Summary
Single-use plastics (SUPs) are commonplace in the packaging of consumer premises equipment (CPE) and with good reason. Polyethylene (PE) plastic bags are a cost-effective solution to protect the device against dust, moisture and vibration during shipping. However, these bags present a serious environmental hazard because they are not easy to recycle. A radical change is required in the way in which we package our power supplies to completely eliminate SUPs and reduce single-use plastic usage in our industry.
Plastic bag recycling
Since UK supermarkets introduced the 5p charge in 2015 plastic bag usage had reduced by over 90% by 2019. Whilst good progress has been made plastic bags and wrappers still make up ~25% of all plastic packaging in the UK.
Plastic bags are not easy to recycle because local authorities do not collect them with other recyclable items like plastic bottles and containers. Not many people realize this and 1 in 3 people end up putting plastic bags in household recycling which contaminates other recyclables.
As a result, only 6% of plastic bags and wrappers in the UK are recycled. The rest is either buried as landfill, incinerated, or worse still exported to foreign countries where it is dumped and burned illegally causing untold harm to the environment.
Challenges for consumers
Currently the only way consumers can recycle plastic bags is to take them to dedicated collection points in supermarkets and other retailers. From there they are shipped by the retailer to plastic recycling companies using reverse logistics supply chains.
This isn’t a practical or scalable solution for the volume of plastic bags that consumers have to dispose of. This situation is unlikely to get any easier until local authorities start collecting plastic bags as part of kerbside recycling. The best solution is to design them out of all packaging.
Designing out SUPs
Over recent months NetBit has been evaluating a range of options to replace plastic bags but without compromising the protection and durability of the packaging needed to protect the device during shipping. This turned out to be a lot easier said than done!
There are a number of challenges ahead, but nonetheless, we are eager to push forward our efforts on the eco-front. We believe that the best solution will be based on new paper technologies which can then be easily recycled along with the rest of the packaging.
By the 1st of September 2021, we have an aim to reduce single-use plastic consumption by >90% from packaging and replace it with sustainable cost-effective solutions. Moreover, we are on a mission to use only 100% recyclable packaging from sustainable sources.
Stay tuned on our latest eco-friendly innovations and how we are transforming the eco-credentials of our CPE power supplies at sales@netbit.com
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