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| P2P Magazine | Autumn 2014
01732 759725
PACKAGING
Bags of potential
Green mailing bags
The Programme for the Endorsement
of Forest Certification (PEFC) and
AB Group Packaging are encouraging
businesses, retailers and consumers to
use paper bags instead of plastic ones,
following a Government announcement
that from October 2015 there is to be
a 5p levy on all single-use plastic bags
in England.
The levy will apply only to plastic bags
and small and medium-sized businesses
will be exempt.
There is already a 5p levy on single-
use bags (plastic and paper) inWales and
Northern Ireland, with no exemption
for SMEs. Scotland will be introducing a
similar charge in 2014.
Both PEFC and AB Group Packaging
view the 5p charge as a great
opportunity for the paper and packaging
industry to promote the use of fibre-
based packaging as a sustainable
alternative to plastic, especially if
sourced from certified, sustainably
managed forests or recycled pulp.
Paper bags are biodegradable,
compostable and recyclable, while the
majority of plastic bags are still made
from polyethylene (PE) that can take
hundreds of years to break down in
landfill.
AB Group managing director Dermot
Brady said: “The announcement of this
tax for plastic bags marks an excellent
Duo UK has become the first polythene
manufacturer in the UK to offer 100%
recyclable mailing bags made from 100%
renewable sources. The bags, suitable for e-tail
and mail order, are produced using Green PE,
a thermoplastic resin made entirely from
sugarcane ethanol.
Green PE is produced in southern Brazil by
Braskem, the largest petrochemical producer
in the Americas, and distributed in the UK and
Ireland by Resin Trade.
Because sugarcane captures carbon dioxide
during photosynthesis, each kilogram of Green PE
produced results in 2.15kg fewer CO2 emissions
than conventional oil-based polythene.
Duo commercial director Anthony Brimelow
says that Green PE bags will help his clients meet
CSR obligations and satisfy growing consumer
demand for green products.
He said: “What is particularly impressive about
Green PE is its environmental credentials extend
all the way down the production chain and, from
a manufacturing point of view, we can use the
same processes and machinery we use to create
standard polythene products. It’s also a very
versatile product, so while we see the online retail
sector as a major buyer in the short term, there’s
nothing to stop us exploring other applications in
the future.”
Duo already runs a closed loop polythene
recycling system at its Derby factory, where it
converts polythene scrap from its own operations
and those of its clients into pellets that can then
be reused.
Mondi Coatings has developed a paper bag for
the collection and recycling of used Nespresso
capsules in Austria. The flat-bottomed bag is coated
with Sustainex, a biodegradable, compostable and
recyclable biopolymer that prevents moisture from
soaking into the FSC-certified paper.
Nespresso introduced a collection and recycling
system for used aluminium capsules in 2009. It currently
has more than 1,300 recycling collection points in
Austria and a recycling capacity of 84%.
Dietmar Keuschnig, marketing director of Nespresso
Austria, said: “Recycling of capsules is one of the
cornerstones of the Nespresso Ecolaboration programme.
We want to make it as convenient as possible for our
club members to collect coffee capsules. Thanks to the
new Nespresso Recycling Bag we are confident we can
increase our recycling rate even more.”
Once a bag is full, it can be closed with the built-in
sealing strip and taken to a local recycling point. Both the
bag and coffee are fully compostable and the aluminium
is infinitely recyclable. According to Nespresso, recycled
aluminium generates only 5% of the CO2 emissions
associated with primary aluminium production.
opportunity for the paper and packaging
industry to increase the use of paper-
based bags, which are both sustainable,
renewable and present an excellent
environmental plus over plastic.”
Currently, paper bags make up less
than 0.1% of carrier bags distributed in
the UK by the seven major supermarket
retailers.
More paperwork
Another reason to replace plastic bags
with paper ones, according to AB Group,
is to reduce the administrative burden of
implementing the levy. It warns that the
new 5p tax and associated VAT will have
to be accounted for separately, requiring
costly changes to accounting and IT
systems.
The introduction of the new levy
is expected to reduce the 7 billion
carrier bags that are handed out by
Britain’s supermarkets every year
quite significantly. InWales, the levy
introduced in 2011 has already cut the
number of carrier bags given out by
81%, according to Government figures.
In Ireland, which introduced a levy of
15 cents (13p) on plastic bags in 2002,
before raising it to 22 cents (18p) in
2007, plastic bag usage has fallen by
over 90%.
Plastic bag tax makes paper alternatives more attractive
