Bio-based plastic: Opportunity and Impact

David Newman, Managing Director, BBIA

In April this year the NNFCC was commissioned by BBIA to look at the opportunity and potential for the UK from the use and production of biobased and biodegradable plastics. The report can be found on the reports page of the BBIA website, http://www.bbia.org.uk.

The data are clear: the right supportive policies (at zero cost to the Exchequer) would stimulate more than half a billion pounds of investments and give employment to 5000 people directly and indirectly.

But it was not this data I wanted to focus on here but the climate related data. As the IPCC report has now made us all aware (no excuses any more for not knowing) the climate emergency is upon us. We need to reduce carbon emissions now, not in the future, and dramatically more quickly than we thought.

By using renewable biobased sources to produce biodegradable plastics,this sector can help reduce the GHG emissions of the UK plastic industry. Currently about 1.7 million tonnes of plastics are produced domestically all from oil and gas- the UK market potential for bioplastics, if achieved with UK production,  can reduce those emissions by 10%, a not insignficant number.

Moreover, by helping to produce compost and digestate that are then returned to soil, compostable plastics will contribute to carbon sequestration in soils.

The number is not earth shattering when compared to fuels, for example,  but each sector has to make its own contribution to reducing emissions very fast.

The use of compostable plastics is strictly linked to the management of biodegradable wastes and Scotland still has a large volume of household and business food wastes that are sent to disposal rather than to treatment. With climate change such a pressing issue, we can no longer afford that luxury.