Each year, 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the world’s oceans. It’s like emptying a garbage truck full of plastic into the water every minute around the clock.
The United States is just 4% of the global population, yet 500 million plastic straws are used in the States every day.
The standard single-use supermarket plastic bag takes about 1,000 years to break down in a landfill.
The harshest bans on plastics are still outside the U.S. for now, but it won’t be long until we catch up. Kenya has the strictest policy in the world right now. Beginning in August of last year, anyone in Kenya found using, producing, or selling a plastic bag faces up to four years in jail or a $38,000 fine. As you might imagine, it’s prompting some seriously creative plastic bag alternatives.
In January of this year, the UK announced a 25-year plan to “set the global gold standard” on eliminating plastic waste, a bar set high by environment minister Michael Gove. The first step was to eliminate plastic microbeads, which we have talked about here before. Microbeads can no longer be used in products like body scrubs, face washes, toothpaste, and cleaning products in the UK. They’re so small they end up in the oceans, eaten by marine life, then end up in the food chain. It’s not quite a complete ban on microbeads in the UK, though, sunscreen and makeup are still allowed to contain them.
Closer to home, the state of New York is currently considering a plastic bag ban, though it excludes produce bags, take-out food bags, and bags for garbage and food storage. Seattle put a ban on plastic straws and single-use utensils this month, and Malibu banned them last month and added plastic stirrers to the banned list.
Of course, politics play a role in what sometimes looks like simply applying common sense ideas for the environment. NY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo embraced a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags in April, introducing a bill to outlaw them by next year. The three-page bill, floated by the governor a day after Earth Day, comes a little more than a year after he blocked a 5-cent surcharge that New York City had sought to place on single-use plastic bags. Cuomo now describes the measure as an effort to counteract the “blight of plastic bags” that is taking “a devastating toll on our streets, our water, and our natural resources.”
Convenient timing also has some retailers doing the right thing. With corporate offices in Seattle, which just banned plastic straws, Starbucks announced the elimination of all straws in 28,000 stores worldwide by 2020 making perfect corporate image sense. With straws replaced by “adult sippy cups,” it’s part of a $10 Million investment in recyclable and compostable cups around the world.
So, how is this an opportunity for you? Just think in terms of selling more of what you are already selling. With the push to eliminate single-use plastic bags, for example, the recycled cloth bags and totes that are already a leading product category become even more important to the brands you are selling. The wave of sustainable sourcing expectations by your clients is not some passing fad—it is real—and you need to be poised to capitalize with responsible alternatives to single-use products. Measures to tackle plastic waste are working, and the expansion of the effort to include coffee cups, bottles, and straws is on the horizon. You need to be ready with the choice of products to replace them for your clients.
While you are thinking about these new opportunities for increased sales, a shameless plug for product safety, you still need to keep sustainable decoration choices in mind too. Have you thought about the inks your suppliers are using? Do you know what they are, and where they are being applied? To source sustainable products without responsible decorating choices is truly just getting half the job done. New opportunities are on the horizon, you need to be ready to take advantage of them now!
Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him volunteering as a Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Connect with Jeff on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.