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- Refills in supermarkets and the circular economy with GoUnpackaged
Refills in supermarkets and the circular economy with GoUnpackaged
Shaken Not Burned
October 17, 2024
Shaken Not Burned
Highlighting changemakers and solutions
Welcome to another week of Shaken Not Burned!
The three principles of the circular economy are the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, and recycle – but we seem to be predominantly focused on the latter. However, we cannot count on recycling alone to address the environmental impacts of the products that we use: certain materials degrade when they are recycled, and the process of plastics recycling has its own harmful effects on the environment.
One solution is the large-scale adoption of reusable packaging, something the UK government has recognised as a way to limit the production of plastic waste. This week we interview Helen Clements, director, innovation & behaviour change lead at GoUnpackaged, a UK-based consultancy that helps retailers switch to refill systems. It’s not just about the individual piece of packaging that ends in the hands of the consumer: there is a whole supply chain behind it to revolutionise.
GoUnpackaged is behind the Refill Coalition, an initiative to create a standardised solution for supermarkets. Its current members are Aldi and Ocado, which are both undertaking trials that Helen says are proving very successful. However, there are challenges in encouraging other retailers to take part: Waitrose, which was a founding member, left the coalition last year.
In this episode, we discuss GoUnpackaged’s “charmingly ugly” containers and how its system differs from traditional bulk refills, how consumers can be encouraged to change their habits, the challenges retailers are facing, and the need for stronger policies to enforce a truly circular economy. With powerful lobbying groups pushing the government to maintain the status quo, we need every actor in the economy to play their part – especially retailers.
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What we’ve been reading this week
Deadly – and costly – Hurricane Milton worsened by climate change
It’s official: Hurricane Milton was made worse by climate change. Preliminary analysis from the World Weather Attribution suggests the rainfall across Florida was 20-30% heavier, with rainfall intensity twice as likely as it would have been around 100 years ago. We are facing increasingly destructive events, which are not only affecting human lives and local ecosystems, but come as a shock for the economy. Hurricane Milton is estimated to push Florida's losses to $100 billion in 2024 alone.
Renewable capacity continues to ramp up
Renewable energy will account for almost half of the world’s electricity consumption by 2030, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates. China continues to lead the pack as it is expected to represent 60% of all new installations by the end of the decade. However, the IEA stresses the importance of government action to achieve the global goal of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, which risks being missed. “Renewables are moving faster than national governments can set targets for,” says IEA executive director Fatih Birol. “This is mainly driven not just by efforts to lower emissions or boost energy security - it’s increasingly because renewables today offer the cheapest option to add new power plants in almost all countries around the world.”
UN agrees on environmental and human rights safeguards framework for carbon markets
The United Nations has adopted a mechanism to prevent carbon credit project developers from breaching human rights or causing environmental damage. Under the new rules, environmental and social rights will be protected through the Sustainable Development Tool, which assesses and monitors project impacts throughout their lifespan. “This work underlines our commitment to environmental and human rights protections in the mechanism, and it's doubly significant because it's the first compulsory standard for a UN carbon market, agreed at the UN level,” says Martin Hession, vice-chair of the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body.
XL pickup trucks continue to gain popularity in Europe
The massive pickup trucks, that traditionally may be associated with North American driving, are becoming more popular in Europe despite safety concerns. These huge fuel-guzzling vehicles are more polluting than traditional cars or SUVs, and are in fact not compliant with EU environmental regulations. However, they can still enter the market through individual vehicle approvals, a backdoor channel that is subject to less scrutiny. Some cities are discouraging the use of large private vehicles by imposing weight-based fees, but campaigners are urging Brussels to tighten rules to avoid their appearance on roads altogether.
Rates of loss of mangroves nearly halve in 20 years
Finishing off with encouraging news: the Mangrove Alliance finds that rates of loss declined by 44% between 2000 and 2020 as protection and restoration work is scaled up. The goals are to avoid 168 square kilometres of loss and restore 4,092 square kilometres by 2030. Currently, 42% of the world’s mangroves lie in protected areas. Mangroves are critical ecosystems, bridging land, freshwater, and sea, containing staggering amounts of biodiversity and providing livelihoods for millions of people around the world.
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