Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has called on the government to focus on reducing all single-use packaging, rather than switching to alternative materials such as compostable plastic packaging.

The Scottish Government has submitted legislation for the introduction of its deposit return scheme (DRS) for beverage containers, with the scheme currently slated for a 1 April 2021 commencement date.

PlasticFreeLand™ will be exhibiting at Packaging Innovations in London this week, providing an insight into what a plastic-free future could look like.

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of Alupro, the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation, gets his teeth into the issues surrounding deposit return schemes and their impact on aluminium can recycling.

Defra’s response to the resources and waste consultations confirm that big changes will be on the cards for 2023, with a deposit return scheme, extended producer responsibility regime and consistency of collections all proposed for introduction by then.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has put his weight behind an ‘all-in’ DRS for drinks containers as part of a speech on the need to act on climate change, pollution and natural degradation.

Research has established that Novamont’s compostable bioplastic Mater-Bi is fully biodegradable in the marine environment within four to 12 months.

Paper coffee cups can have a lower carbon footprint than reusable cups, especially if they are recycled, according to life cycle research commissioned by packaging manufacturer Huhtamaki.

Members of the UK Plastics Pact have committed to removing eight problematic or unnecessary single-use plastic items from shelves by the end of 2020 and have identified a further 19 items to take action against by 2025, though campaigners say the industry’s approach is “inadequate”.

The amount of undetectable black packaging coming to market is expected to be cut by 66 per cent by the end of 2019 due to efforts to reduce the amount of black plastic used in packaging and developments in detectable pigments and sorting equipment, says industry report.