Symphony Environmental Technologies : response to Welsh consultation

3rd September 2022

Symphony Environmental

By e-mailtoSeneddClimate@senedd.walesTechnologies Plc

6 Elstree Gate, Elstree Way

Borehamwood, Hertfordshire

WD6 1JD, England

+44 (0)20 8207 5900 Telephone

+44 (0)20 8207 7632 Facsimile

www.symphonyenvironmental.com

dc@d2w.net

RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION ON

Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wales) Bill

On 15th August 2022 we received notification of this latest consultation, and a link to the Welsh Government's summary of the responses received (WG41757, published on an unspecified date in August 2022) to its 2020 consultation. We wish to comment on Section 2 of the Bill, and the Schedule, insofar as they apply to products defined in the Bill as "oxo-degradable."

We are very supportive of the Welsh Government's programme to reduce the amount of plastic lying or floating around as litter and accumulating in the environment.

We support reduction of the amount of plastic being produced, so long as it does not lead to the use of alternatives which are less effective for protecting people and their food from contamination, and/or have inferior Life-cycle Assessments. See LCA's by Intertek https://www.biodeg.org/subjects-of-interest/life-cycle-assessments/and the Denkstatt Report https://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Denkstatt-report.pdf

We agree with improving waste-management, and we agree that plastic items should be re-used whenever practicable. We therefore design our d2w plastic for re-usable products such as shopping bags and polyethylene (PE) bottles and trays, so that they can be re-used many times before degradation begins.

We support the ambition for Wales to become the first country to send zero plastic to landfill. We think that any plastic which has been collected but is unsuitable for re-use or recycling should be sent to non-polluting incinerators (like the one in Zurich) where the plastic is used as a fuel to generate electricity, and reduces dependence on oil and gas as a fuel. It has a much greater calorific value than paper, carboard, cloth, or any other packaging material.

We agree with the UK Environment Minister, who said in the House of Commons on 27th June 2022 that "Plastics often get a bad name, but they are incredibly important and useful because their strength and versatility make them a very valuable material in many areas of life. For example, the plastic packaging that challenges us when we try to get rid of it, also preserves our food and plays a key part in extending the shelf life of some items and in reducing food waste."

Food waste remains one of the most environmentally damaging phenomena on earth. Despite the continued concern over plastic's ecological impact, the material plays a vital role in extending food shelf life and preventing rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Packaging is essential to ensure that food products reach consumers while fit for purpose, and don't end up needlessly wasted, resulting in increased GHG emissions associated with production, transportation and rotting of produce. Symphony can make plastic packaging even better, by including ethylene adsorbers in the plastic, so as to remove the gases which cause the food to deteriorate. This cannot be done with paper or cardboard packaging.

If food waste were a country, it would be the world's third-biggestgreenhouse-gas emitter behind China and the US, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

There is no need to use expensive plastic marketed as compostable, for sending food-waste for composting or anaerobic digestion. See https://www.biodeg.org/subjects-of-interest/composting/

In addition, plastic is the only material in common use which can itself be made antimicrobial, and our d2p antimicrobial plastic has been proved by testing in accordance with ISO 21072 to kill 99.9% of viruses within one hour of coming into contact with it. All single-use plastics should now be made with anti-microbial technology.

Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are made from a by-product of oil or natural gas. These are extracted from the ground primarily to make fuels. For the foreseeable future there will still be a demand for oil and gas as fuels, so it makes sense to use the by-product while it is available, instead of growing crops to make plastic, or using materials other than plastic whose functionality and/or LCA is not as good. Further, the energy required to convert this byproduct into PE or PP is less than the energy required to collect, sort, wash, and reprocess post-consumer PE or PP.

We also agree with recycling, so we have designed our d2w biodegradable plastic so that it can be recycled into short-life or long-life products if desired, without separation from ordinary plastic. See https://www.biodeg.org/subjects-of-interest/recycling-2/D2w is used in PE and PP but is not used in PET.

However, recycling does not address the principal concern about plastics around the world - how to deal with the plastic which has escaped into the oceans and elsewhere in the open environment from which it cannot realistically be collected, and is therefore accumulating every day for many decades.

D2w BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC

For an audio-visual introduction see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc-

YWqQ_HHY&ab_channel=SymphonyEnvironmental.

Some of the polymer scientists who invented plastics realised that they had created a very durable material which could lie or float around for decades if it escaped into the open environment. One of these scientists was Professor Gerald Scott, of Aston University who in 1978 patented a way to cause polymer to biodegrade at the end of its desired life, so that it would not accumulate in the open environment. Instead it would be consumed by naturally- occurring micro-organisms and recycled back into nature. This plastic became known as "oxo-biodegradable" because it oxidises and then biodegrades. (It should not be confused with "oxo-degradable" plastic, which oxidises but does not biodegrade - except over a very long period of time).

