Born in 1970, Earth Day has evolved into one of the largest civic events of all time. When we observe the 54th Earth Day on April 22, the health and safety of the planet couldn’t be timelier, especially when it comes to dealing with the proliferation of plastic.
Over the past 60 years, around eight billion tons of plastic has been produced, according to a recent study in the journal Science Advances — 90.5 per cent of which has not been recycled. As a result, this year’s Earth Day theme— “Planet vs. Plastic”— demands a 60% reduction in the production of all plastics by 2040.
Just how big of a challenge is this? What type of numbers are we talking about? Here’s some perspective:
- In 1950, the world produced just two million tons of plastic. We now produce over 450 million tons.
- Half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the last 15 years.
- Production is expected to double by 2050.
- More than one million plastic water bottles are sold every minute.
- Every year, about 11 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the ocean.
- Only 9% of plastics ever produced has been recycled.
- Plastics often contain additives that can extend the life of products, with some estimates ranging to at least 400 years to break down.
Plastic is literally everywhere
An advertisement from the American Plastics Council in a 1997 edition of the New Yorker suggested that plastic wrappers and containers were the “sixth food group” that were there to keep contaminates out of our food.
Close up shot of microplastics on a hand.
gettyIn a twisted type of irony, Microplastics are now in almost everything and everywhere. Even in in much of the food we eat and water we drink! Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic (from ½ inch to microscopic) is synthetic that never disappears. As Stephen Jamieson recently explained in a Future of Supply Chain podcast, “We're ingesting a credit card size worth of plastic every single week as humans, and the real health impacts of that, we don't truly know and don't truly understand.”
What is the world doing about it?
In the Podcast, Stephen discussed the upcoming fourth session of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee he is attending in Ottawa, Canada from 23rd to the 29th of April. The goal is to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, that will, as Stephen stated, “by early next year, actually ratify a new treaty at the United Nations to eliminate plastic pollution by 2040”.
What can businesses do about it?
Think about optimizing your entire supply chain for sustainability, rather than just individual functions.
For example, you may be pulling certain levers in your design processes, or manufacturing plants, only to realize that the sustainability gains in that process are offset by much a much larger negative impact on logistics or at the end of life of a product.
Perform Life Cycle Assessments on your products
A Life Cycle Assessment is a method for the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product throughout its life cycle (ISO standard 14040).
In simple terms, it’s a way by which you can understand the sustainability footprint of a product throughout it’s full lifecycle, from “cradle to grave.”
By enabling product footprints periodically across the entire product lifecycle, you can gain insights on the environmental impacts of your products across the entire lifecycle for disclosure and internal product and process optimization.
Design with end of life in mind
As Earthday.org says, “We need to invest in innovative technologies and materials to build a plastic-free world”.
And this starts with how we design products and packaging material in the goods we manufacture and deliver. The sooner we phase out all single use plastics, the better. We need responsible design and production solutions that facilitate a product and package redesign that enables companies to engage in the circular economy and reduces waste without sacrificing quality.
Enforce compliance at each step of the product lifecycle
If you look at most companies’ website for their mission statement or purpose, sustainability is front and center. And supply chain sits right in the middle, both as a major contributor to the problem, and a major opportunity to improve.
But you can’t manage regulatory and sustainability requirements, track registrations and substance volumes, classify products, and create compliance documents, as well as package, transport, and store hazardous materials properly with accurate labeling you won’t be able to measure how you are performing.
This takes a stepwise approach to:
Record: The first step is to gather all necessary ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) data along the entire value chain. This data cannot be found easily in one single system. Currently this is a highly manual and therefore time consuming effort compounded by data quality challenges.
Report: There are more than 600 ESG frameworks/standards out there and they are being constantly developed further (Take the evolving plastics taxes across Europe for example). The requirements for companies are constantly changing. A high effort is required to keep up with the current requirements to report along the respective regulatory & voluntary frameworks.
Act: In many companies sustainability action is already happening but in many cases this this is still partly disjoint from the strategy or not yet covering all business processes
What can we as individuals do about it?
The reality is that everybody has a role to play in the “Planet vs. Plastics battle, and the sustainability of the planet in general.
Little things like using reusable bottles and straws and bringing reusable bags to the store are great first step.
You can also go to earthday.org to learn more about the battle between planet vs. plastics, and find an event near you where you can help clean up the planet.
Let’s make every day Earth Day, to protect this beautiful rock we live on for future generations.
To learn more, listen to The Future of Supply Chain Podcast – Earth vs. Planet.
