A polystyrene packaging manufacturer has been left red-faced after unsuccessfully challenging B&Q's claims that polystyrene bedding plant trays are not recyclable and that the material is potentially devastating to wildlife.
Styropack complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about three claims in B&Q videos promoting its environmentally-friendly EasyGrow alternative to polystyrene plant trays, but all three complaints were thrown out.

One video claimed that "old-style polystyrene bedding trays really are a nuisance ... They break up and leave bits of polystyrene blowing all over the garden and, worse, they can't be recycled ..." The second said "polystyrene can't be recycled easily ... not only does it create a huge amount of waste we can't get rid of, it's also believed to have a devastating effect on wildlife ..."

Styropack said it was misleading to say that polystyrene could not be effectively recycled, and challenged whether a detrimental effect on wildlife could be substantiated.

However, the ASA decided that while polystyrene recycling was possible there were few facilities for it and therefore, as far as the average consumer was concerned, polystyrene trays were non-recyclable.

The ASA also said it was widely acknowledged that discarded plastics, particularly those which reached the sea, were believed to have a highly negative impact on the wellbeing of wildlife, which ate and got entangled in it.

It noted that large quantities of polystyrene were discarded as litter and were mistaken for food by marine life, presenting a choking hazard or an erroneous feeling of fullness if ingested, resulting in malnutrition or starvation.

B&Q ditched all its polystyrene bedding plant trays this year and replaced them with biodegradable EasyGrow, made from renewable corn starch. In one year, this has saved the environment from enough polystyrene to stretch the length of the British Isles.