Eunomia to Conduct Cost Benefit Analysis of Compostable Packaging

This report will be used to communicate the potential role of compostable packaging in replacing some key hard-to-recycle plastics to support the UK Plastics Pact goals, demonstrating to the UK Government the potential economic and environmental impact of including compostable plastics in UK’s appropriate waste collection and treatment streams.

It also forms part of a broader multi-disciplinary project led by the Compostable Coalition UK and funded by UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, which examines the practicality of effectively collecting, sorting & recycling compostable packaging via the UK’s existing food collection and treatment streams.

The Eunomia project team will be led by Ann Ballinger, Managing Consultant. Ballinger’s core expertise is in the application of the life cycle assessment methodology to all aspects of the waste management system. Her previous research has informed the EU’s recently published packaging and packaging waste regulations, where her role was also to advise specifically on compostable plastics.

The report is expected include a suggested policy roadmap for the UK Government that can fully capture the benefits of compostable packaging in support of the UK Government and its UK Plastics Pact goals.

This follows the House of Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee’s recent plastic waste inquiry report that concluded Compostable plastic offers the best means of substituting difficult to-recycle plastic, such as plastic film.

Commenting Tomos Davies, TIPA’s UK PA Director on behalf of Compostable Coalition UK said:  “We are delighted to be working with Eunomia.  Ann and her team have extensive experience of modelling and quantifying the financial and environmental impacts of end of life treatment of plastics and will bring these modelling resources to bare on the data generated in this project to outline the cost/benefit analysis for compostable materials in the UK”.

Commenting on behalf of Eunomia, Ann Ballinger, Principal Consultant said: “This project comes at a crucial time as the UK rolls out more food waste collection systems. We are delighted to be working with the Compostable Coalition UK to consider the role compostable plastics could play in these systems and to help the compostable plastic industry advance at this key point in its development”.