Guinness has can-do attitude in fight against plastic

GUINNESS is good for the environment... as the stout giant is now eliminating the use of plastic in its sale of beer.

Instead of ring carriers and shrink wrap for its products, owners Diageo say it will use cardboard in future – cutting its plastic usage by 400million tonnes a year.

Plastic ring carriers are notorious for trapping marine life and for being eaten by turtles, as has been highlighted by the Mail’s ‘Turn The Tide On Plastic’ campaign.

The move follows consultation with eco-advisers.

Plastic ring carriers and shrink wrap will be removed from multipacks of beer products including Guinness, Harp, Rockshore and Smithwick’s, Diageo said.

They will be replaced with 100% recyclable and biodegradable cardboard. The new packaging will be on the shelves in Ireland from August, while the UK and other global markets will follow in 2020.

To achieve this, Diageo is investing €18.5million to reduce the amount of plastics used in its beer packaging. Its bottling and packaging plant in the North will be the first site that will be up and running with the new packs, with the business investing €9.25million in its plant in east Belfast.

Diageo says that currently, less than 5% of its total packaging is plastic and this change will reduce plastic usage by over 400million tonnes annually.

Oliver Loomes, country director of Diageo Ireland, said: ‘We already have one of the most sustainable breweries in the world at St James’s Gate and we are now leading the way in sustainable packaging.’

Almost 700 species are now known to have been harmed by ocean plastic.

JUST before Christmas, I wrote in this newspaper about how struck I was regarding a recent UN climate-change report, which was drawn up based on more than 6,000 research papers.

The main conclusion of the report was that dramatic global action had to take place if we are to avoid catastrophic changes in weather patterns.

In the article, I made the point that I felt that every one of us had to make our own small contribution in order to help reduce harmful carbon emissions. I indicated I was considering buying a fully electric vehicle to replace my diesel car. Just after Christmas, I took the plunge, despite some misgivings particularly regarding difficulties with reselling it.

Adventurous

Having had my Nissan Leaf for the last three months, any second thoughts have been long forgotten. As a two-car household, the Leaf has become, by far, the most used vehicle of the two. Indeed, our other one-litre petrol car gets very little use, as the electric car is used mainly for all the ‘running about’. The quietness and ease of the drive, together with the instant acceleration are a joy to experience. However, it should be pointed out that an electric car would not suit everyone. Indeed, I have heard one or two stories that some people have traded in their new electric vehicle, after a couple of weeks, because they found that it didn’t suit their needs.

The change for myself and my spouse has been a rather adventurous experience. At the start, we suffered very much from ‘range anxiety’! ‘It says on the tin’ that the car will do 270km on a full charge. That is, if you don’t use the heater, or the air conditioning, and provided you drive no more than 100kph. Otherwise, it’s down to 220-230km. There were a few hairy experiences by not being able to properly charge the car, for one reason or another. Undoubtedly, relying on an EV needs the owner to plan their itinerary more so than with a conventional car.

People considering buying an electric vehicle need to properly research what is involved. It is not just a simple matter of rolling up to a garage forecourt and hopping into the new electric car. Once you bring the car home, the question arises about how and where to charge it. Most electric cars come with two charging wires. One is attached to a normal threepin plug, for plugging into your domestic supply, which is an extremely slow way to charge the car, and it takes about 11 hours to fully charge. The other one supplied fits into the type of chargers that are dotted around most major towns, and this takes over six hours to fully charge a car similar to the Nissan Leaf. And then there are what are called ‘fast chargers’ which are mainly at motorway service stations and these can take one to two hours for a full charge. The vast majority of the public chargers are run by ESB eCars, a subsidiary of ESB Networks which has the job of implementing a nationwide network of charge points around the country. To charge at these is free, at least, for the present. There is a suggestion that, in the coming months, a charging fee will be levied so that the charge point infrastructure around the country can be dramatically ramped up. To be able to charge a car at these public chargers, the owner needs to register with eCars, and obtain a charging card in order to operate the chargers. At some of the charging stations, it can be quite confusing at first, given the different types and shapes of chargers.

Frustrating

My advice is to try this operation out as soon as possible after purchase of the vehicle, on a fine day, in daylight, in order to prevent having to do it out of necessity on a wet and windy night. Otherwise, it can be a difficult and frustrating experience. For those of us who live in border areas, I had to check out what’s the position if we find ourselves up North, needing a charge. I’m told that all public charge points in the North and in the Republic are interoperable and can be accessed using the standard eCar access card, although I have yet to try it myself. I wonder will Brexit affect this. I haven’t even gone as far as finding out what the position is if we take our EV to the UK, or indeed beyond to mainland Europe.

In the last three months or so, we have encountered difficulties such as arriving at a public charging point, only to find that it is out of order – or that it is already occupied. We’ve even been prevented from charging, because the spaces designated for EV charging were occupied by conventional fuel vehicles. Given the fact that there has been an 800% increase in the purchase of EVs this year so far, in comparison with the same period last year, I can envisage ‘charge point rage’ becoming a more common occurrence.

The authorities need to tighten up the regulations and enforcement regime to prevent regular fuel motorists occupying these EV spaces.

In fairness, eCars has an excellent app which gives real-time information as to whether charging points are occupied, available or out of order. We found that, most of the time, in our case, we make do with charging our car at home. But, even this operation needs to be fully researched before the EV car is purchased. Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland administers a new grant of up to €600 towards the installation of a home charging point. I have had this type of charger installed in my dwelling, and have found the cost of supply and installation to be somewhat more than the maximum grant. Also, in my case, I found it necessary to arrange for the installation of a ‘dual night/day tariff’ meter, in order to avail of the facility to charge my EV on the cheaper night rate, as opposed to the more expensive day rate. All of this organisation and work took a considerable amount of effort and time. So, again, I would emphasise that this is yet another aspect that should be properly investigated, before purchasing an EV.

Harmful

The Government has a stated policy of having more than 500,000 EVs on Irish roads by 2030. Last week, it announced that a sum of €20million is going to be invested in beefing up the network of high-powered electric vehicle charging points across the country. In my view, this is long overdue. But I’m not sure if it’s enough. The general public have clearly been ‘ahead of the curve’, in that there has been such a dramatic increase in EV purchases since the start of the year. And, yet, we have not seen a commensurate increase in public charging facilities. Large parts of the country are bereft of charging points. Lack of proper charging infrastructure across the island will bring the reputation of EVs into disrepute. Each year, the Government gets a financial dividend from the ESB to boost its coffers. It handed over a sum of €35million to the Government last year. I would suggest that some of this dividend, if not all of it, should be set aside for the rapid building of charge-point infrastructure around the country.

I note that a number of TDs in Leinster House have already purchased an EV and have criticised the fact that, up until recently, there was no charger available in the Leinster House complex. The Government itself could show leadership by having ministers change their ‘gasguzzling’ ministerial cars to EVs.

It is no coincidence that, this week, Metropolitan London rolled out the world’s toughest ‘low emissions zone’ in the city. Drivers of most diesel cars and older petrol cars will have to pay an extra £12.50 per day when they enter the Central London zone already covered by the congestion charge. The aim is to dramatically cut harmful emissions. This is all driven by research which shows that the bad air quality in London is having a very detrimental effect on the health of the average Londoner.

Despite some drawbacks, owning an EV is a pleasant experience, quite apart from the significant cost savings. But, more importantly, we are making our own contribution to reducing harmful emissions.