Action Plan Report: Plastic Cup Sustainability Challenge Analysis

This report, submitted by a student, provides a comprehensive analysis of the plastic cup sustainability challenge. It begins with an introduction outlining the objectives, followed by a literature review that explores the environmental impact of plastic, the waste hierarchy (rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle), and relevant regulations. The report then identifies the sustainability challenge within the context of the United Kingdom, presenting data on plastic cup consumption and waste sources. The results section discusses the production of greenhouse gases from plastic cup manufacturing and disposal. The discussion section highlights the economic costs associated with plastic cup waste, including leakages, greenhouse gas emissions, and health and environmental impacts. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for action plans, including efficient planning, the adoption of the "design for environment" concept, and collaboration between municipalities and producers to develop effective waste management strategies, including EPR plans. References are included.

An Action Plan in Response to Plastic Cup Sustainability Challenge 1
An Action Plan in Response to Plastic Cup Sustainability Challenge
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An Action Plan in Response to Plastic Cup Sustainability Challenge 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Report Objectives.........................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Sustainability and Environment...................................................................................................4
Sustainability Challenge..............................................................................................................6
Results..............................................................................................................................................7
Discussion........................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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An Action Plan in Response to Plastic Cup Sustainability Challenge
Introduction
Preferably, sustainability is the accepted norm which is viewed to have specific challenges for
both the current management as well as future practices. Furthermore, the essential dimensions
such as the social, economic as well as environmental elements pose the question how well can
one utilize the available resources without negating and interfering with the future abilities and
the overall needs (Comaniţă et al. 2015 p.690). Due to the continuation on the sustainability,
many organizations have teamed up and rally various members in the society as well as
embarked on the training with the aim of enlightening the community on the effects of the norm
in the long run if not handled correctly in the meantime. Some of the key stakeholders who have
embarked on the work include non-governmental organizations, private, public, corporate,
individuals as well as non-profitable organizations (Pan et al. 2018 p.634).
Report Objectives
The overall and specific objectives of this assignment include
 To establish the sources of the plastic cup littering the environment
 To assess and develop the effects of plastic cups in the environment
 To improve the action plan for the plastic cup sustainable challenge
Literature Review
Sustainability and Environment
The combination of unique properties and low cost has led the plastic to be common materials in
the current economy. Plastic use has significantly increased in the past years and is projected
grow and increase so much in years to come. In current society at least everyone comes into
contact with plastic materials, an example in the packaging and production of coffee cups (Seidel

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et al. 2018 p.223). While plastic cups deliver some benefits to society, it also has significant
drawbacks to the economy. Some of the drawback is the leakages which causes degradation of
natural resources especially the oceans. A considerable amount of plastics leak into the sea each
year. The most significant application of plastics, considering size and its low residual value
makes it susceptible to the leakages. Plastics material can stay in the ocean for decades in their
original form leading to accumulation of more over time. Ocean plastics significantly impact
maritime natural capital. Besides the direct and indirect economic cost of plastics, there are also
the significant adverse negative impacts on the health of human beings. Forests, waterways
among other can also be degraded by the leaked plastics. It can also affect the direct financial
costs by impacting the sewers and other urban infrastructure.
Gomes and Brasileiro (2018) noted that plastics are composed of polymer blended with complex
additives such as plasticizers, stabilizers, and pigments, and might contain substances that may
have impurities and contaminants that may raise critical concerns on the human health and the
environment. For the response and sustainability, the used plastic cups should follow the waste
hierarchy which is the framework directive sets on how the wastes should be dealt with in
accordance with the legislation. The recycling of plastic cups wastes using the hierarchy provides
efficient and sustainable use of plastic material. Companies in the United Kingdom dealing with
the production of plastic cups should work on;
Rethink; This step help in making choices that are simpler and eco-friendly. Before tossing your
plastic coffee cup to garbage, you should think fist of other means to make the component useful,
like using it for other purposes.
Reduce; sometimes reducing the resources used for manufacturing is a preventive measure for
waste disposal. The manufacturers should focus on manufacturing the long-lasting coffee cups

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using less hazardous materials. By making the greener choices the overall amount of landfill and
leakages will be reduced
Reuse; people in the community should also consider the reuse of the coffee cups before
disposing of them. Before thinking of eliminating you should first think of cleaning, refurbishing
and reusing of the coffee cups for the same or different tasks. This is the greenest option.
Recycle; the last step in the waste reduction hierarchy is recycling. If you cannot think of rethink,
reduce it or reuse it, then you have to think of recycling it before disposal. Energy recovery by
incineration, anaerobic digestion, gasification and pyrolysis which produces energy should be
implemented as the last step (Pankaj 2015 p.440).
There are regulations, and legislation provides the sustainability of the plastics cups. All the
manufacturers of the plastic cups should be able to comply with the general principle of the
safety for all food contact materials. One of the regulations is (EC) No. 1935/2004 which
requires that the materials to be in contact with food that is coffee should not add their
components which are impure into food at a level that may negatively affect the human health. It
should also not change the food composition, test, and odor in an acceptable way. The critical
mechanism to ensuring safety and sustainability in plastic cups is to by the use of migration
limits which specify the maximum amount of substances that are allowed to migrate to food. For
safety purposes, the compliance of plastic material has to be communicated via the
manufacturing chain (Durugbo 2013 p.412).
Sustainability Challenge
There are various impacts which the plastic cup wastes have in line with the sustainability
challenge. This analysis in the context mainly discussed in line the demographical evaluation and

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the locations of the United Kingdom. The overall per capita consumption and the pose effects
which the plastic cup consumption have in the United Kingdom mainly illustrated as indicated
in the graph table below
Figure Showing the Per Capita Plastic Cup Consumption and Overall Effects in the United
Kingdom (Sasaki and Araki 2013 p.52)
Furthermore, plastics wastes often originate mainly classified based on the three core categories
as shone in the graph below

