UK-Based Meat Alternative Company Goes Plastic Neutral

Better Nature, a meat alternative company, is tackling its plastic waste problem: it has gone plastic neutral, making them the world's first plastic neutral meat-alternative company. The company partnered with repurpose Global, the world's first Plastic Credit Platform that aims to aid individuals and businesses to offset their plastic footprint.

Better Nature develops protein-alternative products from tempeh, an all-natural fermented protein from Indonesia. Removing plastics from production and packaging in tempeh products, which requires complicated food safety measures is difficult and continues to be a challenge for their team, Amadeus Driando Ahnan-Winarno, co-founder and Head of Technology at Better Nature admits.

"We're particularly looking into how we could use recycled or renewable materials rather than virgin plastic. We're making progress, but it will take a while to implement, so in the meantime, offsetting the plastic we produce is a productive step", Ahnan-Winarno said.

Going Plastic Neutral

For now, the company is offsetting the number of plastics that they use in the form of monetary donations. The amount to be offset would depend on the volume of plastics that the company uses and are then given to repurposing Global partner, Waste4Change, a company in West Java, Indonesia. The company develops sustainable management systems that reduce the amount of waste dumped in the landfill and recycles such plastics through environmentally and socially sound practices.

The contribution aims to address the £40bn/yr funding gap that confronts recycling supply chains all over the globe and improve the income for over 140 waste management workers and families in West Java. The tempeh that Better Nature is marketing is sourced from West Java.

Informal waste workers earn an income of less than £4/day despite working in a precarious condition and are vulnerable to severe discrimination. By going plastic neutral, a worker's income is augmented as they attach value to hard-to-recycle plastics. Recycling social enterprises that improves occupational safety, health insurance, and skills training of its employees, which are also waste pickers, are supported.

Aditya Siroya, co-founder and Chief Impact Officer of rePurpose Global lauded Better Nature for hopes that "this pioneering move pushes more brands to take responsibility for their plastic waste."

Elin Roberts, the co-founder and Head of Marketing at Better Nature, said that for a start-up company like theirs, which aims to do things a sustainable way, implementing all the changes that they want from the start is tricky. "Going Plastic Neutral is a step in the right direction for us, and we want to encourage more businesses to take," Roberts said.

Is plastic neutrality a way to end plastics?

Studies have revealed the possibility of more plastics than fishes swimming in the oceans by 2050; thus, initiatives like going plastic neutral seem timely and relevant. 

Plastic neutrality has its share of critics, however. In an article in Sustainability Times, the practice was dubbed as " a metaphor for doing something good, but not a true measure of real-world outcome."

The article cited that offsetting the adverse effects caused by pollution with good to augment the poor is not a sustainable way forward. For one, offsetting does not consider the cost of the impact on biodiversity and ecosystems.

Secondly, if the person buying the offset still keeps on using disposables every day, plastic pollution is still not addressed. Instead, this approach tends to worsen the plastic pollution because it could give the feeling of doing something good and make people produce more waste than before. 

In the end, the article reiterates that zero waste living is still the solution that would address the waste problem at its root. Efforts to intensify sustainable packaging alternatives that do not pollute the planet is also the way to go.