Plastic Bag Free Day: NGO warns against bio-based greenwashing

03 Jul 2020 --- In light of the 11th International Plastic Bag Free Day, Surfrider Foundation Europe warns that greenwashing is jeopardizing the plastic pollution reduction movement. Besides implementing more stringent plastic bag legislation, the non-profit organization is calling on EU Member States to remove exemptions on biodegradable and bio-based plastic bags, considering the ambiguous definitions of these terms. Moreover, these labels do not guarantee plastics are disposed of as intended. Surfriders’ new report entitled Make it Right: Time for Europe to act against plastic bag pollution details legislative opportunities and terminology clarifications to enable more effective strategies to reduce plastic bag pollution.

In April 2015, the EU adopted the first EU Directive 2015/720 – commonly referred to as the Plastic Bag Directive – which requires Member States to take measures to sustain the reduction of lightweight plastic carrier bags in their territory.

Options given to Member States varied from national reduction targets; taxes or levies to market restrictions; bans of all lightweight carrier bags; or a combination of these objectives: 

• Banned plastic bags: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Romania.
• Taxed plastic bags: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.
• Taxed, but ban in progress: Slovakia.
• Voluntary agreement: Finland.
• Voluntary agreement, but ban in progress: Germany.

Surfriders considers a ban on plastic bags to be the best measure to drive plastic bag reduction.“[Taxing plastic bags has] proven effective and successful in some countries, but we still consider bans and marketing restrictions to be the most preferable option. We have no excuse for continuing using a single-use item that has proven detrimental to the environment,” Gaelle Haut, EU Affairs Project Manager at Surfrider, tells PackagingInsights.

However, certain countries have chosen to grant legislative exemptions, which are explicitly allowed in the EU Directive. While these predominantly include “very lightweight plastic bags,” they also cover compostable bags and bags for foodservice purposes. 

Having already opposed these exemptions strongly during the negotiations of the Directive in 2013, Haut and colleagues maintain their view of them as “contrary to the objective” set in the Directive for Member States “to achieve a sustained reduction in the consumption of lightweight plastic carrier bags [under 50 microns] in their territory” – which includes very lightweight plastic bags [under 15 microns].

Greenwashing hurts the environment
Other provisions in the Plastic Bag Directive are subject to diverse interpretations and can leave the floor open for exempting biodegradable bags. “We need to restrict through law the use of marketing techniques, claims and logos found on plastic products and packaging to avoid consumer confusion, especially when it comes to unregulated claims that cannot be substantiated. [These include] ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘green’ and ‘100 percent natural’ or ‘bio,’” Haut explains.

In Surfrider’s view, biodegradable, bio-based and compostable plastics don’t serve any purpose as they are still single-use and divert attention from the real problem: the overuse of plastics. “They exactly have the same impacts if they end up in the environment and contribute to consumer confusion,” Haut affirms. 

The term “bioplastics” is ambiguous in nature, affiliate environmental organization Rethink Alliance highlights in a separate report. Bio-based plastics rely on limited land resources and chemical-intensive industrial agriculture, which is often made in combination with fossil fuels.

Member States across the board have made exemptions for plastic bags used in the food industry.Meanwhile, less than 40 percent of bio-based plastics are designed to be biodegradable. The term “biodegradable” and “compostable” can also be left to the consumer’s interpretation, considering there are different types of biodegradable plastics:

• Soil biodegradable: Current uses such as crop covering still contribute to plastic pollution.
• Marine biodegradable: With “no adequate schemes to prove it,” this kind of plastic still impacts sea life.
• Industrially compostable: Only if a local area has industrial composting infrastructure. If not, the plastic will end up in landfill, incinerators or the environment.
• Home compostable: It can take up to one year per item, and only with access to a well-managed home or community composter.

Haut refers to a recent study issued by the European Commission (EC) and issued in March 2020 concluding that the use of compostable plastics for plastic carrier bag applications is considered to be more detrimental than beneficial. It also concurs that the increased use of biodegradable (industrially compostable) bags are contributing to consumer confusion.

Educate the consumers
To prevent further consumer confusion, Surfrider calls upon the EC to develop a strong legislative framework on biodegradable plastics. This should include harmonizing definitions and labeling, revising the industrial composting standard EN 13432 and developing a sound standard specification for home-compostable plastic carrier bags.

“Information needs to be clearer on what the differences are between those three plastics and awareness-raising campaigns should make clear that solutions to plastic pollution lie in reducing overall plastic production and use, no matter if the plastics are bio-based or biodegradable,” Haut flags.

The wide range of reusable alternatives to plastic bags [is] within our reach, says Haut.According to Surfriders, this further requires tackling the impacts plastic production has at all stages, from extraction to end of life disposal: legal measures to stop microplastic emissions, obligations in product design and taxing virgin plastic, to name a few.

Reusable plastics: The ultimate solution?
Surfrider and Rethink Plastic agree that a ban of single-use plastic bags would be widely supported by EU citizens and continue to give a clear signal to markets that reusable bags are “the solution.”

“The wide range of reusable alternatives to plastic bags [is] within our reach and this is the policy option that delivers the most in terms of reduction of impacts and pollution. The alternatives to single-use plastic bags are not another type of single-use bags, but reusable options, nothing else.”

When asked what it will take for Member States to take single-use plastic pollution more seriously, Haut summarizes in two words: “political will.”

“Member States have the capacity to go further and show ambition. The crisis is immense, and citizens are asking for action. The transposition, implementation and enforcement of the Directives addressing single-use plastic items, such as the SUP Directive and the Plastic Bag Directive, is their opportunity to show they’re listening to both science and citizens and that they are acting at a level commensurate with the plastic crisis,” she concludes.

By Anni Schleicher