Professor Scott later became chief scientific adviser to Symphony Environmental Technologies Plc., a British company listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, and in the year 2000 Symphony made this technology, as further developed, available to the plastics industry and called it "d2w." If it had been more widely used, most of the plastic which has found its way into the oceans would have biodegraded, and the ocean garbage patches would be very much smaller.

If the Welsh Government were to proceed to ban oxo-degradable plastic (as defined in the Bill) they would be making matters worse.

We at Symphony have concluded that the only way to deal with plastic which has escaped into the environment, and particularly the oceans, is to stop thinking that it escape can be completely prevented in the short to medium term, and to address our minds to what happens to it if it gets into the open environment.

For this reason, our scientists have developed d2w biodegradable technology from Professor Scott's original idea. This is a masterbatch included in the plastic at manufacture which, at little or no extra cost, turns ordinary plastic at the end of its useful life, in the presence of oxygen, into a material with a different molecular structure. It is then no longer a plastic, and has changed into a waxy material which is biodegradable by bacteria and fungi in the open environment. It is not a disposal option - it is there to deal with the plastic if waste-management fails.

No special conditions are necessary. The only environmental conditions necessary for oxo-biodegradation are oxygen and bacteria, both of which are ubiquitous in the open environment.

D2w technology is used to make biodegradable PE and PP products, which look and perform during their useful life just the same as ordinary PE or PP products. D2w plastic has been available for 25 years and has been used by the largest bakery in the western world for more than 10 years with no problems. Much of it has been recycled, but when waste-management fails and it gets into the open environment it will degrade and then biodegrade much more quickly than ordinary plastic, without leaving microplastics or other harmful residues. It does not contain heavy metals, and is proved to be non-toxic according to the OECD Standards.

Although d2w plastic has been used successfully around the world for more than 20 years, only a few forward- looking governments (in the Middle East) have made it compulsory. What are the rest doing? They prefer to encourage recycling and composting, but these will not help them to deal with plastic in the open environment which cannot realistically be collected.

SCIENTIFIC STUDIES

Professor Scott wrote about this technology in many publications - see eg "Polymers and the Environment" published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, and it has now been studied by scientists for more than 50 years. The most important recent studies are as follows:

Oxomar was a three-year study on plastics in the environment, sponsored by the French Government, at l'Observatoire Oceanologique de Banyul Sur Mer. The Report can be found in English and French at https://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Final-report-OXOMAR-10032021.pdfA summary of the results, dated 4th September 2020, says:

"We have obtained congruent results from our multidisciplinary approach that clearly shows that oxo-biodegradable plastics biodegrade in seawater and do so with a significantly higher efficiency than conventional plastics. The oxidation level obtained due to the d2w prodegradant catalyst was found to be of crucial importance in the degradation process. Out of the six-formulations tested, the Mn/Fe pro-oxidant was the most efficient, with no toxic effects under our experimental conditions. Biodegradability was demonstrated either by using the culture bacteria Rhodococcus rhodochrous or by a complex natural marine community of microorganisms."

Following this study, the Oxomar scientists allowed bacteria commonly found in the open environment access to d2w plastic film containing Carbon 13. They found Carbon 13 in the CO2 exhaled by the bacteria, proving beyond doubt that the plastic had been used as a food by the bacteria and the carbon had been recycled back into nature. We are attaching a copy of this Report.

Queen Mary University London reported in February 2020 that plastic products containing a d2w masterbatch will become biodegradable much more quickly than ordinary plastic if they get into the open environment at the end of their useful life and will then be biodegraded by bacteria commonly found in the open environment, up to 90 times faster than ordinary plastic. The Report can be found at https://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/published-report-11.2.20-1.pdf

Of course, nobody wants plastic in the environment at all, but that is not the present reality.

PREVIOUS CONSULTATION

Our trade association, the OPA (now the BPA), responded on 19th October 2020 https://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/bpa-response-to-wales-19.10.201.pdfto the 2020 Welsh Consultation WG40193. We also sent to the Welsh Government on 19th April 2021 a copy of the OPA submission on 9th April 2021 to the second Scottish consultation, https://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/BPA-Second-Response-to-Scotland-9.4.21.pdftogether with the Oxomar Report. In this submission the OPA dealt with alternatives such as "Bags for Life", Paper, Refillables, and plastic marketed as "compostable."

They also dealt with the industry Standards and the European Union. There is no European Standard for oxo- biodegradable plastics, due to the influence of the "compostable" plastics industry in the CEN committee, but there is a British Standard 8472, and an American Standard https://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Swift-evidence-to-BEIS.pdfThese standards can be used for testing anywhere in the world.

