MAKING CHANGES THAT MATTER

Introducing our plastic-free packaging.

At Colebrook Bosson Saunders we like to be at the forefront, not just of product innovation, but in reducing our environmental impact too. We do that through carefully considered product development, materials sourcing and management of our business. As a result, we are we’re proud to say we’ve achieved plastic-free packaging for all six of our latest product introductions.

THE RISE AND RISE OF PLASTICS

Plastics and plastic packaging are the result of impressive human innovation. Lightweight, low cost, adaptable and strong, it’s no wonder plastic is so popular and widespread in all industries across the planet. In a short space of time, plastics have become an invaluable element of the modern economy. This innovation, however, comes with a heavy environmental price tag1.
The widespread use of plastics has led to a dramatic increase in the production of plastic. The World Economic Forum estimates the production of plastic is now 20 times more than it was 50 years ago. As industries around the world continue to find plastic indispensable for a huge range of applications, that figure is set to double over the next 20 years2. Currently, 85% of the global production of plastics takes place in Asia, Europe and the United States, with Asia having roughly half of the share and the United States and Europe equally splitting the other half3.

PLASTIC PACKAGING – SOME PROS, MANY CONS

Of all of plastic’s many applications, packaging is the most popular, making up 26% of the global total4. And it’s not hard to see why, because plastic packaging has some important benefits for businesses and the economy. For example, it reduces food waste by extending shelf lives and, being lightweight, it lowers transport costs by reducing the overall weight of goods, as well as helping to reduce emissions.
However, these benefits do not come cheap. As has been widely accepted, plastics have a devastating impact on the earth’s ecosystems, on which we and many of other species depend5.
It is estimated that eight million tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year. That’s the equivalent of one full garbage truck emptying its load into the ocean every single minute. By 2030 this will two per minute and by 2050 four per minute if nothing changes. Plastic packaging is leading the way and by 2050 we could well have more plastic in the ocean than fish (by weight)6 .
The sheer convenience of plastic packaging makes the chance of a significant reduction of its use disappointingly low. There’s a substantial financial impact too, but environmental organizations across the globe are trying to get us all to walk away from single use plastics in favor of more environmentally friendly materials7.

REDUCING OUR IMPACT THROUGH INNOVATION
Colebrook Bosson Saunders was founded with a strong set of values that help us to take responsibility for our social and environmental impact. Our drive to innovate and create has helped us find alternative ways of doing things and to solve challenges posed by the products we design and produce.
One major contribution to sustainability is the fact that we build products to last a lifetime, using high quality materials. This does include plastics but, as has been demonstrated, by greatly extending their life cycle we are not directly generating harmful plastic waste8.
But that is not enough. Which is why our engineering team has moved mountains to find innovative, sustainable packaging solutions that reduce our overall environmental impact caused by single-use plastic.

A HUGE PLASTIC-FREE ACHIEVEMENT
The result? We have launched six new products with plastic-free packaging, using innovative design and responsibly sourced materials that are more easily recyclable. We’re extremely proud of this achievement and our contribution to reducing the impact of plastics on climate change. There’s more work to do, but we’re on the right track.

Making changes that matter – Sources

1. Transparency Market Research, Plastic Packaging Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2014–2020 (2015); PlasticsEurope, Plastics – the Facts (2015)
https://supplychain.edf.org/resources/sustainability-101-packaging-waste-the-problem/.


2. The New Plastics Economy Rethinking the future of plastics http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Plastics_Economy.pdf.


3. Source: PlasticsEurope, Plastics – the Facts 2015 (2015); Statista; ICIS Supply and Demand; J. R. Jambeck et al., Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean (Science, 13 February 2015) http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Plastics_Economy.pdf.


4. Hannah Ritchie (2018) – “Plastic Pollution”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution’ [Online Resource].

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