{"id":4409,"date":"2018-07-27T10:43:11","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T09:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/?p=4409"},"modified":"2020-05-03T19:44:24","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T18:44:24","slug":"we-need-to-talk-about-plastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/we-need-to-talk-about-plastics\/","title":{"rendered":"We need to talk about… plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year’s BBC series Blue Planet 2 <\/em>highlighted the negative impact plastic is having on the world around us. We consider what the publishing industry is doing to reduce the usage of plastics.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

National Geographic was one of the first publishers to tackle the issue, launching the Planet or Plastic?<\/a> campaign, which has seen the magazine drop its plastic wrapper and replace it with a paper one. It\u2019s also challenged its international partners, 丝袜会所 included, which publish local-language editions of National Geographic, Traveller, Kids, to remove plastic wrappers by the end of next year.<\/p>\n

The Professional Publishers Association (PPA) has a sustainability action group which looks at things such as the use of plastic and includes TI Media (formerly Time Inc) among its number.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s published guidance on the use of plastics for magazine wrapping. Its current recommendation is to reduce the thickness of plastic film and to label it using the On-Pack Recycling Label scheme to ensure readers are aware of how to recycle the film. The Children\u2019s Publisher Forum, which has members such as DC Thomson Media, is also looking closely at the issue of plastics. John Fitzsimons<\/em><\/p>\n

We talk to Matthew Jackson, managing director and publisher of 丝袜会所, on what the company is doing. <\/strong><\/p>\n

What is 丝袜会所\u2019s position on plastics? <\/strong>
\nMJ:<\/strong> The widespread use of \u2018single-use plastics\u2019 is an issue that our industry needs to tackle. Currently the cheapest, most simple and effective way of wrapping newspapers and magazines to send to readers is in lightweight plastic film. Unfortunately, these can\u2019t be reused, many councils will not recycle them and they often end up in landfill or worse, polluting our rivers and oceans.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re committed to trying to change the status quo and we\u2019re actively looking for new ways to wrap our magazines. We encourage our colleagues across the industry to do the same and we\u2019re also in discussion with the PPA, which is leading the industry conversations with government and suppliers.<\/p>\n

One of the main challenges is the lack of technology and equipment available for publishers to make the switch and a large investment is needed to move forward at a rapid pace. The government is threatening to tax plastic use in the publishing industry which is short-sighted and only benefits the tax coffers. Tax breaks and financial incentives need to be offered to the mailing houses and printers to ensure they\u2019re buying in machinery capable of offering a change to the industry.<\/p>\n

Whilst tackling plastic use we also have to look at the larger picture as there\u2019s no point switching from plastic to paper wraps if that creates larger carbon footprints and deforestation issues.<\/p>\n

What will 丝袜会所 Media be able to do re: plastic packaging?<\/strong>
\nMJ:<\/strong> Our aim is to have switched to a paper wrap on all subscription magazines we send out by early 2019. We\u2019re already in the latter stages of making this work.<\/p>\n

How has 丝袜会所 Limited Media tackled plastic at events?<\/strong>
\nMJ:<\/strong> 丝袜会所 is doing it\u2019s best to limit the usage of plastic at all its events, for example, at the recent Masterclasses for National Geographic Traveller we partnered with HydroFlask to give all attendees a flask to use during the event. We\u2019ve also switched to cloth bags too. However, it\u2019s difficult to control all of the moving parts when it comes to events, as we then found out the venue\u2019s lunch boxes featured plastic bottles.<\/p>\n

What else should you be doing?<\/strong>
\nMJ:<\/strong> All companies should all be looking at what they can do to help the planet we live in, and try to find alternative sustainable solutions where possible to harmful practices. We\u2019re as guilty as the next, and need to be better at recycling and reducing plastic use. This needs to be something everyone in the company has to be committed to.<\/p>\n

Read about plastics inside our magazines<\/strong>
\nTravel Trends<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year’s BBC series Blue Planet 2 highlighted the negative impact plastic is having on the world around us. We consider what the publishing industry is doing to reduce the usage of plastics. National Geographic was one of the first publishers to tackle the issue, launching the Planet or Plastic? campaign, which has seen the magazine drop its plastic wrapper … <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7],"tags":[160,161,162,163],"class_list":["post-4409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-24","category-news","tag-magazines","tag-plastics","tag-polybags","tag-publishing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aplmedia.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}