Pullapart

PullApart is a UK-based, independent packaging recycling classification system. Applied at the kerbside, it combines environmental and consumer packaging surveys to provide customers with a measurement of the ease with which specific types of packaging may be recycled locally. The process was invented by Michael Butler of Dawlish in 2005, and is operated for free.

The waste hierarchy

3R Concepts Waste Disposal Hierarchy Reduce Reuse Recycle Dematerialization Downcycling Dumpster diving Ecodesign Ethical consumerism Freeganism Extended producer responsibility Industrial ecology Industrial metabolism Material flow analysis Product stewardship Recycling (ecological) Simple living Upcycling Zero waste

Recyclable materials Plastic Aluminium Glass Motor oil Paper Textiles Timber Scrap Paint

Methodology

As PullApart is applied to existing local authority-installed recycling bin refuse collection systems, its scoring scheme is dependent on individual local authorities’ own packaging disassembly practices. Sample packaging is disassembled, according to the Local Authority’s process, rearranged and its components graded for ease of recycling. The raw information from this exercise is also made available to the public.

A final, consumer-oriented "PAC" (PullApart Code) score is achieved by measuring what proportion of a product's components is recyclable from the kerbside. The PAC score is represented by 13 stages of ‘traffic light’ grading.

Broader aims

PullApart’s stated aims are to encourage, manufactures, retailers, food and agricultural producers to give greater weight to the ease of disposal and recycling in their packaging designs. Weighting the consumers point of view equally to that of packaging manufactures, retailers and recyclers, in the handling of domestic waste products for kerbside collections. To provide consumers with information enabling product choice (ethical consumerism), that's easy, local and totally kerbside recyclable. Furnishing an unambiguous tool, that measures the differences between those mentioned above, assisting in the optimisation of products for the goal of near Zero waste.

According to PullApart’s current Teignbridge (2011) survey of over 2000 products, 2.84% are ideally suited for kerbside recycling and a further 29.32% are good, whilst the rest fail. The sample area, Teignbridge, and therefore Teignbridge District Council, has a current recycling rate of 57% (2008/2009), (by weight). Quoting from their periodical, “Teignbridge Life” explaining to local people how PullApart works: “The online packaging recycling guide features a free search function which classifies ordinary consumer products, like cereal boxes, with a 'PullApart' rating. The rating breaks the product down into its components, explaining which parts can be recycled in Teignbridge.”

Awards for the scheme

PullApart is considered to be of “Environmental Best Practice” by The Green Organisation.

Comparison with other efforts

Main article: sustainable packaging

Worldwide there are broader packaging scoring systems that address the full environmental impact of packaging. Recycling being one factor, other vital considerations include the use of recycled materials in the package, avoidance of toxic substances, minimization of packaging, effects on atmosphere (greenhouse gas, VOC, etc), use of renewable resources, etc. Efforts involve methodologies such as life cycle assessment to inventory the all environmental impacts and factors. There are many Sustainability metrics and indices, some specifically for packaging.

See also

• Landfill
• Waste
• Curbside collection
• Recycling
• Litter
• Packaging and labeling
• Source reduction
• Environmentalism
• Waste management
• Greenwash
• Triple bottom line
• Sustainability brand
• Sustainable packaging
• Life Cycle Assessment
• Carrying capacity
• Consumerism
• Ethical Consumer, the UK's leading alternative consumer organisation
• Anti-consumerism
• Fair trade
• Green brands
• Socially responsible investing

References

• "How pulling it apart is pulling them in", Herald Express, 17 July 2008

Further reading

Books

• Jedlicka, W, "Packaging Sustainability: Tools, Systems and Strategies for Innovative Package Design", (Wiley, 2008), ISBN 978-0470246696
• Soroka, W, "Fundamentals of Packaging Technology", IoPP, 2002, ISBN 1-930268-25-4\
• S.,Sterling, "Field Guide to Sustainable Packaging", 2008
• Packaging Sustainability [1]
• Yam, K. L., "Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology", John Wiley & Sons, 2009, ISBN 978-0-470-08704-6
• Azzato, Maureen, "Facilitating the Use of Recycled Content in Packaging" [2]
• Calver, G., What Is Packaging Design, Rotovision. 2004, ISBN 2-88046-618-0.
• Leonard, E. A. (1996). Packaging, Marcel Dekker. ISBN 0-8247-9755-8.
• Opie, R., Packaging Source Book, 1991, ISBN 1555215114, ISBN 978-1555215118
• Robertson, G. L., "Food Packaging", 2005, ISBN 0849337755
• Selke, S., "Packaging and the Environment", 1994, ISBN 1566761042
• Selke, S,. "Plastics Packaging", 2004, ISBN 1569903727
• Stillwell, E. J, "Packaging for the Environment", A. D. Little, 1991, ISBN 0814450741
• Crawford, R.H. (2011) Life Cycle Assessment in the Built Environment, London: Taylor and Francis.
• J. Guinée, ed:, Handbook on Life Cycle Assessment: Operational Guide to the ISO Standards, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002.
• Hendrickson, C. T., Lave, L. B., and Matthews, H. S. (2005). Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Goods and Services: An Input–Output Approach, Resources for the Future Press.
• Baumann, H. och Tillman, A-M. The hitchhiker's guide to LCA : an orientation in life cycle assessment methodology and application. 2004. ISBN 91-44-02364-2
• Curran, Mary A. "Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment", McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 1996, ISBN 978-0070150638
• Ciambrone, D. F. (1997). Environmental Life Cycle Analysis. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ISBN 1-56670-214-3.
• LeGood, Paul; Andrew Clarke (November 2006) (PDF). Smart and Active Packaging to Reduce Food Waste. pp. 32. http://amf.globalwatchonline.com/epicentric_portal/binary/com.epicentric.contentmanagement.servlet.ContentDeliveryServlet/AMF/smartmat/Smartandactivepackagingtoreducefoodwaste.pdf. Retrieved 2009-04-28. 
• Stuart, Tristram (2009). Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal. Penguin (UK) and WW Norton (US). ISBN 0141036346. http://www.liber-ate.org. 
• Tierney, John. (1996). Recycling Is Garbage. The New York Times.
• Ackerman, Frank. (1997). Why Do We Recycle?: Markets, Values, and Public Policy. Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-504-5, 9781559635042
• Porter, Richard C. (2002). The economics of waste. Resources for the Future. ISBN 1-891853-42-2, 9781891853425
• Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932. Shows how a society can be influenced by consumerism.
• Chin, Elizabeth (2001) Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American Consumer Culture University of Minnesota Press ISBN 978-0816635115
• Humphery, Kim (2009) Excess, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.
• Nissanoff, Dan (2006). FutureShop: How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell and Get the Things We Really Want. Penguin Press. ISBN 1-59420-077-7.  (Hardcover, 246 pages)
• Shell, Ellen Ruppel, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, New York : Penguin Press, 2009. ISBN 9781594202155
• Charles Arthur Willard Liberalism and the Problem of Knowledge: A New Rhetoric for Modern Democracy. University of Chicago Press. 1996.
• Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability (ISBN 978-0-393-33726-6), W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.

Journals

• John C. Ryan & Alan T. Durning, Stuff: The Secret Life of Everyday Things (Northwest Environmental Watch 1997).
• Susan Strasser, A Social History of Trash, (Orion Magazine, Autumn 2000).
• Luedicke, Marius K, Craig J. Thompson and Markus Giesler. 2010. "'Consumption as Moral Protagonism:' How Myth and Ideology Animate a Brand-Mediated Moral Conflict." Journal of Consumer Research. 36 (April): 00.