Are you ready for more single use plastic bans?

India announces a ban on 19 single use plastic items to help combat their 14 million annual tons of plastic usage.

Canada announced a plan to ban the production and import of single use plastics by the end of 2022. The sale of single use plastics will become prohibited by December 2023.

The UN already passed a resolution to end plastic waste earlier in 2022.

https://www.plasticstreaty.org/

The US, however, is taking a longer timeline approach.

In California, by 2028 the state will require 30% of plastic to be recyclable; moving to 65% in 2032. In parallel, calling for a 25% reduction in single use plastic by 2032.

In the United States, single use plastics will be banned in national parks - by 2032.

However, still and again, in the US major climate legislation was just stopped.

These are just the announcements from the last weeks, and they will be far from the only developments in the coming year.

Suffice to say, consumer sentiment is swaying against plastics, with three out of four in a 28 country survey agreeing to a global single use plastics ban. This sentiment is being compounded by policy considerations.

Single use plastics, however, are a piece - a mid-size piece - to the larger struggle to avoid a disproportionately large burden on future generations to adapt to a more polluted world. One where plastics increasingly are in our food and bloodstream, with unknown biological impacts on our species and others.

The reasoning is known and has been clear for some time. Now its the question of adjustment and accelerating on behalf of the private sector to overcome and succeed beyond the timeline set by policy action.

But as the current generations well know, how we talk about and allocate responsibility for these transitions matters. Every firm counts, but not every firm counts equally in terms of the larger problem of a global green transition.

So lets be real about this: we do indeed need the major plastic producers to shift gears; but even if they do, we live in a world which currently relies on business models, social programs, all manners of manufacturing and production mechanisms which have become accustomed to the convenience of plastics.

A post-plastic world requires more than plastic bans, it needs concerted effort to help as many small to medium actors as possible shift to alternative production and distribution models at the same time as large actors. A question of strategic pressure will be key: should the large firms transition and add pressure on the small firms; should the small firms come together in the aggregate and add pressure on the transition of large.

Or even more, is it really an either/or?

Ultimately, its not an either or. Everyone has a responsibility and need to prepare and get ready for adjusting to a world with less plastics. This does mean more concerted funding and innovation space opening up at the local distribution and logistical coordination level. This means more space opening up in the transitional demand from the mass variety of small to medium sized firms without the internal capacity to navigate the demands of shifting their production and logistical infrastructure by themselves. And like all other circular transitions, this is not a singular firm focus anyways - its how a network of firms with related inputs and outputs work together.

Single use plastic bans need to refocus the innovation community's attention on the short game for circular transitions. How do we get as many firms prepared for smooth transition from single use to durable, reusable alternatives? How do we raise the social and financial cost of relying on single use plastics before the ban period sets in?