THE FINANCIAL TIMES

How crisp packets unwrap the challenges of the circular economy

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Whether salt and vinegar, sweet chilli, wasabi or barbecue, most parts of the world have their own take on the crisp. Salty, crunchy, more-ish, it is a globally esteemed snack. But as with many modern-day trappings – enjoyed as a momentary indulgence to be discarded – the packaging lingers on long after the saltiness has left our lips.

According to environmental charity WRAP, 6bn packets of the fried potatoes are consumed each year in the UK alone. Stretched end-to-end, that’s enough crisp packets to wrap around the planet 25 times. Unlike other packaging materials with standardised recycling systems, such as aluminium, cardboard and glass, most of the multi-layered plastic and foil packets end up in landfill, nature or the ocean, where they have been shown to take six decades or more to decompose.

The afterlife of the crisp packet points to a broader global challenge: how to establish a recycling ecosystem in which every material made can be repurposed or reused.

THE i PAPER 
I proved London air pollution killed my daughter - she'd be proud of me

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Fourteen years ago, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah knew next to nothing about air pollution, nor its awful power.

She is now an expert on the subject matter; one of the most renowned advocates for clean air in the world. She has advised the Mayor of London and successive UK governments, and her work has earnt her a series of accolades: World Health Organisation (WHO) BreatheLife Ambassador; Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association; a European Lung Foundation award; numerous Women of the Year nods. Her portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

But the path here has been paved with pain and loss. And as laudable as her many achievements are, it is the fact that she experienced every parent’s darkest fear, and chose to harness it so that other families might not suffer the same fate, that makes Rosamund remarkable.

WIRED

The Rise of the Carbon Farmer

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Patrick Holden strolls across the field, pausing from time to time to bend and point out a bumblebee, or a white butterfly, or a dung beetle. A wide expanse of blue sky stretches above. Beneath, undulating green hills, sprawling hedgerows, a horizon broken only by the jagged tips of Wales’ Cambrian mountain range. Sun-soaked goodness.

“Can you see that bumblebee working the clover?” he asks, voice breathy with exertion. “The bird life, insects, butterflies, small mammals, and bats ... the biodiversity of this place is unbelievable.” This is all here, he says, because he’s farming in harmony with nature.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES
Investment sector seeks to put a value on biodiversity

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The world is in the throes of one of the biggest extinction episodes in its history. Of the 8.7mn species of animals and plants on the planet, more than 1mn are in danger of being wiped out, according to the UN.

By some scientific estimates, we are losing species at up to 1,000 times the natural rate of between one and five a year. Pummelled by overfishing, deforestation, rising temperatures and extractive agriculture, much of the natural world is on the brink.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES
Bioplastics start-ups gain ground but green credentials face scrutiny

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If it is difficult to fathom the sheer volume of plastic production in the world today, the scale of associated waste and pollution is perhaps still harder to grasp.

More than three-quarters of the 460mn tonnes of plastic produced in 2019 became waste, OECD figures show — much of it in landfill, but also destined for incineration and leakage into rivers and oceans. And, with their heavy reliance on fossil fuels for raw materials, plastics account for about 3.4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions — more than the aviation industry.