Coca-Cola plastic production up by 8.8% in one year
Coca-Cola claims to be addressing their plastic problem, but last year they produced an extra 236,000 tons of single-use packaging! Is this to be expected? Or are they taking greenwashing to the next level? Read the full story here
Can the UN treaty really stop plastic pollution?
Discussions about the global plastics treaty have begun at a UN summit in Uruguay. However, researchers warn that a lack of data will make implementing any regulations difficult. Do you think the treaty will work?
Most “home compostable” plastics don’t break down
A new study has found that plastics advertised as “home compostable” don’t in fact break down! They leave plastic scraps which pollute soil and could end up in the food chain. Have you tried to put any of these in your compost bin?
Blue whales biggest consumers of microplastics
Blue whales – the largest animal on the planet – consume over 10 million pieces of plastic daily. They are filter feeders, and dense plastic pollution in the water column means their intake is massive. How can we protect these beautiful creatures?
Plastics on track to account for 20% of oil and gas
At current levels of production, the plastics industry will account for 20% of oil and gas use by 2050, making it impossible to keep global warming below the 1.5C target. Reducing the production of plastic is one of the only ways we can limit climate change. How can this be made a priority?
What do you think about these stories? Let us know in the comments!
A fascinating new report, ‘Winter is coming’ by Break Free From Plastic and CIEL, explores how the ongoing fuel crisis is linked to the plastics industry.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has affected energy supplies and, consequently, prices worldwide. This is especially true for European countries that rely on Russia for oil and gas – in 2020, Russia supplied 38% of the EU’s gas and 22% of their oil. By August 2022, it became clear to the EU that they were facing a severe energy crisis and limited supplies of oil and gas meant that prices continued to soar. There have been warnings of power cuts lasting up to 3 hours to try and save energy, and millions of people are concerned about how they can afford to stay warm over what could be a freezing winter.
In response to these concerns, the EU set a target for all member countries to reduce their energy consumption by 15% by 31 March 2023. To help achieve this, governments have been advising consumers about how they can reduce their energy use. For example, Germany recommended that its citizens take cold showers and limit the use of their heating. However, industrial use of oil and gas continues unabated, with no government advice or restrictions to date.
So how does this relate to plastic?
Currently, the plastics industry is the largest consumer of oil and gas in the EU, accounting for 8% and 9% of the EU’s final consumption in 2020, respectively 1 . It overshadows any other industry, including steel, automobile manufacturing, machinery, food, and beverages. Within the plastics industry in the EU, over 40% of end-market plastics produced are instant waste – single-use plastic packaging.
The EU and its member states have been leaders in tackling the plastics crisis. In 2018 the EU released its Plastics Strategy, which aims to ‘transform the way plastic products are designed, produced, used and recycled’ and is described as ‘a key element of Europe’s transition to a circular economy’ 2 . In 2019 they announced the Single Use Plastics Directive that set a collection target of 90% for recycling single-use plastic bottles by 2029. 3 This leadership was particularly evident at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in March 2022, when there was a historic advance in negotiations for a global agreement to tackle plastic pollution.
Despite all that the EU has tried to do to reduce plastic pollution, there has been no mention of placing a cap on the production of unnecessary plastic or restricting the activity of the petrochemical industry. This, despite their significant contribution to climate change and their continuing depletion of precious oil and gas reserves.
The report found that if plastic packaging was reduced by 50% and the target of 90% recycling was achieved, this would lead to a reduction of 6.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of fossil gas and 8.7 million tonnes of oil at the EU level compared to 2020. These figures are equivalent to the oil and gas consumption of the entire Czech Republic in 2020.4
The report concludes that, rather than seeking new trade deals for fossil fuels, this situation presents the EU with a unique opportunity to address the energy, climate and plastic crisis. Immediate and drastic action should be taken to reduce the production of unnecessary and excessive virgin plastic by implementing the Plastics Strategy from 2018 and the Single Use Plastics Directive from 2019. In turn, this would significantly reduce greenhouse emissions, reduce plastic pollution and free up the limited energy supplies. The oil and gas that would have been used to produce plastic could instead supply millions of people with reliable and more affordable energy over the winter.
