Blog: Thoughts on the British Plastics Federation (BPF) Marine Litter Workshop: Industry Design Tools, Research & Education

British Plastics Federation Marine Litter Workshop

Aegg’s Product Designer attended the workshop and gives some thoughts below...

The day started by looking at the design tools currently being developed or already in the market to aid the production of recyclable packaging. Some of these included:

1. On-Pack Recycling Label’s PREP tool (Packaging Recyclability Evaluation Portal),. This tool helps to evaluate the packaging data for recyclability.

2. RECOUP’s Recyclability by Design document is an annually updated guide to the recyclability of packaging, giving various case studies and examples of what is difficult to recycle (such as size issues when sorting waste).

During the day, we also discussed how we can prevent littering from the end user. Many people mentioned how ‘food to go’ caused a lot of small pieces of litter due to the detachable parts on the product (caps, tabs, shrink sleeves) and therefore more consideration should be given in the design of these to prevent the user from throwing them away.

It was an interesting day with much discussion on recyclability. Aegg will be looking further into all the tools available. Plus, the Aegg team will discuss the potential for creating a visual ‘circular economy’ system, informing our customers further on each of our products before they make their decisions.

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