🔎 What’s going on?
During the C40 World Mayor Summit in Copenhagen, Paboco (or the Paper Bottle Company) launched a community of partners.
💡 Ok, what’s so great about them?
Almost a million plastic bottles are bought every minute globally. That means we buy about 1.3 billion bottles per day or 40 billion in a month. Those numbers are astronomical and just plain insane 👀. Most bottles sold are used for soft drinks, water and alcohol. Paboco is looking to change the industry by creating a fully biobased, recyclable and commercially viable paper bottle (yes a bottle that’s made out of paper or sustainably sourced wood fibre). They launched earlier this year and what’s really exciting is they are co-creating this bottle working with partners across the value chain - from paper and plastic manufacturers (BillerudKorsnäs & Alpha) to brands (Absolut, Carlsberg, Coca-cola Europe & L’oreal) to coating solutions (Teknos). When every partner has buy-in from the start, the chances of success are much higher for new innovations.
❓Why should I care?
Plastic is not biodegradable and so breaks down into small pieces. Marine animals 🐢🐋 🐬mistake them for food and eat them, however, they cannot digest plastic and end up dead because they don’t have room for actual food. So what happens to plastic bottles after you discard them and where they end up is what matters. Plastic pollution also leads to toxins entering the human food chain as the seafood we eat are found with microplastics on them.
🚦Where do we need to be?
We need to use less plastic and improve the way we manage the plastics we do use. As citizens, we should all be reducing, reusing and recycling plastics. Currently, only 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled, whilst 12% has been burnt (incinerated) and the rest - 79% ends up in landfills, dumps, our waterways, rivers and finally in the ocean.
Following Germany’s lead (at 56%, they have the best recycling rate in the world), legislation should be introduced in every country to set a national target to recycle at least 50% but aiming for 100% overall. In 2017, the UK’s recycling rate was 45.7% so we still have a long way to go.
👤 What can I do about it?
Follow the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle plastic as much as possible. Carry a reusable water bottle with you and refill it. Buy a Keepcup and use it every time you visit your favourite coffee shop. Take reusable grocery bags when you go shopping. Avoid plastic straws and cutlery in bars and restaurants by taking your own reusable cutlet set with you. Replace your soap and shampoo bottles with solid shampoo bars.
Where you can’t avoid buying plastic, once you are done with it, recycle it at home or take it to your nearest recycling point.