Does the new European plastic directive effectively reduce plastic waste? ZIN junior scholar Tobias Gumbert comments
On 26 October 2018, an interview with ZIN junior scholar Tobias Gumbert, titled “Plastik-Verbot: Die wichtige Suche nach Alternativen” (in English: “Plastic-ban: The crucial search for alternatives”) was published in the local newspaper Westfälische Nachrichten. The interview, conducted by Anna Spliethoff, focused on the ban on disposable plastic packaging, which was decided by the EU-Parliament two days before.
According to Tobias Gumbert, the ban is a first step in the right direction, since it places the plastic problem on the political agenda. However, he criticized that the focus on disposable plastic makes the ban primarily a symbolic policy. On the one hand, the ban only applies to selected industries that will be able to remove products from the market relatively quickly. Secondly, according to a study by the German Environment Agency, waste produced by disposable cups and other small disposable products accounted for less than one percent of German packaging waste at household level in 2012. In order to significantly reduce the total quantity, a greater focus must be placed on classic food packaging. Furthermore, the reduction of plastic in general is a very complex topic: Although the use of plastic needs to be re-considered in many areas, plastic can also be used as a more hygienic or environmentally friendly alternative to other materials.
Tobias Gumbert concluded the interview by pointing out that everyone could contribute to reducing plastic waste, for example by reducing the personal ‘plastic footprint’ while shopping. He stressed, however, that it is most important to demand an infrastructure suitable for plastic reduction and to incorporate these demands into the political process, “even if that only entails sending an e-mail to the administration. That is of course a greater effort, […] but in the long run we simply won’t be able to avoid that.” [own translation]
