Another plastic ban and why they don’t work.
**Single-use plastic cutlery and plates to be banned in England – BBC News**
Another plastic ban is on the horizon. Don’t worry if you’re a little confused in thinking this has happened before, its in a long list of many. A list that is like a can that gets kicked down the street until it the consumer decides to give up on the pandering of governments and recycles it themselves.
Where have we seen such bans promised before? Back in 2019 Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham assembled his avengers, captain Gary Neville donned a nice suit and a wry smile and we all declared that Manchester would be the first city in the UK to ban plastic, hooray we all cheered. A novelty bee straw was tendered to a company that supplied around 90% plastic goods and we could all sleep at night knowing the bright lights and traditional streets of my great city would be clear of polystyrene and plastic cups. There was even talk that greenwashing would be a thing of the past as many high profiled figures where educating the masses that a coffee cup, despite its cardboard look was in fact, lined in plastic. The revolution was here.
Our phone was ringing off the hook, customers and events managers wanting a slice of this long term plan. Except it wasn’t a long term plan, it was a photo opportunity. A chance for brands to say “ we are better than the rest” for events organisers to show their event was better then everybody else’s as they extracted knowledge of the industry. Plastic reduced events appeared with open arms. We were even involved in greater Manchester’s fully plastic free food event. A staple for the future, pioneers in this new world.
Of course, as the great bard once said, “All that glisters is not gold” (yes, often modernised) once the cameras and the events of 2019 depleted, so did attitudes. Now, you would be right to say that a two year pandemic didn’t help momentum, granted. Though our oceans started to gleam the once tranquil eponymous navy blue hues we see on stock images. But that didn’t matter, the sting had gone, the impetus sedated. Plastic free events were not about a new world, a cleaner more efficient world – they were about public relations, photographs and pretending to care.
Let’s take a minute to step away from the events organisers, the councils, the governments and the supplier that’ll sell you a large selection of “eco solutions” while simultaneously carrying 80% plastic stock. I want to dedicate this paragraph to those that are making changes, doing their best and trusting sellers to give them a plastic free experience. Those that re-use that recycle their metals and papers, those that are willing to have principles, this is for you, we salute you. But this isn’t about you, its about people like you who should trust the charlatans you buy from, you should be buying a process and a principle but instead you’re being used.
Promises like Manchester’s plastic free aspirations don’t work. Proposed plastic bans don’t work. They don’t work because there is no distinguishment between what has plastic in it, and what does not. There is a law in Europe, that if a product contains plastic, it should be marked as such, Therefore the consumer or the buyer knows that despite its look, they are buying a plastic product. Until the UK adopts a system of regulation like this, it simply does not work.
We are a big believer in buying into a concept. A plastic free journey that elements all waste plastic through an entire process. A process that ends with the customer knowing that they have done absolutely everything possible to end up with a zero plastic product. Does this come with it’s own problems? Of lots. But that’s our problem to tackle and navigate, yours is to sit back and feel comfortable that you’re buying from a company that has principles and the product you have is zero plastic.
Plastic bans don’t work. It’s high time the industry stopped hiding behind onetime events in 2019. Promises made in front of uninterested shareholders and cups with a picture of a tree on it while the inside of the cup is lined with plastics. It’s time we don’t rely on superfluous plastic bans that ban the sale of plastic straws; but can be attached to a plastic bottle; in plastic casing so the same pollutants can still make money while ticking an unregulated box.
What does work is you, the people who make the decisions on what you buy and where your money goes, where your principles go. Its time trust was a two way street.
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