At the end of September, we concluded our brand audit data collection for the year. This year we conducted 120 Brand Audits! These were completed by 57 chapters in 6 countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Switzerland, Poland and Georgia. There were 1,620 volunteers that took part and they recorded 29,504 pieces of plastic.
A brand audit categorises the plastic we collect at cleanups (food packaging, household products, personal care, smoking materials) and, most importantly, records the name of the parent company that manufactured it. We share this data with Break Free From Plastic, who use it as part of their annual Brand Audit Report.
Break Free From Plastic released its first annual Brand Audit Report in 2018 to identify and hold the top plastic polluters accountable. The globally collected data can be used as evidence to push large corporations to take responsibility for the waste that they create. It drives a movement towards systemic change and a zero waste economy and generates pressure to create real solutions to the plastics crisis.
The 2021 report named The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Unilever, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Mondelēz International, Philip Morris International, Danone, Mars, Inc., and Colgate-Palmolive as the top plastic polluting companies. Coca-cola, PepsiCo, Unilever and Nestle have been in the top five since the reports began.
We want to say a huge thank you to all the Trash Hero chapters and volunteers who took the time to conduct a brand audit. Trash Hero has been one of the top contributors to Brand Audit data collection for the last five years and we couldn’t do it without the incredible commitment of our Trash Hero volunteers.
The full report will be released later in the year. Who do you think will be named the top plastic polluters? Let us know in the comments!
In August, Trash Hero held its first ever Family Meeting in Europe, in Svaty Jan Pod Skalou – a beautiful little village just outside of Prague, Czech Republic. It was attended by 26 participants from 11 chapters in 5 different countries – Switzerland, Serbia, Kuwait, Czech Republic and Poland!
The weekend was kindly hosted by the Trash Hero Czech Republic team who did an amazing job of finding a unique location and organising activities that helped the participants bond whilst connecting with nature.
Family Meetings are volunteer training and team-building events that are held in our major countries of operation. At the meetings, we celebrate chapters’ achievements and share knowledge on a range of topics that benefit Trash Hero chapters and their wider communities. This includes zero waste training, brand audit training and much more.
We also had space for informal discussions and fun activities such as cooking together and volunteering at a local nature reserve. These resulted in some lively discussions, lots of laughter and some great memories being made.
Over the course of the three days in the Czech Republic, we had presentations and activities that centred on motivation, leadership skills, the big picture of waste and community outreach..
As the first event of its kind in Europe, for many of our volunteers, it was the first time meeting other Trash Heroes in person! This provided a fantastic opportunity for these Trash Hero volunteers to build friendships and support systems – something that is vital in the work that we do. It’s particularly important for those volunteers in countries with fewer Trash Hero chapters to remember they are not alone in what they do.
I personally found my motivation again after the Trash Hero family meeting and [am] looking forward to the next time. I was really demotivated and now, we start again with new power
Sibil, Trash Hero Winterthur
We continue to support all our Trash Hero chapter leaders with regular global calls and workshops – although nothing quite matches the energy of in-person meetings and we can’t wait for the next one next year!
On 10 July 2022, the influential US non-profit organisation, Ocean Conservancy, issued a formal apology to more than 700 organisations for the damage their report, ‘Stemming the Tide’, has caused since it was released in 2015. In addition, they rescinded the report, removing it from their website and have ceased all promotion of and reference to it.
The prominent and oft-cited report claimed that the majority of plastic entering the ocean came from a small geographical area in East and Southeast Asia. It named five Asian countries (China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand) as those responsible for more than half of the plastic polluting the world’s oceans. It created a damaging narrative that would influence the response to the plastic pollution crisis for years to come.
