Kicking the plastic habit

Is Britain drowning in plastic?
We certainly get through a lot: 20 times more than we did 50 years ago and roughly double the amount in 1993. British shoppers use two million tonnes of plastic packaging each year: that's 33kg per head. But weight isn't the whole story. Plastic is increasingly visible in our lives because it keeps getting better (and lighter) at what it does: yoghurt pots, water bottles, detergent tubs all weigh less now than ten years ago, so far more goods are wrapped in plastic than the increase in weight suggests. According to Incpen, an industry group that studies plastic and the environment, 53 per cent of consumer goods are now wrapped in plastic, yet plastic accounts for only 20 per cent of packaging by weight.

Then isn't plastic packaging a good thing overall?
That's what the UK's £10bn packaging industry likes to say. In developing countries, up to 40 per cent of food is lost before it can be sold: in Britain, thanks to advanced packaging, that sort of waste is limited to about 3 per cent. And while all packaging materials have their merits, plastic has more. There are over 20 types of polymer (the long chains of molecules that make up plastic) used in packaging, enabling packagers to seek strength, heat-resistance and breathable properties and blend them to make the right wrapping. Above all, it's light, so it's easy and cheap to transport, and relatively environmentally friendly. A recent Austrian study concluded that if we were to cease using plastic, packaging of other types would have to increase by 400 per cent to make up for it.

So what's not to like?
Plastic comes from oil - a black mark in itself. But manufacturers argue that plastic packaging accounts for only 2 per cent of world oil consumption and that that is an excellent return for chemicals which would otherwise be burned. The making of plastic, they note, requires less energy (and water) than rival materials, like paper. The real problem with plastic is when it reaches the end of its life, or rather, when it doesn't. Since it won't biodegrade, it can become permanent, troublesome clutter, fouling the landscape and harming birds and sealife. According to the Marine Conservation Society, plastic litter on Britain's beaches has increased by 126 per cent since 1994 and 170 marine species