Summary
In 2025 the Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team (HSOT), analysed aid delivery supply chains to assess the essential nature of residual single-use plastic packaging elements for stockpile Core Relief Items (CRIs). The analysis identified numerous routings where claims of “Essential” warranted further scrutiny and field testing of alternatives.
Content
Due to dearth of options for non-plastic tertiary packaging, HSOT has been collaborating with key suppliers to develop non single-use plastic packaging options for key Core Relief Items.
Current planning will see this non plastic option become the default packaging approach. In advance of procurement, a supply chain analysis will be conducted to assess the requirement for plastic packaging as an essential component of the packaging to ensure the integrity of the product received by the end user. Suppliers will be instructed to add an additional outer plastic layer as directed by HSOT.
Do No Harm
Key to humanitarian interventions is the principle that efforts to assist communities who are experiencing times of need should not do harm to those who should be helped by these interventions. Despite this a guideline figure of 1% by weight of humanitarian goods-in-kind interventions are single-use plastic packaging. While there are cases of best practice in properly recycling this packaging, in most cases it is simply discarded in line with local norms. Given the importance of the Do No Harm Principle to humanitarians, it is incumbent on organisations in this sector, such as HSOT, to lead in developing and proving innovative approaches to eliminate this potential source of harm.