Since 2012, a blog by Daniel Wilcock
Bloomberg reporters hid trackers on plastics recycled at a Tesco supermarket in London. They followed the trail of trash through some old-fashioned show-leather reporting. The results were somewhat dismal, but revealing.
The key takeaway for me is that recycling systems need significant investment and simplification. The biggest change should come upstream: fewer single-use plastics.
I’m 100% for the evolution of consumer packaging away from single-use plastics. A recent story in Morningstar describes a powerful force in this movement: shareholder proxy votes.
The article also shares some heartening facts about governments getting their act together.
Canada … banned single-use plastics beginning late 2022, though the EU was even quicker to do this, banning single-use plastic products and creating alternatives starting in 2021. Similarly, the United Kingdom levied tax from 2022 on plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled materials.
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1087887/investors-fight-against-plastic-packaging
I think that a one-two punch of shareholder activism and government regulation will force companies to do the right thing. That way the world’s economy can continue to develop while finding ways to preserve and protect the ecosystems that keep us alive.
Trails and Talismans 