January 2023 - Zureli

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Sustainable shopping sees its star rise among consumers

Posted on January 31, 2023January 31, 2023 by dishanth

Shoppers’ tastes are becoming more refined in the face of climate change, says a survey by global commerce company by Shopify. According to the report, despite cost-of-living pressures, expensive, sustainable shopping is coming into vogue.

To reach that conclusion, Shopify surveyed over 24,000 consumers as well as 9,000 small and medium-sized businesses.

The main lines of the conclusions follow: 62% of consumers will not compromise on their green ethoses despite higher costs in the face of economic uncertainty. As well, 82% of businesses agree that sustainability and improved performance by the company are related factors.

Stacy Kauk, head of sustainability at Shopify, noted the overlapping of interests in the report’s findings: “This report shows climate-consciousness is driving purchasing decisions, even in challenging economic times.

“For both business and the climate, it’s in everyone’s interest to implement practices like carbon-neutral shipping and support for emerging sustainability solutions. This needs to be a collaboration between merchants, buyers, and the broader commerce community.”

Younger generations are driving this change: 59% of Gen Z shoppers and 61% of millennials are more sustainably-conscious in their shopping patterns. Furthermore, 31% of these were planning on being more sustainable in the upcoming year.

The pace of change of retailers leaves something to be desired, as well; 24% of these increasingly conscious shoppers seek out eco-friendly packaging and buying local.

Businesses move to adapt

Businesses are hearing the call of the consumer. That said, they also acknowledge the high cost of moving in that direction: 40% of businesses with 1 to 50 employees see it as an obstacle. But the bigger the business, the more elaborate the supply chain, and 48% of these see a problem.

But businesses are indeed at work finding sustainable resolutions for their customers. For instance, 35% of UK retailers now offer in-store recycling, and they are increasingly having programs where a percentage of the revenue goes to non-profits.

Source Sustainability

T-Mobile signs the climate pledge, moving towards net zero

Posted on January 31, 2023 by dishanth

T-Mobile is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the US, with millions of users across the nation using its services in our ever-connected world.

As such, it stands to reason that it takes the lead in sustainable responsibility for the industry at large. Towards this end, the company has announced that it has committed itself to achieving net zero emissions by 2040.

In the furtherance of achieving this goal, T-Mobile has signed on to the The Climate Pledge, that diverse group of companies and organisations that work together to cut global carbon footprints. The company therefore becomes the first US wireless one to set such a goal that covers all three emissions scopes and is in line with the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) and uses their Net-Zero Standard.

Following this covers direct emissions as well as indirect ones stemming from purchased electricity.

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert noted the growing significance of such climate pledges among customers: “As we know sustainability is important to our customers and stakeholders, and T-Mobile has made great progress in in reducing our environmental footprint – and now we’re taking even bigger steps to reduce our carbon emissions with a commitment to meeting SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard.

“We are proud that we are doing our part to create a sustainable future for all – including becoming the first in US wireless to set this bold target And we hope companies like ours – and the partners and suppliers we work alongside – will join us in setting their own aggressive longer-term goals like these.”

The recent announcement from T-Mobile builds off of a track record of dedication to sustainability. Prior to this, the company was the first wireless one in the US to achieve its 100% renewable electricity goal. It had an A- rating for its 2022 CDP Climate Change disclosure and could boast being in the top 20 of JUST Capital’s 2023 Rankings of America’s Most Just Companies.

Source Sustainability

Xeros study explores upcycling of laundry microfibres

Posted on January 30, 2023 by dishanth

Microfibres are defined as tiny ‘threads’, smaller than 5mm, that break off from textiles through the everyday acts of wearing and laundering garments and textiles Xeros explains.

Estimates from The Microfibre Consortium suggest every year more than half a million tons of microfibres are released into the world’s oceans simply from washing our clothing.

Meanwhile, independent research shows that microfibres from synthetic textiles (known as microplastics) are one of the biggest sources of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans.

In order to address this, Xeros Technology has developed a washing machine filtration device, XFilter, which captures the microfibres and prevents their release into the world’s oceans.

XFilter lasts the lifetime of a washing machine and allows users to place the captured microfibres directly into their bin to be disposed of with other household waste, as we already do with vacuum cleaners and tumble driers that collect similar mixed fibres.

