A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
Compostable alternatives to plastic By Pippa Naude
In events, single-use or disposable plastics have been especially useful in offering convenience, speed, scale, hygiene and affordability.
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hink of an event with thousands of attendees, and how quickly and safely they can be catered for with pre-packaged meals, disposable cutlery in sterile packaging, and disposable coffee cups (made from paper, but lined in plastic so that your cup doesn’t get soggy). These are some of the reasons why ‘fantastic plastic’, until recently, has been so successful. However, mass sentiment towards this material has turned overwhelmingly negative, especially as it relates to single use plastic products, thanks in a large part due to David Attenborough’s The Blue Planet II. This documentary highlights the environmental havoc that plastic waste can cause, such as: Plastic can take hundreds of years to decompose. During this time, there is a high risk it will not be disposed of responsibly and will become litter. Bird and marine life mistake it for food, with fatal consequences. When it does break down, it breaks into tiny pieces called microplastics. These are now found everywhere, including in our digestive tracts. A few plastics contain chemicals which are harmful to our health.
BPA is a well-known example. Plastic pollution releases these chemicals into our ecosystems. Many, but not all, plastics can be recycled. Recycling presents a good way to keep this resource in our value chain and out of natural systems. However plastic cannot be recycled indefinitely, as the process degrades the quality of the final product; all plastic becomes Biodegradable vs waste in the end. compostable While plastic is an Biodegradable and compostable are incredibly useful resource, not the same thing, despite sometimes especially in certain being used interchangeably. applications such as Biodegradable means a material will healthcare, we need to start break down in natural conditions. This can take a being far more mindful long period of time, and the end-result could include of how we use it. And toxins. Compostable means a material will break in this regard, single-use down into nutrients for the soil (compost) under the plastics that are designed right conditions. This will happen within a specific to be thrown away after time frame, and there will be no remaining toxic residues. All compostable items are biodegradable, a very brief use period are but not all biodegradable items can be composted. no longer acceptable. 18 Business Events Africa October 2019
So what can we do? Luckily, there is a lot we can do to stop this problem from growing. “The first question we should always ask is whether we can avoid disposable items,” says Greg McManus, chairperson of the Event Greening Forum. “As a rule of thumb, reusables are always the more sustainable option.” This could include serving food with re-usable cutlery and crockery and linen serviettes, or using sealed containers to hold pre-prepared food in. Greg acknowledges that while this is comparatively inconvenient, by tweaking systems and processes it is often easily do-able. Many music festivals now issue reusable plastic cups. (Yes, plastic! But its resilience makes it the best choice here.) A deposit system ensures most of them are returned at the end of the event, so they can be washed and reused at the next one. Sometimes the cups are branded and become take-home mementos. www.businesseventsafrica.com