On 2nd March 2021 we sent to the Welsh Government a link https://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/OPA-Response-to-SAM-Report-Feb-2021-1-3-21.pdfto the BPA response to the 'Biodegradability of Plastics in the Open Environment' Report by the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors (GCSA) of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, dated 14th December 2020 and to 'Biodegradability of Plastics in the Open Environment' Report by Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA) dated 14th December 2020

The BPA has also commented on the Eunomia Reporthttps://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/BPA-Comment-on-the-Eunomia-Report-2016.pdfThe EU Commission Reporthttps://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BPA-RESPONDS-TO-EUROPEAN-COMMISSION.pdfthe Ellen MacArthur Reporthttps://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/emf-report-1.pdfand the Plymouth Reporthttps://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/BPA-Comments-on-Plymouth-10.pdf

None of these studies justifies a ban on oxo-biodegradable plastic.

See also the attempt of the "Bio-based"Plastics industry to discredit oxo-biodegradabletechnology for their own commercial interestshttps://bioplasticsnews.com/2021/12/06/history-anti-oxo-biodegradable-plastics-history/This campaign persuaded the European Parliament to impose a ban, which is under legal challenge in the courts of the EU, and they have also lobbied the UK Governments. Seehttps://bioplasticsnews.com/2020/06/04/battle-biodegradable-oxo-compostable-industry/

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which has attracted a lot of attention on this subject, has accepted funding from these companies. https://bioplasticsnews.com/2022/06/13/michael-stephen-recycling-oecd-ellen-macarthur-foundation/

It should be apparent that Symphony and our trade association have made considerable efforts to assist the Welsh Government to fully understand oxo-biodegradable technology and to distinguish it from other plastic technologies and from oxo-degradable plastic. However, we see no evidence in the Summary WG41757 that any notice has been taken of these submissions and we note that material confusingly described as "oxo-degradable plastic" has been included in the proposed ban.

The only reference to the OPA submission is a quote on page 17 of the Summary as follows:

"Oxo-degradation" is defined by CEN (the European Standards authority) in TR15351 as "degradation identified as resulting from oxidative cleavage of macromolecules." This describes ordinary plastics, which degrade by oxidation under the influence of light and heat in the open environment and create microplastics, but do not become biodegradable except over a very long period of time. Oxo-degradable (as distinct from oxo-biodegradable) plastic has been banned for good reason in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and elsewhere for a wide range of everyday plastic products, and it should also be banned in Wales. Nobody makes plastic and sells it as "oxo-degradable" but this terminology is used by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the EU Commission, and others who are reluctant to acknowledge the difference between oxo-degradable and oxo-biodegradable plastic. "Oxo-biodegradation" is defined by CEN as "degradation resulting from oxidative and cell-mediated phenomena, either simultaneously or successively". This means that the plastic degrades by oxidation until its molecular weight is low enough to be accessible to bacteria and fungi, who then recycle it back into nature by cell-mediated phenomena. It does not leave microplastics. Oxo-biodegradable plastics are tested according to ASTM D6954; BS 8472, PAS 9017 and similar Standards, which prescribe tests for biodegradation as well as abiotic degradation. They also include tests to ensure that there is no toxicity, and no prohibited metals or gel content above the prescribed level. Plastic should not therefore be banned if it is proved to be oxo-biodegradable by tests performed according to these Standards."

It seems that the Welsh Government is reluctant to acknowledge the difference between oxo-degradable and oxo- biodegradable plastic. The CEN definition mentioned above is the only scientific definition of "oxo-degradable" but it has been ignored in the Bill, in favour of a confusing definition copied from the EU Single-use Plastics Directive.

THE RESPONSES TO THE 2020 CONSULTATION

On page 8 of WG41757 it says "Products made of oxo-degradable plastic. In general, there was a high level of support for including products made of this material." We would be surprised if there really was a high level of support, so we requested the Welsh Government under the Freedom of Information Act to send us a copy of each response claimed to support the inclusion of products made of this material in the proposed ban. We received an acknowledgment of receipt of our request on 21st August 2022 @15:06.

We made this request because we are conscious that DEFRA claimed that the responses to its own consultation showed "a clear consensus in relation to plastics containing prodegradant agents aimed at aiding the biodegradation process, which was that such technologies are unproven and likely to be a source of microplastic pollution." The Information Commissioner ordered disclosure of these responses, and we found that they showed no such consensus, and that Parliament had therefore been misled. DEFRA are still withholding five of these responses and the Information Commissioner has served notice requiring DEFRA to provide its submission and the withheld information. We were also informed that if DEFRA fails to comply, it could be in contempt of court.

We have not yet received the documents requested from the Welsh Government but we are making this submission now, since the consultation closes on 5th September. We will make further submissions when we have received, and have had time to consider, these responses. In the meantime, the Welsh Government should not proceed to adopt the Schedule to the Bill insofar as it relates to "oxo-degradable" plastic as defined in the Bill.

We would have no objection to the Schedule if para. 1 and 2 were amended to remove references to "oxo- degradable plastic" ("plastig ocso-ddiraddiadwy").

Microplastics

PAGE 8 of WG41757 "due to the understanding it hastened the creation of micro-plastics."This is a fundamental mistake, and we doubt that many of the respondents are aware that in 2017 the EU Commission referred oxo-biodegradableplastic to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) because the Commission was concerned that it might create microplastics.