DeepSummary
In this episode, Katie Welland talks with Olaf Berner, the head of business development at Flustix, an organization that tests and certifies plastic-free products and products made with recycled plastics. They discuss current trends in the plastics industry and packaging sector, what it means to be plastic-free, and the practicalities of recycling plastics.
Olaf explains that the discussion around plastics currently focuses on three main areas: reducing plastics, replacing plastics with alternatives, and recycling plastics. He highlights the challenges and tradeoffs associated with each approach, including the difficulty of finding eco-friendly alternatives and the limitations of current recycling technologies.
Olaf also provides an overview of Flustix's certification process, which involves physical testing and independent audits to ensure that products meet the criteria for being plastic-free or containing a certain percentage of recycled plastics. He emphasizes the importance of third-party certification to combat greenwashing and build consumer trust.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The discussion around plastics currently focuses on three main areas: reducing plastics, replacing plastics with alternatives, and recycling plastics.
- Finding eco-friendly alternatives to plastics is challenging, as not all replacements have a better environmental impact than plastics.
- Recycling plastics is complex due to factors such as the variety of plastic types, the presence of toxins, and the difficulty of designing for recycling.
- Flustix provides third-party certification for plastic-free products and products with recycled content to combat greenwashing and build consumer trust.
- Independent certification is crucial for verifying recycled content claims, as manufacturers have economic incentives to use virgin plastics due to their lower cost and better quality.
- Upcoming regulations, such as the EU ban on intentionally added microplastics, are driving manufacturers to seek certification for their products.
- Chemical recycling could be a game-changer for the plastics industry, enabling more efficient and economically viable recycling processes.
- Certification involves physical testing, audits, and independent oversight to ensure transparency and accuracy of claims.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “If you test them in the lab, you will see that many of these products actually contain some bamboo, but also contain a lot of glue and sometimes even toxic substances.“ by Olaf Berner
- “So here also our plastic certification comes into play for manufacturers which proactively replace microplastics in their products before it's actually becoming binding law.“ by Olaf Berner
- “With our certification, we make sure that actually there is as much recycled material is used as it is claimed.“ by Olaf Berner
- “And I think here is also strong reason to have a third party independent certification because in the current situation and set up, there's a lot of incentives to use virgin plastics instead of recycled plastics because virgin plastic has better quality if it comes to colors or clarity or something. And it is also cheaper than recycled material.“ by Olaf Berner
- “So if the test results show that the product is actually plastic free, then the product can be labeled with our plastics consumer trust, mark.“ by Olaf Berner
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Episode Information
Getting In the Loop: Circular Economy | Sustainability | Closing the Loop
Katherine Whalen
9/2/19