w24 Learning materials ‘handout’: Solutions Focus IV: Plastics and packaging [pdf]
Main reading
The scale of the problem
Abboud, L (2019), Can we overcome the curse of the single-use sachet?, Financial Times, Dec 5th
Ambrose, J (2020), ‘War on plastic’ could strand oil industry’s £300bn investment, The Guardian, Sept 4th
Carrington, D (2019), Revealed: microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers, The Guardian, Dec 27th
Carrington, D (2020a), Car tyres are major source of ocean microplastics – study, The Guardian, July 14th
Carrington, D (2020b), US and UK citizens are world’s biggest sources of plastic waste – study, The Guardian, Oct 30th
Carrington, D (2020c), Microplastics revealed in the placentas of unborn babies, The Guardian, Dec 22nd
Carrington, D (2021), Clothes washing linked to ‘pervasive’ plastic pollution in the Arctic, The Guardian, Jan 12th
* Franklin-Wallis, O (2019), ‘Plastic recycling is a myth’: what really happens to your rubbish?, The Guardian, Aug 17th
Harvey, F (2020b), Plastic pollution in Atlantic at least 10 times worse than thought, The Guardian, Aug 18th
Harvey, F (2020a), Plastic waste entering oceans expected to triple in 20 years, The Guardian, July 23rd
Laville, S (2021), UK supermarkets not doing enough to cut plastic use, says report, The Guardian, Jan 26th
Mahdawi, A (2020), Most plastic will never be recycled – and the manufacturers couldn’t care less, The Guardian, Sept 15th
McVeigh, K (2020), New rules to tackle ‘wild west’ of plastic waste dumped on poorer countries, The Guardian, Dec 29th
* Pooler, M (2020), Surge in plastics production defies environmental backlash, Financial Times, Feb 12th
Timmer, J (2020), If recycling plastics isn’t making sense, remake the plastics, Ars Technica, Oct 18th
Singh, M (2019), ‘Everywhere we looked’: trillions of microplastics found in San Francisco bay, The Guardian, Oct 4th
Recycling
* Franklin-Wallis, O (2019), ‘Plastic recycling is a myth’: what really happens to your rubbish?, The Guardian, Aug 17th
Mahdawi, A (2020), Most plastic will never be recycled – and the manufacturers couldn’t care less, The Guardian, Sept 15th
Siegle, L (2021), Revealed: why hundreds of thousands of tonnes of recycling are going up in smoke, The Observer, Mar 7th
Solutions
* EMF (2020a), New Plastics Economy – Global Commitment 2020 Progress Report, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
EMF (2020b), Upstream Innovation, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Nov
Evans, J (2020), Coca-Cola and rivals fail to meet plastic pledges, Financial Times, Sept 17th
Jones, S (2021), Green shoots: Spanish firm tackles plastic waste from shotgun cartridges, The Guardian, Jan 25th
Matei, A (2021), Magnets, vacuums and tiny nets: the new fight against microplastics, The Guardian, Feb 18th
Simon, M (2020), The incredible journey of the electronic plastic bottle, Ars Technica, Dec 6th
Timmer, J (2020), If recycling plastics isn’t making sense, remake the plastics, Ars Technica, Oct 18th
Background
EMF (2017), New Plastics Economy, Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Giusti, M (2020), The incredible bulk: the world’s best plastic-free stores, Financial Times, Oct 25th
Holden, E (2019), Recycling isn’t working – here are 15 ways to shrink your plastic footprint, The Guardian, Nov 27th
McVeigh, K (2020), Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé named top plastic polluters for third year in a row, The Guardian, Dec 7th
Meadows, R (2020), Plastic: A problem of excess, Financial Times, Dec 12th [Winner of the FT schools/RGS-IBG student competition]
Murray, S (2019), The case for a circular world, Financial Times, Dec 5th
Pooler, M and Pulice, C (2020), Braskem bets on growing demand for bioplastics, Financial Times, Dec 8th
Robinson, J (2021), Rethinking the bottle: could plastic, cans and kegs be greener?, Financial Times, Jan 16th
