Chenxian Meng

The truth about plastic recycling：

Plastic packaging accounts for 70% of plastic waste in the UK. However, we recycle just 45% of plastics, despite a ‘War on Plastic’. Not only that, its impact on the environment will be magnified that at current rates, plastic packaging volumes are expected to more than quadruple by 2050.

A fact that deviates from our perception of "recyclable" is that most plastics are technically recyclable, but are unrecylable in the current waste management system.

The highest-priority actions:

Circular economy design for plastics offers a new vision for stemming the tide of plastic waste through a ‘reduce and remove’ company strategy, combine with a ‘reuse and refill’ with consumer behavior, which means materials constantly flow around a ‘closed loop’ system, rather than being used once and then discarded and into the natural environment.

The challenge, however, is that it involves a wide range of players: companies, governments, waste management, and consumers. Converting this aspiration into a closed-loop system will require greater cooperation from all key actors in the value chain.

The circular economy system of the grocery industry is large and complex, especially from the time it will be sold to different consumers, to the time it will be disposed of after use by different consumers, and then into the waste management system.

One of the key points is how can consumers participate and increase the effectiveness of a circular packaging approach.

Policy support:

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging is a new piece of UK legislation, which will be coming in 2023-2025, to meet waste reduction targets, meet recycling targets, increase reuse and arguably to reduce litter as well.

The legislation has a huge role to play in accelerating a circular economy. It highlights the obligation of producers to pay for waste management costs and the need to report separately on detail data of packaging - the amount and types of packaging they have placed on the market, as well as informing how they label their packaging.

This means that packaging which is easy to recycle will be charged at a reduced rate and will provide an incentive for producers to move towards reusable packaging in the near future.

How might we change consumer behavior to close the gap from caring to taking action on more circular waste management?

MYPACT aim to bring the real environmental impact of packaging to the forefront of consumers, stimulating greener purchases and more responsible handling by consumers, especially Gen Z who care about the environment, thus promoting behaviour change and maximising the conversion of environmental concerns into actions to close the existing attitude-behaviour gap.

We advocate that rather than only prioritising fixing recycling, people should place greater emphasis on scaling back their plastic waste to begin with and have alternative choices, which should be supported in the market context.

Our long-term vision is to reshape consumer buying habits through sustainable values so that to promote sustainable markets through consumer choice and help build a more positive and virtuous consumer market in the future to face a better transition to a circular economy.

Our service system intervenes to help consumers understand the environmental impact of their consumption and waste disposal, through providing alternative green solutions to their consumption behaviour as well as providing clear guidelines on waste disposal in order to help consumers to dispose of their waste responsibly.

There are 4 main features that we provide for consumers:

Visualise - We visualise the impact of consumption behaviour and disposal behaviour to visualise its positive or negative impact on the environment, providing weekly reports to show an overview of your impact on the environment and to record changes in consumption behaviour.

Guidance - A clear and simple guidance for you waste disposal and find the best way to manage your waste

Alternative - We offer personalised recommendations for greener options based on your shopping profile to help you easily develop more positive shopping habits

Offset - Redeem your MYPACT points to donate your community infrastructure and events, or you can redeem for vouchers at our partner retailers for your next shoping

What we changed and what value do we provide？

MYPACT will benefit stakeholders at each level.

Producer - We are driving producer to reduce unsustainable materials at source and provide more real recyclable material options.

Retailer - We promote more waste responsibility for retailers, i.e. offering alternative options or managing the materials they sell, helping them boost their sustainable service and strategy.

Consumer - We aim to facilitate the conversion of users into users with a positive impact on consumption

Community - Reducing the pressure on waste disposal and waste pollution, while injecting more financial support into the community

As an impact buying service, MYPACT is a free app for consumers with in app purchases for some extra features (perosnalised recommednations) as well as a small monthly fees for free shipping. We will serve branded content and ads paid for retail brands to promote their green products. Meanwhile, We make moneys from selling the consuming impact data report of sustainability to consulting company.