22/04/2024
Earth Day 2024 takes place today (22 April 2024), providing an opportunity for us all to come together and renew our commitments to safeguarding our planet and fighting for a brighter future.
This year’s theme – Planet vs Plastics – sets particularly clear objectives. For example, a 60% reduction in the production of all plastics by 2040; rapid progress towards the UN-driven Global Plastics Treaty; and an end to fast fashion.
The issue of tackling our dependence on plastic and the associated pollution is an issue particularly close to the heart of our Sustainable Materials Group. Whether that be through the development of sustainable alternatives, or through initiatives to better reduce, reuse and recycle.
We’ve taken the opportunity to curate a selection of insights from our resident sustainability specialists Gillian Taylor and Adam Kelvey. They’re a compelling read that help to point us in the right direction towards a plastic free future.
Planet vs. Plastics and the Global Plastics Treaty
To mark Earth Day 2024, this article looks back at the origins of this annual day of action and why this year’s focus is on plastics. It also looks forward to the much anticipated Global Plastics Treaty. With the negotiations well underway, the article examines the early draft wording and explores the challenges which lie ahead before the Treaty is ratified in 2025. Finally, the article highlights how patent registers can be used to unlock a wealth of green innovation to help move to a circular economy and drive down plastic pollution.
The Sustainable Innovation Report
For London Climate Action Week Reddie & Grose released this in-depth report into the start-ups, companies, and technology transfer offices working to address climate and ecological crises. It covers sustainable innovations in manufacturing, materials, electricity generation and storage, building, computing, transport, packaging and recycling to better understand the pioneering work being carried out by innovators in the UK in these sectors.
Polar Bears or Sea Turtles? The uncomfortable conflicts at the heart of the sustainability movement
This article offers a timely reminder that there are no one decisions on the best means of ending the global scourge of plastic pollution. In fact, efforts to solve one environmental problem are often made at the expense of another. Experts are embarking down many different paths that aren’t perfect but that lead to an end state that is preferable to the current status quo.
A Second Wind – How Wind Turbines are Going Circular
Wind power has the lowest lifetime carbon cost of any power source other than large scale nuclear power. The only drawback is that too many retired wind turbine blades, typically made from lightweight reinforced plastic, are ending up in landfill. We’ve witnessed some creative proposed repurposing of blades to form bridges and bike shelters. But the opening of the UK’s first turbine blade recycling plant, advances in thermal welding processes and the development of more readily recyclable materials points to a more scalable solution to this issue.
Patent Trends in Plastic Recycling and Alternative Plastics
Remarkably, we’ve had three different Prime Minister’s since the publication of the European Patent Office’s Patents for tomorrow’s plastics report. Yet, the innovations it highlights in chemical and biological recycling, as well in bioplastics, are very much still current. Let’s hope the R&D teams dedicated to this have remained on the right course, despite the turbulent political headwinds.
The inventions keeping plastics off the menu
The thought that plastic waste is now finding its way into our food is unpalatable to say the least. Microfibres are therefore a form of plastic pollution that we feel justifies a focus all of their own. From new synthetic materials through to filters, and microfibre catching laundry balls, we consider some of the patented inventions in this field.
This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