“Microfibre waste from filtration is a complex material to recycle within existing recycling infrastructure: not only are the microfibres often mixed materials, but they also contain captured dirt and soil,” says Xeros. “This is why Xeros have teamed up the University of Surrey – to accelerative research into improved methods to permanently reduce this continued pollution build-up in the future.

Led by Dr Melis Duyar, the team from the University of Surrey and North Carolina State University have developed a new method specifically designed to upcycle textile micro/nano fibres shed during the washing and drying of clothes. The method produces clean hydrogen and solid carbon nanomaterials as a by-product.

Dr Duyar, senior lecturer at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at University of Surrey, said: “At the University of Surrey, we are developing solutions to upcycle microplastics without releasing the fossil carbon contained within them into the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. Plastics are one of the problems associated with our dependency on fossil fuels, so any solution we develop to address plastics pollution must also fit within our strategy for reaching a net zero emission economy. This partnership with Xeros will allow us to bring our technology closer to commercialisation, by developing methods for upcycling real microfibre waste collected from commercially available filters. We are excited to see our patent pending processes in action as applied to mixed fibre feedstocks, which is a big step towards developing a viable, real-world solution.”

The carbon nanomaterials developed using this upcycling method can be used in various essential products including batteries, solar cells and medical devices.

Dr Paul Servin, application development director of Xeros, added: “There is nothing better than to convert, what is today considered to be waste and a problem in the world, into a highly valuable product which is what we, together with the excellent researchers at University in Surrey, will accomplish. I’m extremely excited about this project which can hopefully lead the way to future separated collection of microfibres from washing machines, tumble dryers and vacuum cleaners for the purpose of upcycling to a higher valued product.”

The project began this month with research conducted over a 12-month period.

Source Just Style

L’Oréal launches Net-Zero Salons programme across the UK

Posted on January 27, 2023 by dishanth

L’Oréal is partnering with climate action platform Net-Zero Now to develop the Net-Zero Salons Programme. The new initiative helps salons calculate, track and reduce emissions by setting carbon reduction plans. The overarching goal is to certify establishments as a “net-zero salon”.

With around 31,000 hair salons on UK highstreets, L’Oréal believes the initiative can help reduce emissions across the industry. The programme estimates that the average salon appointment produces 3.1kg of greenhouse gas emissions and will aim to reduce it to a 2kg benchmark. Doing so, L’Oréal states, would reduce emissions from the industry by a third if all salons signed up.

L’Oréal and Net-Zero Now will offer guidance on improving energy efficiency, switching to renewables and revamping waste treatment and management. Water consumption, heating and encouraging employees to travel more sustainably are also key areas of guidance offered through the programme.

L’Oréal UK & Ireland’s managing director Thierry Cheval said: “As market leaders we recognise the important role we play in empowering our business ecosystem such as our salon partners to be more sustainable.

“We are committed to supporting the future of the sector and we look forward to having salons from across the UK and Ireland join the programme as the industry seeks to take climate reduction action.”

In 2020, L’Oreal unveiled a sweeping set of sustainability targets, pledging to reach carbon neutrality by 2025, halve carbon emissions, use 100% renewables and ensure all plastic packaging comes from recycled or bio-based sources.

A €100m fund for the regeneration of the natural environment has also been set up. A €50m Fund for Nature Regeneration will be used to finance marine and forest ecosystem restoration projects that also create new social and economic development opportunities for the populations that depend on these ecosystems.

The Net-Zero Salons Programme forms part of this sustainability roadmap and contributes to an existing “Hairstylists for the Future programme” that has helped salons reduce water usage and waste. L’Oreal partnered with the Green Salon Collective and will provide salons with a water-saving showerhead, which will be rolled out this year.

Commenting on the announcement, the British Beauty Council’s chief executive Millie Kendall said: “Now more than ever – especially post-pandemic – salons play an essential role on our British high streets and local communities; with the power to not only inspire confidence and promote wellbeing, but to be an advocate for positive change – not only from a business perspective but extending to influencing consumer habits on important topics such as sustainability.

“This new Net-Zero Salons Programme, coupled with L’Oréal’s new educational offerings to help upskill hairdressers on sustainability, is really empowering the salon sector to play its role and take action.”

Source edie

Centrica plans battery storage, solar and hydrogen at former gas power plant

Posted on January 27, 2023 by dishanth

British Gas owner Centrica has today (24 January) confirmed that it has acquired the four-acre site for the former Knapton Generating Station, near Malton in North Yorkshire, from Third Energy.