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Figure Showing the Three Key Aspects and Sources of Plastic Wastes in the United Kingdom
(Nemetz 2013)
From the picture above, it evidential that the largest plastic waste sources are the packaging from
the various consumers and the least mainly obtained from the non-packaging (Hargreaves 2011
p.79).
Results
The plastic cups may lead to the production of greenhouse gases. The greenhouse gas emissions
may come from its manufacturing and sometimes from its after-use cycle. Plastic cups undergoes
various steps of manufacturing which include the extraction of raw materials that will definitely
give rise to the production of greenhouse gas which have negative impact to the environment
thus comes with natural capital costs. The phase of production, which consumes around
significant quantity of the fossil feedstock that is used in the plastic production sector, which is
the source of most of these greenhouses gas. The direct burning and recovery of plastic results to
the carbon remains which is then released in the form of greenhouse gas emissions depends on
the products' after-use cycle. (Bhattacharya et al. 2018).
Discussion
The coffee plastic cups are used, and after a short first-use cycle, the plastic cups worth
significant amount of money is lost annually. Furthermore, a considerable amount of plastic cups
are not recovered at all. There are a percentage of plastics that are landfilled and a portion of
plastics that leaks out of the collection system. This adds to a significant percentage of plastics
that escapes the collection and recovery process, either directly or indirectly affects the economic
costs which can be done by reducing the production of the natural systems and have negative
impacts to urban infrastructure (Grose et al. 2018 p.409). The consequences that are associated

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with the use of plastic coffee cups are constituted in three major phases, the leakages which leads
to the degradation of natural system especially in the ocean, the greenhouse gas production as a
result of plastic production and its incineration after the use, and also there are health and
environmental impacts which results from various substances of concern. There are also
increased cost which results from collection, recovery, and disposal of plastics cups and the cost
of greenhouse gas emissions from its production exceeds the profit of the manufacturing the
plastics cups (Woodard 2018 p.76).
Conclusion
In summary, it is crucial and essential to note that there is a makeable increase in plastic
consumption worldwide. In essence, the demand for chemical use is not only gaining the
momentum grounds but also overwhelmingly increase across the globe. Even though, there are
definite advantages in line with the synthetic cup production and the overall related projects in
the various countries, improper management of the plastic waste has led to the mushrooming and
the littering of the environment. The effect is that this has resulted in negative environmental
impacts such as the blockage of the environment sewer lines as well. This has created adverse
consequences as well as effects on the environment, and therefore, there is the need to develop a
proper channel to handle such norms in the community and the major towns and cities. Some of
the action plans which one may put into consideration for handling these messes include
integrating efficient planning, and the adoption of the "design for environment concept. This will
enable one to manage the wastes. The integration concepts need to include both the alternative
and the sustainable solution. Furthermore, it is the role of the municipalities to develop and come
up with the makeable measures as well as formulating various criteria for handling the plastic
waste as well as improving the management plan which conforms to the set standards for the

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chemical scientific waste management. Moreover, all the brand owners and the producers should
partner and work closely with the municipalities to ensure that there is the decisive concept for
devising the EPR plan as well as develop implementation concept for the overall approach.
References
Bhattacharya, R.R.N., Chandrasekhar, K., Roy, P. and Khan, A., 2018. Challenges and
opportunities: plastic waste management in India.
Comaniţă, E.D., Ghinea, C., Hlihor, R.M., Simion, I.M., Smaranda, C., Favier, L., Roşca, M.,
Gostin, I. and Gavrilescu, M., 2015. Challenges and opportunities in green plastics: an
assessment using the ELECTRE decision-aid method. Environmental Engineering and
Management Journal, 14(3), pp.689-702.

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Durugbo, C., 2013. Improving information recognition and performance of recycling
chimneys. Ergonomics, 56(3), pp.409-421.
Gomes, L.A. and Brasileiro, T.S.A., 2018. Sustainability and Higher Education in the AmA
Study Based on the Institutional Development Plan (IDP) of the Federal University of Western
Pará. In Towards Green Campus Operations (pp. 851-865). Springer, Cham.
Grose, J., Burns, L., Mukonoweshuro, R., Richardson, J., Mills, I., Nasser, M. and Moles, D.,
2018. Developing sustainability in a dental practice through an action research approach. British
dental journal, 225(5), p.409.
Hargreaves, T., 2011. Practice-ing behaviour change: Applying social practice theory to pro-
environmental behaviour change. Journal of consumer culture, 11(1), pp.79-99.
Nemetz, P.N., 2013. Business and the sustainability challenge: An integrated perspective.
Routledge.
Pan, S.L., Chou, J., Morrison, A.M., Huang, W.S. and Lin, M.C., 2018. Will the Future Be
Greener? The Environmental Behavioral Intentions of University Tourism
Students. Sustainability, 10(3), p.634.
Pankaj, V.P., 2015. Sustainable model of Plastic waste management. International Journal of
ChemTech Research, 7(01), pp.440-458.
Sasaki, S. and Araki, T., 2013. Employer–employee and buyer–seller relationships among waste
pickers at final disposal site in informal recycling: The case of Bantar Gebang in
Indonesia. Habitat International, 40, pp.51-57.
Seidel, S., Chandra Kruse, L., Székely, N., Gau, M. and Stieger, D., 2018. Design principles for
sensemaking support systems in environmental sustainability transformations. European Journal
of Information Systems, 27(2), pp.221-247.

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Woodard, L., 2018. From Prikaz to Procedures: Becoming an International Organization in Post‐
Soviet Kazakhstan. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 41(1), pp.75-89.