Proposed EU ban on plastic sachets for sauces will increase both EU waste and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Posted on 09 May 2024

Last month, the EU introduced legislation which they claim will reduce the use of packaging, encourage reuse and recycling of packaging. However, included in the legislation is a proposal to ban the use of ‘single use’ plastics for individual portions of sauces.

Whilst the objective claimed by the EU is to reduce packaging, ‘regardless of materials used’, this claim is patency untrue, as whilst it bans plastics, it continues to allow individual portion packaging using glass jars with metal lids. As a consequence, the results of this legislation will be to simply substitute plastic sachets for sauces, with their heavier more environmentaly damaging glass / metal packaging alternatives.

We are indebted to HP Sauce, a company who has been producing sauce for some 140 years and who currently use glass and plastic bottles in addition to portion packs of these materials.

This gives us the opportunity to compare the consequences of the EU legislation on both the weight of extra waste produced, along with the additional greenhouse gas emissions,for the same sauce as shown in the following table.

• GHG Emissions are calculated using the DEFRA guidelines.

This table clearly shows

• The glass pot (metal lid): - Has nearly double the weight of packaging to product
• The plastic sachet: - Has over 20 x the weight of product to packaging
• The greenhouse gas emissions: - Are 10 x higher from manufacture of the glass / metal pot than the plastic sachet
• The waste produced: - Is over 100 x greater using the glass / meatal pot than the plastic sachet.

It could be argued that adjustment should be made in the waste produced to allow for the extra sauce in the glass pot. However, it is likely that just one portion is used in each case.

To give some context to what these figures actually highlight if allowance is made for the weight of sauce in each pack.

1 tonne of glass / metal pots packs 580kg of HP sauce

1 tonne of plastic sachets packs 23 tonne of HP sauce

So, based on these figures, how can the EU possibly claim that their aim is to replace waste ‘regardless of the materials used’, when it is obvious, sauce companies like HP, will simply switch all their portion packs to the glass / metal option.

As a consequence, they, and others, will be increasing their greenhouse gas emissions by over 11 times, at a time when all companies are targeting a reduction in their greenhouse gas emissions, as their contribution to achiving net zero. In addition, regardless of the extra weight of waste and greenhouse gas emissions, this EU ban will create. The glass / metal combination uses far more of the Earth’s natural resources than the plastic sachet.

Recycling

With regard to the recycling of these alternative packaging solution. There are numerous reports that highlight that the substitution of plastics with alternative materials invariably has a negative environmental impact and should not be undertaken without a comparable LCA for both the plastic pack and the proposed alternative material.

Perhaps the most relevant report is that produced by the EU Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Feb 2020, which concluded that

‘If all rigid packaging of food stuff in Europe was replaced by flexibles, there would be a reduction in global warming potential from packaging by 33%, even if none of the flexible packaging materials was recycled’.

Summary

The EU banning of plastic portion packs for sauces without a ban on the alternative materials will obviously lead to plastic substitution. This will create more waste and more greenhouse gas emissions (climate change) and more depletion of the Earth’s natural resources. No doubt our Government will adopt this legislation, at some point in the future, in a bid for ‘alignment.’

It will be interesting, at that time, to see if DEFRA and WRAP, who are both technically aware of the extra waste and CO2 emissions created by the glass and metal pot alternatives, will step in and promote the case for retaining plastic packaging for this application.

I have my doubts, but your thoughts would be welcome.

Meanwhile, I would also welcome  your views on any of the items raised along with you joining me on LinkedIn for more regualr consideration of those items of mutual interest?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-twigg-3a440b53/

#DontHatePlastic