Gas-fired power generation ceased at Knapton in late 2019, as Third Energy had fired the plant using fracked gas before the UK Government imposed a moratorium on fracking. Third Energy was initially planning to create a low-carbon ‘energy park’ at the site but Centrica, as new owner, is now taking up that mantle.

Centrica has proposed the creation of a 28MW battery energy storage facility on the site. The facility will be developed in stages and the first part will be a 56MWh grid-connected battery. Centrica claims that this battery would be able to power 14,000 homes for two hours.

Centrica has also confirmed that it will explore the potential for installing solar panels in the surrounding area. A co-located battery with renewables like solar can help overcome the challenge of intermittent generation, storing generated electricity when conditions are favorable and demand is low, then providing the electricity to the grid during times of low generation and high demand.

Additionally, Centrica will investigate whether Knapton would be a suitable location for off-grid hydrogen production.

SSE Renewables

In related news, SSE Renewables has opened a public consultation on plans to co-locate battery energy storage and solar panels with its existing Richfield Wind Farm at Bridgetown in County Wexford, Ireland.

Richfield (pictured) is an 18-turbine wind farm that has been operational since 2006. It has a total generation capacity of 27MW.

SSE Renewables is seeking to develop a 21MWp solar farm on lands near the wind farm. It also wants to develop a co-located 10MW battery energy storage system which, like Centrica’s, would be able to power thousands of local homes for two hours.

The proposed solar farm would be located in the townlands of Hooks and Yoletown while the proposed battery energy storage system would be co-located adjacent to the existing substation at Richfield Wind Farm. SSE Renewables intends to submit a planning application to the County Council this spring, following a full public consultation.

SSE Renewables will need to, also, apply for permission for grid connection. At present, Ireland does not permit grid connections for ‘hybrid’ technologies, where projects are co-located.

“While some regulatory hurdles still need to be overcome to allow for hybrid grid connections, we’re ready at SSE Renewables to work closely with key government and regulatory stakeholders so that we can remove any remaining barriers and support the delivery of important solar and battery technology projects co-located at wind farm sites,” said the business’s onshore renewables development and construction director Heather Donald.

Ireland is notably aiming to generate 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, Wind is currently the leading renewable generation method for Ireland.

Source edie

The road to sustainable procurement

Posted on January 24, 2023 by dishanth

For many, procurement – determining a supplier for goods or services – is an invisible process. Despite this, it’s a completely vital one that keeps the global economy humming along.

How do goods get from one place to another? How are they procured, from where are they supplied, and how do they move down the chain? These are all questions procurement teams have to consider daily. Managing procurement is synonymous with running a sound business: according to one statistic, 70% of what an organisation earns is spent on suppliers.

The experience of COVID-19 and the pandemic’s disruptions to supply chains have reminded all of us – through higher prices and the inability to acquire basic goods – of the significance of this silent mover of the economy. Being reminded of procurement’s vitality and omnipresence begs questions about the process’s sustainability.

For many, a sustainable procurement process comes down to smart economics. Proxima is a consultancy that helps companies – FTSE 100 ones among them – sustainably transition their procurement and logistics operations. The company’s Executive Vice President for Procurement, Simon Geale, views approaches to procurement as well as sustainability through the lens of spending wisely, and in this regard, the interests of both most certainly overlap.

He goes on: “In very simplistic terms, procurement needs to embed sustainability as a form of value, in the same way as it might think about speed, quality, cost, etc. when creating strategies, buying or measuring outcomes. At certain times, this will mean finding new solutions; at others, it can mean influencing and convincing stakeholders where change can be beneficial in business terms.”

But it’s not always easy accounting for sustainability in procurement, which is often an indirect emission, one which the primary company has to in some way outsource to a contractor. “For most sectors, scope three greenhouse gas emissions – the indirect impacts that occur in a company’s value chain – are the largest source of emissions, but getting a handle on them is notoriously difficult.” These are the words of Selina Donald, the Founder and Chief Sustainability Advisor of The Bulb, a sustainability consultancy that specialises in events. As the leader of the sustainability and social values strategy for the recent Birmingham Commonwealth Games’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Donald was tasked with overseeing over 100 suppliers.

Recognising that “no one can become net zero until we all become net zero”, Donald stresses the need within procurement to align with like-minded suppliers, as well as to rate the sustainability and social values of potential suppliers.