Alongside their apology, the Ocean Conservancy shared two peer-reviewed journals that more accurately highlighted the roles and responsibilities of all nations in preventing plastic pollution from entering the ocean and examined holistic solutions founded on the principles of circular economy 5.
Why was the report so damaging?
The report presented a flawed analysis of the problem – focusing on reducing ‘leakage’ rather than reducing production. It ultimately failed to recognise the sizeable contribution of wealthier, more developed countries to the ongoing plastic crisis, as well as promoting incineration and other false solutions
For decades, countries in the Global North have overproduced plastic and promoted recycling, rather than reduction, as a long-term solution. Sadly, “recycling” systemically involves large quantities of waste being exported to developing countries for processing, putting immense pressure on waste management systems that are already struggling. The report failed to recognise this practice and its impact, instead creating a narrative that Asian countries were responsible for the crisis. This enabled the Global North and plastic producers to continue business as usual, as the problem lay elsewhere.
The Ocean Conservancy also promoted false solutions in the report, primarily the incineration of plastic, which was a cause for concern in many ways. Incineration contributes to climate change by releasing dangerous levels of toxins and greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, leading to health problems for those exposed to or living close to, the incineration plants 6. It also traps municipalities into producing more waste to feed the machine, disincentivising waste separation and encouraging more use and production of plastic.
By condoning this ‘solution’ in the report, governments were galvanised to adopt and promote it. It undermined the hard work of many NGOs in the region who were fighting incineration and created severe obstacles to positive change that would help reduce plastic pollution.
Why was the report retracted?
In 2015, in response to the report being released, over 700 organisations, signed an open letter that critiqued the report and pointed out the potential impacts such an inaccurate report can (and did!) have. Environmental groups worked hard to try to correct the narrative. They provided evidence about the organisations that largely came from the Global North, that were responsible for the thousands of tonnes of plastic waste entering the environment. They also worked hard to debunk false solutions such as waste incineration, ‘waste to energy’ and chemical recycling.
You can read more about the science behind these here – a new website by Break Free From Plastic that analyses proposed ‘solutions’ and uses science to debunk greenwashing and myths surrounding how we should be dealing with plastic pollution.
Thanks to their hard work, and the perseverance of many organisations, including GAIA and Break Free From plastic, the Ocean Conservancy finally rescinded the report and recognised its failings and inaccuracies:
“In Stemming the Tide, Ocean Conservancy focused solely on minimizing the amount of plastics entering the ocean. We investigated and included incineration and waste-to-energy as acceptable solutions to the ocean plastic crisis, which was wrong. We failed to confront the root causes of plastic waste or incorporate the effects on the communities and NGOs working on the ground in the places most impacted by plastic pollution. We did not consider how these technologies support continued demand for plastic production and hamper the move to a circular economy and a zero-carbon future. Further, by focusing so narrowly on one region of the world (East and Southeast Asia), we created a narrative about who is responsible for the ocean plastic pollution crisis – one that failed to acknowledge the outsized role that developed countries, especially the United States, have played and continue to play in generating and exporting plastic waste to this very region. This too was wrong.”
What happens now?
Since the Ocean Conservancy released the apology and retraction, many organisations have been working with them to help repair the damage done.
Froilan Grate, Regional Director of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), has said that they are, along with the members and allies from the #breakfreefromplastic movement, “taking steps with the OC to restore the much-needed justice for the impacted communities in Asia.”
You can read GAIA and Break Free From Plastics’ full response to the apology here.
As an organisation with an active presence in Southeast Asia, Trash Hero World is delighted to see this report being retracted. While these countries are indeed on the front lines of the plastic crisis, blaming them for the situation was unfair and unwarranted. We look forward to the work Ocean Conservancy will do to repair the damage done and hope that they – and others – will now support the good work towards real, zero waste solutions that is being done in the region.
