One of the country’s leading experts in plastic waste and pollution urged MPs to adopt a joined up approach to the plastic waste problem at a formal meeting of the UK Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA).
Professor Steve Fletcher, Director of the Revolution Plastics initiative at the University of Portsmouth, gave evidence as part of the Plastic Waste inquiry this week.
When asked what is required to get the most out of the current plastic recycling system, Professor Fletcher explained that any changes would only work if the entire system of production, consumption and waste management was looked at as a whole. He said: “Isolated intervention doesn’t really work unless the rest of the system is adapted to that intervention or configured to allow that intervention to work. I would caution against trying to solve individualised parts of the problem in isolation, without thinking about the entire system. We ought to be aiming for a systemic shift, rather than trying to solve small problems throughout the system.”
Professor Fletcher also challenged MPs to think of the plastic crisis on a global scale, and not just a national one. He asked: “What is the UK vision for plastic recycling in the context of the global plastics crisis? The other factor to consider is the likely start of negotiations later this year towards a global legally-binding agreement on tackling plastic pollution arising the next UN Environment Assembly. Whatever we choose to do at the UK scale, will also have to consider any global agreement that is down the track as well.”
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Posted On: 24/01/2022