🌱 Circular Partnerships and the Plastic Packaging Tax. Ready?
Featuring Elvis & Kresse, The Collective UK, Seedlip and more...
Happy Friday!
This week we cover:
How Elvis & Kresse Are Igniting Change With Circular Partnerships.
The Plastic Packaging Tax: Is Your Business Ready?
In case you missed it: Seedlip - 0% alcohol pledges 1% for the Planet, featuring Ben Branson (Founder of Seedlip).
> Good News This Week
🎯 The Collective UK have created the UK’s first carbon neutral dairy product, after committing to making all products carbon neutral by 2025. They’ve partnered with ClimatePartner to achieve this.
🎯 Silentnight announced that it’s signed the Science Based Targets initiative, in line with the less than 1.5 ° C pathway, becoming the world’s first sleep brand to do so. So far, they’ve cut carbon emissions by 49% over the past 4 years.
⭐️ Nomad Foods has joined the UN's Race to Zero campaign. With a focus on helping it’s 75% most-emitting suppliers to develop their own science-based targets by 2025, their own decarbonisation targets amount to a 45% carbon reduction per ton of product produced (2019 baseline).
⭐️ Sainsbury’s is partnering with Neighbourly to donate surplus food. Following a successful trial, the scheme is now being rolled out across all Sainsbury’s supermarkets with all locations expected to be taking part by the end of the year.
⭐️ Heinz has partnered with US-based corrugated packaging company WestRock to launch an eco-friendly packaging solution for all its multipack canned products in the UK. The four-pack design reduces carbon emissions by almost 20% compared with the equivalent shrink-wrap design.
⚡️ Founders Factory have launched their first pre/seed investment program dedicated to climate tech, offering 6 months of support and €150k investment.
⚡️ OLIO, the community sustainability app, announced a $43 million Series B round to fund its fight against the $1.3 trillion of food waste created globally each year.
> Click on each link to read more. Have something to add? Comment below!
> Brand Spotlight
Igniting Change With Circular Partnerships: Elvis & Kresse
Making waves towards a circular economy means rethinking business-as-usual. Moving from a take-make-waste mindset to one that questions how to keep materials in the loop for as long as possible is a huge challenge; one that Elvis & Kresse set out to tackle almost two decades ago.
Born from a conversation with the London Fire Brigade during an environmental training course, the brand diverts decommissioned fire hoses from ending up in landfill, transforming them into luxury bags and purses instead. With every sale made from its signature collection, half the profits are donated to the UK’s Fire Fighters Charity.
The team has a unique approach to business - championing a ‘rescue, transform, donate’ model - alongside a desire to ‘do more, be better’. To date, the certified B Corp has reclaimed more than two hundred tonnes of material. For over a decade, none of London’s fire hoses have gone to landfill. This year, Elvis & Kresse has been able to donate almost £100,000 to projects and charities related to the unique materials it reclaims - with £67,000 headed straight to the Fire Fighters Charity.
Elsewhere, Elvis & Kresse has unearthed even more value in the unlikeliest of places:
Rescuing failed parachute silk for the lining of bags and wallets.
Flattening unwanted shoe boxes to turn into consumer packaging.
Re-engineering damaged printing blankets into a new raw material.
Separating layers of unrecyclable tea sacks, to be woven into material for brochures.
Central to the success of the luxury brand? Local, long-term partnerships.
In 2017, the team formed a five-year partnership with Burberry to receive 120 tonnes of leather cut-offs from the fashion house’s production factories. Not only is this helping Elvis & Kresse to scale, but it’s also diverting a huge amount of textile waste from landfill. In the words of co-founder Kresse Wesling, it’s “the kind of partnership that will change the future of luxury.”
Inspired by Elvis & Kresse? The unique materials championed by the team, and the meaning behind their mission, have opened up multiple opportunities for collaboration with brands both inside and outside of their industry. Our advice: Integrate circularity into your business, communicate your approach, and then embody radical collaboration by working with brands looking to do the same.
This is circular thinking in action.
Support Elvis & Kresse via their shop:
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> Quick Take
The Plastic Packaging Tax: Is Your Business Ready?
With less than 7 months to go until the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) becomes enshrined into UK law, we ask: is your business clued up on what it means? Veolia found that a staggering 83% of UK firms were unaware of the new tax, despite an estimated 20,000 businesses being affected.
The aim of the PPT? To tackle plastic waste and increase the uptake of recycled plastic in plastic production. The desired result? To divert landfill and incineration-bound plastic from going to waste, where it would create harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
We answer the key questions at a glance:
What is PPT?
A tax applied to plastic manufacturers and importers on the percentage of recycled plastic in their packaging - finished, filled or unfilled.
When does the PPT come into force?
April 1st 2022.
How many businesses will be affected, and from what sectors?
An estimated 20,000 businesses from sectors, including: packaging and industrial manufacturing, consumer goods, online retail, pharmaceutical, chemical, food and drinks, cosmetics and oil.
What is the levy?
£200 per tonne of plastic produced that does not contain a minimum of 30% recycled plastic.
Will there be a threshold on the weight of plastic imported / manufactured?
Yes - if the 10 tonnes of packaging per annum is exceeded, the tax will be due.
Will businesses still need to register if the 30% recycled plastic content threshold is met or exceeded, but the 10 tonne weight threshold is not exceeded?
Yes!
What if an item is composed of different materials?
If plastic is the main component by weight, it is tax liable.
What products will be taxed?
Plastic bags, such as: bin liners, carrier bags and sandwich bags.
Disposable cups, such as: plastic wine and beer cups, expanded polystyrene (EPS) cups and vending machine cups.
Will biodegradable, compostable, oxo-degradable plastics be taxable?
Yes - due to the cross contamination risk posed at the end-of-life management with organic matter and with mechanical recycling of traditional plastics.
Will all businesses that manufacture / import plastic packaging have to keep an accurate record of these activities?
Yes.
Don’t know where to start? Take the first step today:
Check out PWC’s to-do list, with more information on the PPT.
Head to the UK Government’s website to see further information for businesses.
Browse Veolia’s PPT Hub, complete with downloadable guide, questions and webinar.
Still unsure? Contact Veolia’s team of experts directly.
> In case you missed it
💥 #5 - Impact Initiative: Seedlip - 0% alcohol pledges 1% for the Planet.
Featuring Ben Branson, Founder of Seedlip.
> Follow up with…
Article: The Road to Zero Waste Is Paved with Incremental Changes
Article: Rethinking unboxing: Brands are getting creative to solve the growing packaging problem
Free Event: 60-minute masterclass: Tackling your Scope 3 emissions on the road to net-zero - 23rd September.
Resource Hub: Green Street