The Thing About Plastic Bans:

Plastic bans are a big topic these days, and take heart, the promotional products industry is beginning to come around, even if progress on that front seems painfully slow. I’m noticing that several of the major distributors are featuring responsibly sourced lines, some launched at PPAI were actually promoted and featured, which are impressive initiatives to see indeed. But there’s still much work to do industry wide. As communities, cities, and states around the world begin to enact plastic bans, you’ll need to be ready with a plan to phase in renewable products at the same speed plastics are being phased out by both law and popularity.

We’ve talked frequently about the plastic bottles, cutlery, boxes, and bags sold to restaurants for takeout customers that dominate ocean litter. Governments around the world didn’t start introducing single-use plastic product bans to alleviate this pollution yesterday. In fact, Zimbabwe banned plastic packaging and bottles in 2010. Antigua and Barbuda banned single-use catering and takeout items in 2016, and the Pacific Island of Vanuatu did the same for disposable containers in 2018.

The EU prohibited cotton buds, balloon sticks, plastic catering items and takeaway containers, including those made from expanded polystyrene, in 2021. So, if you’ve got a client that treats the demise of single-use plastic with the same interest as a passing fad, you might want to share the facts. Single-use plastics have seen their day in the sun, and in our oceans and environment in general. It’s time to get with the sustainability program and ditch these products.

The UK government has taken this a further step by announcing a ban on the providing of single-use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks, and polystyrene cups and containers supplied to restaurants and cafes in England. The measure will start in two months. The same products sold in supermarkets and shops will be exempt from the ban for now, but then subject to the new regulations in 2024. But, let’s not get too excited. The success of any policy aimed at restricting the use of plastic products in one country should not be taken for granted as being able to work as-is in other countries or continents — we only have to look at what forward-looking countries have done and see how little progress has been made in other areas to know how very true this is.

Without supporting measures, or by failing to treat the ban as the beginning of a broader phase-down of plastic, banning some items does little to change the attitudes which are reinforced in our throwaway culture. Research proves it. The Global Plastics Policy Center of the University of Portsmouth reviewed 100 policies aimed at tackling plastic pollution worldwide in 2022 to understand what makes them successful.

If you’re ahead of the curve, and looking towards how you can propose the correct alternatives to your clients as bans are phased in here, you both might benefit from some basic tenets suggested in Down To Earth. Down To Earth started in 1992 as a print magazine with the lofty goal and commitment of making us aware of our environmental challenges and also believed that we could actually be the change in the world. Arguably the world is more aware of the dangers of climate change, but even less prepared to deal with challenges of local and global environmental management today.

Here are three key concepts which might well make a new ban more effective:

1. Make it easy to use alternatives.

Consumers and businesses are less likely to comply with a ban if they are expected to go entirely without plastic overnight. Ensuring businesses can source affordable alternatives is critical. Antigua and Barbuda did this by investing in the research of more sustainable materials and listing approved alternatives to plastic, like bagasse, a byproduct of sugar cane processing. To maintain public support, it helps if there are measures which prevent cost hikes being passed directly on to consumers. Alternative materials or products must have a lower environmental impact than the banned product.

2. Phase in a ban.

A phased approach to a ban improves how well it works, but requires consistent and clear messaging about what products are banned and when. In Antigua and Barbuda, phased plastic bag bans in 2016 and 2017 generated support for banning other plastic products between 2017 and 2018. In both cases, importing these products was restricted first, followed by a ban on distributing them, which gave suppliers time to find alternatives and use up existing stock. This approach was used to good effect in an English ban on plastic straws, cotton buds, and stirrers in 2020, allowing retailers to use up their supplies during the six months following the ban’s introduction. There’s every reason to think that would be the right plan to initiate here, and you can be ready.

3. Involve the public.

Information campaigns which explain why a ban is needed, what it means for the public and businesses and what alternatives are available serve to support a ban are key. This was evident from the experience in Vanuatu, where the inclusion of diapers in a ban was postponed due to public concerns around the availability of sustainable alternatives.

Plastic bans have proven to work in parts of the U.S., but it takes a while for everybody to get used to the idea. Plastic bans have proven to work at reducing waste. San Francisco was the first city in the nation to ban plastic bags in 2007. In 2016, voters approved Proposition 67, banning plastic bags statewide.

"We understand that our oceans are full of plastic right now, and we know that if we want a future, where there are more fish than plastic in the ocean, we're going to have to do something about it," said Debbie Raphael, Director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment. She continued, "The problem with single-use plastics, like a straw, is not the volume and bulk of the plastics, but they become emblematic of a culture of convenience, a culture of throwaway, that we are going to need to tackle if we are going to protect our natural environment."

While Down To Earth’s goal is lofty, there are examples of success you can point to with your clients. Single-use plastic bans could hopefully inspire wider changes to social systems and the relationship each person has with plastic. But without planned access to alternatives, a phased-in introduction, and efforts to first nurture public support and broader consideration of the entire life cycle of plastic, product bans have little chance fighting plastic pollution, and if communicated with anything less than complete transparency, could even appear to give the false impression of progress. That’s the last thing all of us in promotional products should want.