If you see this narrative anywhere – of these countries being blamed for ocean plastic or the promotion of incineration as a solution to plastic waste – then please help to debunk this myth and share this blog post so we can finally stop this false perspective from spreading.
Our half-year numbers are in, and they make us so proud of every single volunteer who has contributed to the impact of the global Trash Hero movement – whether they joined one cleanup or 100!
In just six months in 2022, 26,666 volunteers (of which 8,098 were under 16) completed 1615 cleanups, collecting 53,102 kg of trash.
That’s an average of 9 cleanups and 265 kg of trash per day!
We have been collecting data since December 2013, and as of 30 June 2022:
We have completed 16,525 cleanups
We have 159 active chapters in 17 countries
438,503 volunteers have joined us, including 111,608 kids
We have responsibly collected and disposed of 2,207,236 kg of trash
As part of the Trash Hero Bottle program, 104,688 reusable bottles have been distributed, avoiding 38,211,120 single-use plastic bottles and reducing 1989 tonnes of CO2 emissions
As part of the Trash Hero Bag program, 29,445 reusable Trash Hero bags have been distributed, saving 10,747,425 single-use plastic bags
Since January 2022, we have welcomed 11 new chapters to Trash Hero; however, this year, we have seen a decrease in the total number of active chapters.
We must recognise the pandemic’s impact on volunteers, not just with Trash Hero but across all charitable organisations. Although Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted in most countries, the impact of the lockdowns and the economic fallout still affect many communities. Many of our volunteers have had to change locations or professions to ensure they can support themselves and their families. This, unfortunately, means they can no longer commit to regular activity – but the door is always open if they feel able to return.
As Trash Hero World, we will continue to support our volunteers in every way possible. We organise regular catch-ups with our chapter leaders and country coordinators and provide mentorship and guidance with every step of the way.
And thanks to this momentum, we continue to see incredible numbers in terms of trash collected and volunteers who have taken part.
How do we get this data?
During every cleanup, our chapter leaders will record data – the number of volunteers in attendance, the weight of the trash collected and how many kids have taken part – which is then published on their social media accounts and uploaded to our database. Anyone can see the live statistics on our website. This data is checked every month to ensure it is consistent and correct.
Why do we collect data?
Collecting data helps us assess and celebrate our impact: seeing how much waste we have removed from shorelines, mangroves, cities, and rivers helps to keep us motivated and inspired. But also, this data is essential to share with researchers and our partners. Data equally helps to reinforce our message of reducing plastic at the source, showing people how much waste we produce, how many people want it stopped and how effective refill and reuse solutions can be.
We also share a more detailed analysis of the trash collected with researchers and campaigners so that they can push for change at the global level.
All of our data is publicly available as part of our commitment to being transparent.
All that we have achieved so far has been down to the dedication and commitment of our incredible volunteers. We want to say a huge thank you to them! Organising cleanups and collecting data takes time and energy, and our volunteers’ passion drives our movement.
Check out their work in the video below, and share it with someone you think would enjoy it:
Has this inspired you to join us? Find out more about starting a chapter here or email us.
The claim states that their ‘Conscious Collection’ marketing is “misleading” and “falsified”. It has even been claimed that parts of the collection are more damaging to the environment than the regular products. Find out more here
Thailand orders imported waste to be shipped back to Australia
130 ton container declared as “paper” discovered to contain 20-30% general municipal waste – which under current law is not allowed to be shipped into Thailand. Read the full story here
Two-thirds of pledges to reduce plastic fail or are dropped
An investigation into companies’ “plastic promises” shows how Danone and others fail to deliver. Find out more about what these companies have done and how it compares to their promises here
New guide shows restaurants how to go plastic-free
A free, step-by-step handbook to help food & drink establishments be part of the solution on plastic waste. Find it here and don’t forget to share it with any restaurant owners you know!
Trash Hero Koh Phangan featured in eco-tourism travel guide
Sustainable travel writers join a beach cleanup on the Thai island. Read their story here
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