Plastic sachets are one of the most widely used single-use plastic polluters on the planet. Everything from ketchup and mustard packets to shampoo and hand wipes contributes to our ever-growing plastic pollution problem.
Now a campaign has been launched to put an end to this madness and it’s being led by A Plastic Planet, whose co-founder, Sian Sutherland, has a passion to inspire others to take action against plastic pollution, and the marketing prowess to create change.
Sutherland talks about the campaign:
In recent years governments and businesses have gone all out to enforce a ban on plastic straws, cotton buds, and even bags. And yet the plastic sachet, the ultimate symbol of our grab and go, convenience-addicted lifestyle, has been virtually invisible to all. The result? Our Earth is saturated with these uncollectable, unrecyclable, contaminated, valueless little packets. It’s time to close the legal loophole. Now more than ever before we have to sack the sachet.
How bad can it be you ask? How about 855 billion plastic sachets handed out every year worldwide, I say handed out because who knows how many of them ever get used. This is enough of those tiny little packets to cover the entire planet.
Joining A Plastic Planet in the campaign are more than 50 business leaders and politicians including the UN secretary general’s special envoy for the ocean, Peter Thomson, and Iceland Foods’ managing director, Richard Welker. They are asking others to join them in demanding these sachets be added to European and UK legislation that is outlawing other “throwaway” plastic items.
The EU single-use plastics directive will go into effect in April for the ban on straws and earbuds, with many other items set to be banned by 2021. For whatever reason, up until now, these packets have flown under the radar when banning other single-use plastics has been discussed.
At the #SackTheSachet campaign in London Sutherland spoke about this:
“Industry is waking up to the plastic problem in general. However, one little item seems to have escaped everybody’s attention: the plastic sachet. We became aware of the plastic sachet and the sheer volume that we are pumping out every single year.”
Sutherland also added comment when speaking to FoodNavigator:
We used to somehow survive with ketchup and vinegar in glass bottles, but we’ve become addicted to single-serve stuff. For us, the symbolism of the sachet is everything because it is the ultimate grab and go convenience-addicted, health and safety madness that we’ve slipped into.
One company that knows something about single-use “throwaway” sachets is Unilever, who owns brands such as Dove, Hellmann’s, and supplies hotels with single-use soaps and shampoos, and is looking to make changes. They are working together with the UK’s Just Eat chain to pilot a program using seaweed-based packets for Hellmann’s sauces.
Unilever’s chief R&D officer, David Blanchard recently said:
Our aim is to develop a closed-loop system for sachets, so we can use them in future packaging. This will allow us to continue to provide consumers with the price and convenience of sachets while tackling the environmental issues associated with their use.
One of the top producers of plastic pollution must be taking steps toward tackling that problem. And, increased pressure from movements like A Plastic Planet will help to speed the process up and hopefully, wake more people up. For us to truly create changes for the betterment of the planet, everyone is going to need to accept that some of the conveniences we’re used to are not worth sacrificing our existence.
