, plastic and energy are being sustainably produced.??

Additionally, pro-degradation additives, at least for now, cannot be considered a sustainable option. “Progress has been made and we are always open to evaluating new technologies, but if plastics end up in the environment, they will end up generating microplastics as they break down,” added Martin. “From a circularity and net-zero perspective, recycling is a more sustainable option and therefore, we should put all our efforts into avoiding leakage and further developing recycled and recyclable biobased solutions.”

The beauty of recyclable bio-based solutions is that they remove and keep carbon out of the atmosphere contributing to climate mitigation and circularity. Unfortunately, many UK-based packaging manufacturers are struggling to prioritise bio-based plastic as it currently isn’t exempt from the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT). Encouragingly, the Netherlands expects to have a minimum of 25% to 30% recycled or bio-based plastic content requirement - the hope is that the UK receives the same mandate.?

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Should the Plastic Packaging Tax be raised?

Since taking effect in April 2022, the rate of the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) has increased twice and there’s now calls from industry to raise it further.

The levy was first charged at ￡200 per tonne of any plastic packaging not containing at least 30% recycled content. It increased to ￡210.82 per tonne in April 2023 and then rose again this month to ￡217.85 per tonne.

Increases in the levy have been in line with the Consumer Price Index, and there’s now a suggestion from Veolia to escalate the tax rate to 35% recycled content and ￡275 per tonne this year. The longer-term view is for the levy to increase to 50% recycled content and ￡500 per tonne by 2030.?

Veolia’s recommendations follow research with WRAP, which shows 22% of material used in plastic packaging is from recycled sources. By substantially increasing the PPT, usage of recycled packaging could be improved by making less sustainable choices of packaging more expensive.

The Environment Services Association (ESA) has also suggested escalating the PPT. Following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last year, the organisation noted weak demand in the plastics recycling sector, despite governmental ambitions. It called for PPT changes including a taxable rate of up to ￡500 per tonne and a minimum recycled content threshold of 50%.

Driving up demand and prices for recycled plastic would be most welcome – and is needed to accelerate the development of the market. On the flip side, would significant increases to the PPT drive down overall demand for plastic packaging and cause businesses to switch to alternative materials that may have higher carbon emissions? This could negatively impact net zero and circular economy targets.

Undoubtedly, there’s much to think about and consideration should be given to the evolution of the PPT. However, before changes are made, it could be more effective to properly understand how the tax has performed.???????????

HMRC data for the first year of the PPT showed that it generated ￡276million in revenue, which was above the predicted target of ￡235million for 2022 – 2023. During this period, 65% of packaging contained 30% or more recycled plastic content.?

Do we really know enough about what these figures are telling us? Were the predictions for ￡235million revenue in year one too conservative? How has the PPT impacted packaging usage and recycling rates of other materials across the UK (Defra’s UK statistics on waste are for 2021 – before the PPT was introduced)?

Similarly, do we understand how the PPT has impacted the use of non-exempt materials including bio-based plastics? We’ve seen examples where companies have opted to continue using renewable and recyclable bio-based resins in packaging, because they often have lower CO2eq than packaging hitting the minimum 30% recycled plastic threshold.?

How would increases to the levy impact research and development into other sustainable plastics? After all, compostable, biodegradable and bio-based plastics are not exempt from the tax. Do we risk losing focus on the merits and possibilities of such materials?

The Government is due to produce an evaluation of the PPT, and perhaps it’s worth looking at this first and considering it in the wider context of bio-based packaging trends, as well as UK-wide waste recycling rates, before making significant changes to the levy? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

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What are your thoughts on breaking the taboo around period product disposal in sports? Do you currently use any bio-based solutions in your business? If not, might you consider doing so now? Finally, if you have any thoughts on raising the PPT or anything else you’ve read in Looped In we’d love to hear them.

If you enjoyed this issue, take a look at our interview with retailer Charles Tyrwhitt to learn more about a brand successfully using bio-based material in ecommerce. You can also read about packaging design processes for a more circular future, with Litmus Sustainability’s Director of Sustainable innovation, Graeme Heyes Ph.D.