PLASTICS AND ENVIRONMENT
Oxo-biodegradable lobby responds to EMF's critical report / Packaging firms "care more about profits than the environment"
The Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association (OPA, London / UK; www.biodeg.org), which represents the oxo-biodegradable plastics (OBP) sector, has submitted a detailed response to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's (EMF, Cowes / UK; www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org) call for the banning of oxo-degradable plastic packaging – see Plasteurope.com of 13.11.17.
OPA strongly refuted the EMF report and called it “counter-productive and confusing.” The foundation is “seeking to deprive the environment of the benefits of technology,” OPA further added.
The response, released by OPA chairman Michael Stephen, refers to EMF’s critical report as the “latest in a series of commercially-motivated attacks on OBP” by packaging organisations whose packaging was responsible for much of the plastic waste in the environment. It also criticises the packaging companies, such as Unilever, PepsiCo and Nestlé, backing the EMF report, and said they are “not willing to engage with the OBP industry to run trials and find out whether OBP will work for them,” as “they care more about their profits than about the environment.”
OBP products are “an upgrade to ordinary plastic, which ensures that if plastic litter escapes into the open environment, it will convert rapidly into biodegradable materials and will not remain there for decades as conventional plastic does now.”
In its response to EMF’s call for a ban on oxo-biodegradable plastics, OPA ensured that only OBP made by reputable manufacturers in accordance with international standards should be placed on the market, and for this, the association said a standard has already been written and will be submitted to the European Commission in due course.
OPA strongly refuted the EMF report and called it “counter-productive and confusing.” The foundation is “seeking to deprive the environment of the benefits of technology,” OPA further added.
The response, released by OPA chairman Michael Stephen, refers to EMF’s critical report as the “latest in a series of commercially-motivated attacks on OBP” by packaging organisations whose packaging was responsible for much of the plastic waste in the environment. It also criticises the packaging companies, such as Unilever, PepsiCo and Nestlé, backing the EMF report, and said they are “not willing to engage with the OBP industry to run trials and find out whether OBP will work for them,” as “they care more about their profits than about the environment.”
OBP products are “an upgrade to ordinary plastic, which ensures that if plastic litter escapes into the open environment, it will convert rapidly into biodegradable materials and will not remain there for decades as conventional plastic does now.”
In its response to EMF’s call for a ban on oxo-biodegradable plastics, OPA ensured that only OBP made by reputable manufacturers in accordance with international standards should be placed on the market, and for this, the association said a standard has already been written and will be submitted to the European Commission in due course.
22.11.2017 Plasteurope.com [238419-0]
Published on 22.11.2017