WHAT IS PEP TALK?  

PEP TALK was our winning entry for the 2010 WOW AWARDS, held at Clarence House, London.   

Details of the WOW AWARDS are shown in the section of this website called ALL CURRENT ACTIVITIES.  The WOW AWARDS video is now out on Youtube. This is not accessible by students at school. 

This was our entry, submitted in July 2010

What’s the difference between a plastic milk bottle and a yoghurt pot? The yoghurt pot can’t be recycled and EVERYONE is incensed by this! We are calling for ACTION and hope the publicity of the WOW awards will bring about a successful campaign. Quite simply, we will campaign for yoghurt pots to be manufactured in either paperboard (this exists already), in a biodegradable plastic (bio plastics also exist) or the same plastic as a milk bottle. We need the boost of The Prince of Wales and Footprint Friends behind us and we know we could launch a great campaign forcing change.  

This was the result of our research

• Some yoghurts are sold in cardboard but because it has to be waterproof it has a plastic layer making it difficult to recycle.

• Some yoghurts are sold in glass. It’s a great material but it’s expensive to recycle and if it’s NOT recycled it’s a dreadful water of resources because it takes so much energy to make!

• No yoghurts are sold in biodegradable or compostable  pots although Danone tried to do this in Bangladesh with corn starch. Some are made from proteins such as milk or gluten and they have tried to make bioplastics from GMOs. They may be good in the future but at the moment there are problems with these plastics. They don’t break down very easily, especially without light in landfills. They can last months. When they DO break down they can produce methane, a greenhouse gas. There are also worries that harmful products might get into food.

So students were left with non degradable plastics. We found out almost all yoghurt pots are made from POLYPROPYLENE or POLYSTYRENE.  It says on the pot that they are recyclable but as so few firms take it and recycle it this isn’t much use.  We desperately want to get rid of waste, in landfill and in rubbish. We don’t want to see beaches covered in plastic and we don’t want to see animals struggling with plastic in their guts.

There are two plastics that can be recycled and ARE recycled already.

HDPE. or high-density polyethylene. This has a '2' inside the recycling triangle. HDPE is used for plastic milk bottles. It can’t be composted but it CAN be recycled. However, We learnt from Danone and Yeo Valley that it is only useful for plastics made in a mould, like a milk bottle shape. This means it’s good for Yakult but bad for ordinary yoghurt pots. The manufacturing process just doesn’t fit the existing technology

The symbol for PET, the plastic used for drinks bottles, is a '1' inside the recycling triangle.  PET  is recyclable, has excellent properties for food storage  and lots of local authorities DO recycle it. This is the plastic we want to campaign for.

So ... PEP TALK!

Why we want recyclable PET yoghurt pots 

•         PET is recycled by lots of local authorities already, so recycling facilities do exist

•         It is what water bottles and fizzy drinks bottles are made from, and it suits yogurt pot technology. (unlike HDPE that needs a mould)

•         It will reduce the use of non-recyclables

•         It can be reused and is called rPET  a nd it can be used for packaging!  Using recycled plastic saves energy and so reduces the carbon footprint of the yoghurt pot. 

•         It also reduces our use of the fossil fuels from which  new plastic is made. We want to get away from fossil fuels: they are non-renewable and they are running out. Fossil fuels are wasted on plastics!

•         Facilities for recycling it already exist  

P   for PERSUADING manufacturers to make the pots in recyclable plastic. We hope that will be PET.

E       for ENCOURAGING Local Authorities to have a more effective collection service. They MUST collect mixed plastics from which PET  can be taken out for recycling       

P    for PUBLIC AWARENESS. The public must look at the sign on the pot to make sure it can be recycled. We want to teach people to READ THE POT and to wash it out, then recycle it.

P  We will contact companies and manufacturers, and persuade them to use PET. We think that if some decide to use PET, the others will too because all companies have to become more sustainable! If they use rPET it becomes cheaper too.

E  Local authorities must put facilities in place so the pots can be collected and recycled, and that means we will encourage all local authorities to collect MIXED PLASTICS. PET can then be removed and recycled

 We will campaign that all local authorities publicise that these yoghurt pots can be recycled in the same way as milk containers. Therefore they can be put in the same refuse sack as milk containers, or in the same box if the council operates a box collecting system.   We may need to put pressure on the government to provide funding for local authorities!

P The public must read the pot, and they need to look for PET or rPET (recycled PET) on the pot before they buy and they must be educated that these pots can be and will be recycled. Because recycling facilities exist.

How is a plastic bottle recycled?  Click here to find out