Climate Contract Playbook Edition 3
51
[Alice’s clause] NEW
The Origin Story
Child’s name
Alice’s clause
Full name
Reduction of CO2 from Single Use Plastic
Practice Area / Sector
Commercial, Public Procurement
The plastic pollution crisis is not only a threat to our environment but also a significant and growing threat to the climate. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the plastic lifecycle threaten the ability to meet global climate targets. Carbon is produced at each stage of the plastic lifecycle: to produce oil; to convert it into resins; and at the waste management stage when plastic is burnt, buried or recycled. It is estimated that the carbon footprint is over 5 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of plastic (roughly twice as much as oil).
Issue
Introduce service level agreements or similar obligations into the contracts of facilities management providers (FM providers) (particularly those providing in- house catering services – this could be in offices, schools, hospitals and prisons) to reduce the volume of single use plastics (SUP) used in their operations over the term of the relevant agreement. Payment deductions (or service credits) could be made for failing to meet predetermined targets.
Solution
1.
Plastics make up two thirds of demand for oil in the petrochemical sector and account for all of the growth in demand for oil 18 . The plastic sector alone will use up 19% of the entire global carbon budget if it continues to grow under business as usual 19 . The Packaging Waste Directive 1994 (94/62/EC) sets out the EU’s rules on managing packaging and packaging waste and contains measures (including deposit-return schemes, targets, economic incentives and minimum percentages of recycling) to prevent the production of packaging waste and promote the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovering of packaging waste. In the UK, The Environmental Protection (Plastic Straws, Cotton Buds and Stirrers) (England) Regulations 2020 will ban many popular SUP products when introduced but it is not yet in force owing to the COVID-19 pandemic 20 . Given the scale of plastics’ contribution to global GHG emissions, commercial facilities providers and other suppliers should reduce their reliance on plastics and start using other products with a lower carbon footprint ahead of any legislative prohibitions coming into force. It is difficult to see how the growth of the plastics industry can be reconciled with achieving national or corporate Net Zero Targets 21 .
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Context
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18 & 21 https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2020/07/breakingtheplasticwave_report.pdf 19 https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2020/07/breakingtheplasticwave_report.pdf 20 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2020/9780111193631
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