Results of 32 Life Cycle analysis (LCAs), directly comparing the impact of single-use packaging and the reusable alternatives, including beverage packaging, carrier bags, food containers and transport packaging.
Subject: Reuse
Article for Resource Recycling, April 2019.
Menstrual products generate extraordinary amounts of waste. It has been estimated that an average woman disposes approximately 150 kilograms of tampons, pads, and applicators in her lifetime, around 90% of which is plastic.
Article for Resource Recycling, Aug 2017.
The study examines existing measures and incentive schemes, which have been used successfully for products such as beverage containers, and identifies additional key waste streams that could benefit from such measures.
According to a recent Ellen MacArthur Foundation report, at least 20 percent of plastic packaging could be profitably reused. Given this vast potential, it makes sense that the EU is giving consideration to reuse in its new Circular Economy Package (CEP).
Since the European Commission unveiled its Circular Economy (CE) package last December, there has been significant discussion around the proposed legislation. And perhaps the most vexed topic to date has been how best to calculate recycling rates in the EU and whether to include reuse activities in that determination.