“In their contract, there’s a clause that requires them to provide sustainability data and ensure that their values align with expected on-site behaviours across power and waste management, transportation and design.” In the event she is not sure, she deploys tools like TRACE, a carbon calculator that tracks the environmental impact of suppliers. By implementing workshops and maintaining regular communication, sustainability was kept at the forefront of her company’s relationship with suppliers. By setting up a direct line via an email address, suppliers were engaged “to provide sustainability support as appropriate and for them to put forward more sustainable options when delivering the product or service”.

Donald neatly summarises the approach: “We recognised that a key driver to meeting our Sustainability and Social Values commitments was working with a like-minded supply chain that can not only meet requirements and provide value for money, but, at the same time, hold sustainability, diversity, and ethical sourcing practices at the core of their operations.”

Still, it doesn’t come down solely to checking your partners. A deep understanding of markets is also informative and essential. Only then will sustainable procurement become shockproof. Going back to Simon Gaele at Proxima, he says: “Understanding the supply market means you will get the best outcomes available to you. If you don’t understand the market, you will always buy what you know, or, at best, be constrained by your own ideas and open to supply market risk. That’s a dangerous place to be in.”

Gaele does concede that the market – the lifeblood of enterprise and capitalism – does have a seminal part in the quest for sustainable procurement: “As unfashionable as it is to say sometimes, markets inform what we should be paying for sustainable solutions; even in a deep collaboration where we are ‘designing to X’, market intelligence informs commercial value calculations, top and bottom line.”

Source – Sustainability

Plastic bottle deposit return scheme finally looks set to start in England

Posted on January 24, 2023 by dishanth

The launch of a long awaited deposit return scheme for plastic bottles in England is expected to be announced by the government.

Five years after Michael Gove first promised to bring it in, it is understood ministers will on Friday give the go-ahead for a deposit return scheme (DRS) that will not include glass, according to a report in the Grocer magazine.

The failure to include glass in the scheme, which was a manifesto promise, has been criticised by campaigners as a missed opportunity.

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), which has campaigned for a DRS to tackle plastic pollution, said: “Whilst we should celebrate action being taken against the scourge of plastic pollution, this much delayed announcement on DRS appears a huge missed opportunity.

“The government has rolled back on its 2019 manifesto commitment to include glass, one of the most environmentally damaging materials. This is frankly nonsensical and puts England at odds with systems being introduced in Scotland and Wales, hindering UK-wide compatibility.”

The introduction of the deposit return scheme will not happen until 2024 – six years after it was announced by the government as a key environmental policy.

The delay has been criticised by SAS, which said it would result in an additional 16bn containers leaching into the environment, choking rivers and seas. “We demand greater ambition from government,” said SAS.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it would be making an announcement on Friday.

A DRS was first announced in 2018 by Gove, the then environment secretary, to cut the litter polluting the land and sea by returning a small cash sum to consumers who return their bottles and cans. It came after years of campaigning and with a warning from Gove that it was “absolutely vital we act now to tackle this threat and curb the millions of plastic bottles a day that go unrecycled”.

The government’s manifesto promise in 2019 was to introduce a deposit return scheme to incentivise people to recycle plastic and glass and the first consultation was met with a high level of support for the scheme.

Across the UK, consumers go through an estimated 13bn plastic drinks bottles a year. Only 7.5bn are recycled. The remaining 5.5bn are landfilled, littered or incinerated.

Scotland’s DRS will begin in August this year and will include glass, plastic and cans. The public will pay a 20p deposit when they buy a drink that comes in a single-use container made of PET plastic, steel and aluminium, or glass. They will get their money back when they return the empty container to one of tens of thousands of return points.

Campaigners urged the government to reconsider the exclusion of glass from the English DRS. Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, said: “We are set to disincentivise consumer recycling of what would otherwise be perfectly recyclable containers like glass bottles.

“An all-in deposit return scheme across all four nations of the UK is the only way we will radically reduce our dependence on natural resources. We cannot continue to ignore the UK’s chronically low levels of glass recycling. We need urgent systems change that do not create perverse incentives in the market and leave our environment open to perpetual degradation.”

Source The Guardian

airBaltic reduces carbon footprint using one model of plane

Posted on January 18, 2023 by dishanth

Air travel makes the world smaller, miraculously allowing someone in, say, London to reach Tokyo in about 12 hours (it takes a boat six weeks to do the same); but it is also extremely deleterious to the environment and makes people think twice about the mode of travel altogether.

