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PullApart was a UK-based, independent packaging
recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
classification system. Applied at the kerbside, it combined
environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
and
consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. T ...
packaging surveys to provide customers with a measurement of the ease with which specific types of packaging could be locally recycled. The process was invented by Michael Butler of
Dawlish Dawlish is an English seaside resort town and civil parish in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon, from the county town of Exeter and from the larger resort of Torquay. Its 2011 population of 11,312 was estimated at 13,355 in 2019. It is t ...
in 2005, and operated for free.


Methodology

As PullApart was applied to existing
local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
-installed recycling bin
refuse collection Waste collection is a part of the process of waste management. It is the transfer of solid waste from the point of use and disposal to the point of treatment or landfill. Waste collection also includes the curbside collection of recyclable m ...
systems, its scoring scheme was dependent on individual local authorities’ own packaging disassembly practices. Sample packaging was disassembled, according to the Local Authority’s process, rearranged and its components graded for ease of recycling. The raw information from this exercise was also made available to the public. A final, consumer-oriented "PAC" (PullApart Code) score was achieved by measuring what proportion of a product's components was 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 Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...
,
retailers Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
,
food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...
and
agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...
producers to give greater weight to the ease of disposal and recycling in their
packaging Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a co ...
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 collection Kerbside collection or curbside collection is a service provided to households, typically in urban and suburban areas, of collecting and disposing of household waste and recyclables. It is usually accomplished by personnel using specially built ...
s. To provide consumers with information enabling product choice (
ethical consumerism Ethical consumerism (alternatively called ethical consumption, ethical purchasing, moral purchasing, ethical sourcing, or ethical shopping and also associated with sustainable and green consumerism) is a type of consumer activism based on the conc ...
), 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 Zero waste is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning resource life cycles so that all products are reused. The goal of this movement is to avoid sending trash to landfills, incinerators, or the ocean. Curren ...
. According to PullApart’s then current
Teignbridge Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Newton Abbot. Other towns in the district include Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish and Teignmouth. It is named for the old Teignbridge hundred. The ...
(2011) survey of over 2000 products, 2.84% were ideally suited for kerbside recycling and a further 29.32% were good, whilst the rest failed. The sample area, Teignbridge, and therefore Teignbridge District Council, had a current recycling rate of 57% (2008/2009), (by weight). Quoting from their
periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also examples ...
, “Teignbridge Life” explaining to local people how PullApart worked: “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

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 resource A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion resource depletion, depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a ...
s, etc. Efforts involve methodologies such as
life cycle assessment Life cycle assessment or LCA (also known as life cycle analysis) is a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. For instance, in the case of ...
to inventory the all environmental impacts and factors. There are many
Sustainability metrics and indices Sustainability metrics and indices are measures of sustainability, and attempt to quantify beyond the generic concept. Though there are disagreements among those from different disciplines (and influenced by different political beliefs about the ...
, some specifically for packaging.


See also

*
Landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
*
Waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...
*
Curbside collection Kerbside collection or curbside collection is a service provided to households, typically in urban and suburban areas, of collecting and disposing of household waste and recyclables. It is usually accomplished by personnel using specially built ...
*
Recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
*
Litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. Litter can also be used as a verb; to litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups, ...
*
Packaging and labeling Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a co ...
*
Source reduction Source reduction is activities designed to reduce the volume, mass, or toxicity of products throughout the life cycle. It includes the design and manufacture, use, and disposal of products with minimum toxic content, minimum volume of material, and ...
*
Environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...
*
Waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...
*
Greenwash Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims ...
*
Triple bottom line The triple bottom line (or otherwise noted as TBL or 3BL) is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental (or ecological) and economic. Some organizations have adopted the TBL framework to evaluate their performance in a broader ...
*
Sustainability brand Sustainability brands are brands that undertake sustainable practises in the workings of their business and champion them. They then use brand communication tools to convey these benefits to their end consumer hence enabling then to make conscious ...
* Sustainable packaging *
Life Cycle Assessment Life cycle assessment or LCA (also known as life cycle analysis) is a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. For instance, in the case of ...
*
Carrying capacity The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as t ...
*
Consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supp ...
*
Ethical Consumer Ethical Consumer Research Association Ltd (ECRA) is a British not-for-profit publisher, research, political, and campaign organisation which publishes information on the social, ethical and environmental behaviour of companies and issues around tr ...
, the UK's leading alternative consumer organisation *
Anti-consumerism Anti-consumerism is a sociopolitical ideology that is opposed to consumerism, the continual buying and consuming of material possessions. Anti-consumerism is concerned with the private actions of business corporations in pursuit of financial and ...
*
Fair trade Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...
*
Green brands Green brands are those brands that consumers associate with environmental conservation and sustainable business practices. Such brands appeal to consumers who are becoming more aware of the need to protect the environment. A green brand can add a u ...
*
Socially responsible investing Socially responsible investing (SRI), social investment, sustainable socially conscious, "green" or ethical investing, is any investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social/environmental good to bring about social ...


References

{{reflist
"How pulling it apart is pulling them in"
'' Herald Express'', 17 July 2008
"PullApart Remembered (a unique product packaging recycling survey). Part 1 (Flythrough of the fundamental features)."
A video showing (in part), what PullApart looked like.
"PullApart Remembered (a unique product packaging recycling survey). Part 2 (Flythrough of selected local bin collection types and recyclability categories.)."
A video showing (in part), what PullApart looked like.
"PullApart Remembered (a unique product packaging recycling survey). Part 3 (Flythrough of PullApart’s Calculator.)."
A video showing (in part), what PullApart looked like. Recycling Waste collection Packaging