Plastic surgery
Recycling puts packaging producers under pressure
● By some estimates a dump truck of plastic empties into the sea every minute, and it is expected to stay there for centuries. Global plastic production reached 335 million tons in 2016, much of which ended up in the world’s oceans, streams and rivers.
Growing public antipathy towards this waste — much of which is packaging — has placed considerable pressure on retailers and the producers of plastic products and packaging to find alternatives.
This month Woolworths said it planned to phase out nonrecyclable plastic packaging for its own products, as well as plastic shopping bags, straws and earbuds, by 2022. This follows a global retail trend among retailers.
Andre Nel, general manager for sustainability at Pick n Pay, said the group planned to use as much recycled material as possible in its packaging while at the same time avoiding any effect on the integrity of its products. This included using recycled plastic for its own products, such as plastic punnets for fresh fruit and vegetables.
The group regularly researches alternatives, Nel said, but replacing plastic with paper packaging “is fairly complex and requires careful planning”.
In the UK, Tesco plans to ban all nonrecyclable plastic by next year, while all major supermarkets have pledged to remove all “unnecessary single-use plastics” from their shelves by 2025.
In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the enforcement of a ban on plastic bags. Uganda is the third African country to ban plastic bags, following Kenya and Rwanda.
Mumbai is the largest city in India to ban single-use plastics, with a fine and jail for repeat offenders caught using plastic bags, cups or bottles.
For packaging companies, the antagonism towards their products could dent their business but also offer opportunities.
A spokesperson for Transpaco, which produces, among other things, black refuse bags and single-use plastic packaging, said the group did not see viable alternatives for its products on a mass scale as these would be costly for the poor, who are the largest consumers of retail plastic bags.
“There have been many independent research studies indicating that the number of times one has to reuse the alternatives before they have a more favourable impact on the environment is unreasonably high, resulting in plastic bags remaining the best possible solution,” the spokesperson said.
Jennifer Buley, a spokeswoman for global paper and packaging group Mondi, said the group focused on two packaging materials, paper and flexible plastic. These are the leading renewable materials because of their advantages in keeping food fresh and ensuring safety and hygiene. Flexible plastic was still the most effective and resource-efficient packaging, but the group had developed easily recycled mono-material pouches and packaging made from renewable biomaterials such as sugar cane.
Buley said research showed that the environmental cost of plastic in consumer goods was 3.8 times less than that of alternative materials. “We believe it is important to understand the complexities of the environmental challenge to ensure that we are not replacing one problem, such as waste recycling, with others like increased use of other materials and energy consumption.”
Other companies are set to benefit. Nampak spokesman Nondyebo Mqulwana said: “Over time we do believe this [move away from single-use plastic] will be beneficial for Nampak as paper alternatives, which we already manufacture, become preferred and a more mainstream packaging form.” Only a small component of Nampak’s business is single-use plastic.
Mqulwana said the group saw an opportunity to improve capacity at its alternative packaging division. Alternatives such as paper would become increasingly viable. Metals were already a viable option.
Paper cartons are mostly used for sorghum beer, milk, juices and, increasingly, for dry products such as cereal and pet food. Nampak expects cartons to become a more prominent part of the business, in conjunction with the metals division, as consumers favour more sustainable packaging.
Thomas Kratochwill, Sappi’s vice-president for sales and marketing, packaging and speciality papers, said although the group had always provided paper-based alternatives, it had seen a recent increase in demand for more sustainable solutions. As a result, the packaging and speciality paper segment together with its research and development facilities were working with fast-moving consumer goods companies and brand owners on paper packaging, particular for food.
Kratochwill said the group had increased its capacity through machine rebuilds and acquisitions and had invested in research and development. It was developing bioplastics that were biodegradable.
“Nearly all multinational brand owners are seriously interested in sustainable solutions and obliged to challenge all their incumbent packaging suppliers to achieve the targets they have set for themselves,” said Kratochwill. “This has now increased as governments have entered the fray through changing regulations, which is forcing the move to sustainable packaging solutions.”
Sappi had identified the shift away from plastic packaging several years ago and developed several solutions, although it would take paper packaging companies about four or five years to be more visible in the market, especially for food packaging applications. This was because the requirements for food safety were very high and much testing needed to be done, Katochwill said.
Sappi had seen a significant increase in demand over the past five years, but a substitute could not be found for every single-use plastic as performance and commercial requisites couldn’t always be matched, he said.
In 2016, Plastics South Africa reported that 1.14 million tons of recyclable plastic had entered the waste stream, but 41.8% was recycled — an increase of 5.9% year on year. The South African PET Recycling Company reported that 93 235 tons of post-consumer PET bottles had been recycled. PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, is the fourthmost produced plastic in the world.
About 51% of all packaging in South Africa is collected for recycling. This could improve by educating consumers and when all municipalities implement recycling, as is happening in major metros.
Mpho Mokotso, an analyst at Avior Capital, said manufacturers of plastic could do little, if anything, to stop the shift from single-use plastic packaging once customers had decided they did not want to buy such products. “It is the customers of the manufacturers and not the manufacturers themselves that will drive the move away from single-use plastic packaging,” she said.
“It is clear that some South African companies have built up the capacity, in various degrees, to support their customers’ objectives. These initiatives, as well as increasing own paper packaging capability, are proving important to maintain a competitive advantage in a changing industry.”
Bruce Strong, CEO of Mpact, the largest recycler in the country, said there was no doubt there was a need to curb the level of single-use plastic packaging entering rivers and oceans, and as an environmentalist and fisherman he welcomed any reduction.
Mpact, which has been recycling paper for the past 50 years and plastic for the past 10 years, makes about 15% of its R10-billion revenue from single-use plastic packaging. The group collects predominantly single-use plastics such as bags, straws, soft-drink and water bottles and most food packaging — to make new products.
Strong said although there had been a shift away from single-use plastic packaging it would be impossible to completely remove such packaging. What was needed was to increase the amount of plastic South Africa recycled and to prevent as much of it as possible from entering water systems.