In light of this sentiment, airlines hitting their sustainability goals is of the utmost importance. One of the standouts in this regard is airBaltic, the flagship carrier of Latvia, and an airline that is on track to reach its sustainability goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

To what does airBaltic attribute this success? The adoption, across its entire fleet, of one make of aeroplane: the French-designed and manufactured Airbus A220-300.

A one-model airline

The carrier first adopted this model aeroplane in 2016, and since then, airBaltic has become the largest operator in the world of this type of aircraft model. It made the decision in 2020 to make the model the sole jet it uses. Since making the move, airBaltic has already reduced its carbon emission by 20%

The Airbus A220-300 has a further capacity to reduce CO2 emissions by 25%; additionally, it can reduce Nox emissions by 50%.

The airline has benefitted over the past year, as the price of fuel has skyrocketed due to geopolitical factors such as the war in Ukraine. According to the group CEO Martin Gauss: “With the higher fuel cost, our best offset against this is the Airbus A220-300 because we have 25% less fuel burn this year than we’ve had in the years when we were using different aircraft.”

It’s not for lack of air miles: since adoption, the airBaltic’s Airbus A220-300s have logged more than 120,000 flights, flying over 263,000 block hours.

And the carrier will continue stocking the model: December 31 of last year saw its 39th join the fleet, and this number is expected to hit 50 by 2024.

Source Sustainability

National Grid posts success with hydrogen generator trial

Posted on January 18, 2023 by dishanth

The trial took ten weeks to complete and was hosted at National Grid’s Deeside Centre for Innovation in north Wales. The Centre is a testing facility, developed to enable 24/7 trials of innovative technologies and processes in an environment replicating a 400 kV substation.

During the trials, a 250kW hydrogen power unit (HPU) from GeoPura was used to power low-voltage equipment as well as site operations like cooling, pumps and lighting. The hydrogen to serve the generator was ‘green’, meaning that it was generated by running water through an electrolyser system served by renewable electricity.

National Grid was seeking to find out whether HPUs could be a feasible direct replacement for diesel backup generators, which are the chosen technology – along with battery energy storage – for providing emergency power at substation sites. National Grid operates more than 250 substations across the UK.

The trials confirmed that the HPU could provide up to 250kW for up to 45 minutes and up to 100kW for longer periods. They also revealed that the unit was considerably quieter than a diesel alternative.

While backup diesel generators are rarely used by National Grid, they are emissions-intensive when they are used. National Grid has stated that its diesel generator use generates more than 500,000 kg (500 tonnes) of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

Data resulting from the HPU trial will now be analysed. The results will be shared later this year, as well as decisions about any potential additional trials and rollout.

The manager of the Deeside Centre for Innovation, Dean Coleman, said his team is “delighted to have trialled this innovative off-grid power source”. He said: “The HPU powered our test facility 24 hours a day, seven days a week and we will now consider the findings, which we hope will help accelerate the transition to a flexible and low carbon future.”

HPU momentum

National Grid is aiming for net-zero by 2050, in line with the UK Government’s legally binding target. It is not the only organisation seeking a lower-emission alternative to diesel backup generators as the global net-zero transition builds momentum. Last year, Microsoft completed trials of HPUs to replace diesel backup generators at data centres, completing a pilot in Latham, New York.

Also using hydrogen generators is construction firm Mace Group.

Microsoft concluded that the large-scale adoption of hydrogen fuel cells should only be attempted once green hydrogen is “widely available and economically viable”. Most global hydrogen production at present is ‘grey’ – reliant on fossil fuels. This means that, while the hydrogen produces no greenhouse gas emissions at the point of combustion, it is not a low or no-emission product across its lifecycle. It also means that grey hydrogen is currently far cheaper than green, but nations have collectively pledged to bring green hydrogen to price parity with fossil hydrogen by 2030 through the Breakthorugh Agenda.

As an alternative to diesel that is more commercially mature than HPUs, some firms, including Skanska, McAlpine, Interxion and Kao Data, are choosing generators fuelled by hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO). However, others continue to invest in new diesel generators. Just this week, distribution company completed the acquisition of a diesel backup generator for its head office and distribution centre in Hatfield.

Source edie

Fresh wave of single-use plastics bans to be implemented in England this October

Posted on January 18, 2023 by dishanth

Environment Secretary Coffey gave an exclusive interview to the Mail on Sunday during the weekend of 8 January, confirming that her department will finally publish its response to a consultation on banning certain single-use plastic items that was held in 2021.

