Policy impact

I'm Baroness Meacher, Chair of the University of Birmingham Policy Commission on Sustainable Plastics I have been absolutely thrilled to lead on such a very important and exciting piece of work and working alongside such a wonderful team of experts.

My name is Professor Fern Elsdon-Baker I am the director of The Institute for STEMM and Culture and Society, but I'm also the co-lead for the Birmingham Plastics Network Policy Commission. This commission has really enabled us to get to grips with what is a very complex multi-layered problem.

I'm Andrew Dove, I'm a professor of Sustainable Polymer Chemistry at the University of Birmingham and I'm one of the co-leads of the Birmingham Plastics Network. Our recommendations cover all aspects of the Plastics life cycle from sourcing, to use, to reuse, to end of life. And our recommendations are designed to create meaningful change for the UK. In one recommendation we're focusing on recommending stringent and ambitious targets to reduce land filling and incineration of plastic waste. In another recommendation we're focusing on redefining the definition of waste to stop it from becoming waste when there is no known use for it at the end of its life, in that way we can incentivize the circular economy which will help polymeric carbon stay as polymeric carbon and help us reduce emissions and Achieve Net Zero.

The UK's 2022 plastic packaging tax was an important step in ensuring that circular practices are followed, but we can now introduce a sliding scale tax so that companies that exceed the 30% threshold are rewarded but there must be appropriate measures to mitigate against fraud.

Another key finding of the policy commission is that we really need to be more robust in the way that we regulate the marketing of biodegradable and compostable plastics. There's a lot of confusion out there- we really need to tighten up the way these terms are used.

The commission found that there is mounting evidence that plastic pollution can lead to environmental and human health harms, but that evidence is incomplete we need to build the evidence-based further to enable conclusions to be drawn. We also need to go further and we could consider things like environmental migration limits for additives in plastics, but also to make sure that we don't end up making mistakes through regrettable substitution of one additive for another additive that may actually be equally as harmful.

One of the recommendations that we made in our report is to look at the way in which the public sector can use its procurement power to engender change in the plastic sector so we don't need everything to be about taxation there can be other ways in which the public sector can incentivise change in the UK.

Extended producer responsibility is due to be introduced to the UK in 2025 it seeks to ensure that producers are responsible for the end of life fate of their products whilst this is initially intended for the packaging area we advocate for this being extended to other areas in which plastics are used.

To support the plastic industry to adjust the government needs to consider corresponding investments in plastics and waste management to ensure sufficient supply of recycled plastic.

One of the key findings with the policy commission was a recommendation to found a National Centre for Excellence for sustainable plastics. This would provide an opportunity to bring together all of the different people who need to be involved in finding future solutions for plastics in the UK. By collectively working together we can showcase that plastics can be part of a low carbon future for the UK. This is not a problem that can be solved by one group of people alone.

The Birmingham Plastics Network alongside the Commissioners will continue to work to develop policy in this area and try to implement meaningful change.

A sustainable future for plastics is mandatory for our economy and the environment. It is also essential for our journey towards net zero we must not let the conversation stop here.