Coffey confirmed that, from October this year, restaurants, cafes and takeaways will not be able to distribute single-use plastic plates, bowls, trays and cutlery. Certain types of polystyrene cup and container will also be covered by the ban, in recognition of the fact that these items cannot be recycled.

Also set to be banned from October 2023 are plastic balloon cups.

Then, in 2024, the Government is poised to extend restrictions on plates, bowls, trays and cutlery to supermarkets. Manufacturers of products including this packaging will be required to contribute to the cost of their recycling, under changes to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements.

The Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its response to the consultation in full on Saturday 14 January. It states that the items included in the ban are some of the most frequently littered in England.

According to Defra estimates, England uses 2.7 billion items of single-use cutlery — most of which are plastic — and 721 million single-use plates per year, but only 10% are recycled. If 2.7 billion pieces of cutlery were lined up they would go round the world over eight and a half times (based on a 15cm piece of cutlery).

Defra stated that 95% of the individuals and organisations that responded to its consultation were in favour of the bans, including several big-name retailers like The Co-op.

Defra has previously implemented bans on plastic straws and drinks stirrers; plastic-stemmed cotton buds and microbeads.

Commenting on this latest round of bans, Coffey said: “I am determined to drive forward action to tackle this issue head on. We know there is more to do, and we have again listened to the public’s calls.

“This new ban will have a huge impact to stop the pollution of billions of pieces of plastic and help to protect the natural environment for future generations.”

Green economy reaction

The UK Government has implemented a string of delays when implementing resource and waste policy in recent years. The Resources and Waste Strategy was published in late 2018 but key measures including the national Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers were pushed back during Covid-19 restrictions.

As such, the announcement from Coffey has been warmly welcomed – albeit that some green groups are concerned that delays mean that the UK is now lagging behind other major economies on this topic.

City to Sea’s policy manager Steve Hynd said that the items covered by the new bans are “some of the most polluting, commonly found in our rivers and oceans and on our beaches”. As such, he has called the move “a step in the right direction”.

Hynd said: “The ban will help England catch up with other countries that already implemented similar bans years ago. But for England to be true global leaders in tackling plastic pollution like this government claims to be, we need them to go much further. We need to see an overarching strategy for tackling plastic pollution that commits to a legally binding reduction of single-use plastics.”

Keep Britain tidy’s chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton added: “This is great news and definitely a step in the right direction.

“As a society, we need to wean ourselves off all single-use items, which take huge amount of resources to produce only to end up either in the bin or littered on the ground after being used for just a few minutes.”

edie has also heard from law firm Osborne Clarke’s regulatory and compliance partner Katie Vickery, who said that the move is “to be welcomed but is not a surprise”.

Vickery elaborated: “The English consultation closed in November 2021 and had provisionally indicated that the ban would be in place by April 2023. However, despite today’s report, legislation will need to be introduced to bring the ban into effect meaning it is unlikely to be in place before the end of the year and more likely in 2024. Why has the Government been so slow in implementing this reform in England?

“England is the “last person to the party” on this issue – the EU ban came into force in July 2019, Scotland’s ban began on 1 June 2022 and Wales passed legislation just before Christmas for a ban that will take effect in the Autumn of this year.”

A Plastic Planet’s co-founder Sian Sutherland said the Government should do more to prevent other kinds of single-use waste taking the place of plastics. She said: “Of course, plastic is the bad boy of single-use. But we need to question why any material should be taken from nature, used once and discarded as trash. A comprehensive rethink of how we use natural resource materials is urgently needed. If we are to truly tackle the plastic crisis, we must move to solutions including permanent packaging and prefill systems, which will necessitate a true reinvention of our take, make, waste systems.”

WWF’s senior policy advisor on consumption, Paula Chin, took a similar line of arguement. She said: “The ban is a step forward in tackling the wave of plastic polluting our beaches, countryside, parks and rivers and posing a threat to wildlife. But there’s a risk these items will simply be replaced by more single-use items of different materials unless we address the underlying problem and move away from a throwaway culture.

“We need to set targets to reduce consumption and make it easier for businesses and households to change to reuse and refill systems. This means introducing accessible deposit return schemes, harmonising household recycling collections and making producers take greater responsibility for their packaging.”

Source edie