Blueland’s Product’s Relevance to the UK Market
Blueland’s product is highly relevant for the United Kingdom’s market since the company aims to reduce the number of single-use plastic bags from everyday products, and that matter is concerning in the UK nowadays. The process of reducing the usage of plastics in the country involves many stakeholders, including the UK government, manufacturers, businesses, and environmental groups. For example, the government has been taking action in recent years to reduce plastic pollution, working with the interested parties, including business undertakings aiming to lower the usage of plastic containers and microbeads (Xanthos & Walker, 2017). The major countries of the United Kingdom, such as Wales, England, and Scotland, put much effort into dealing with the plastic issue, which is why many organizations have emerged offering various solutions to the problem. According to Xanthos and Walker (2017), the UK utilizes many international market-based tools and strategies to reduce plastic usage. It means that any organization working in the corresponding industry can create a relevant product since the British regulations in the field currently aim to deal with plastic usage through the market, assisting business companies.
Competitive Landscape for Blueland within the UK Market
The governmental actions described in the previous section have made the market highly competitive since more and more companies attempt to contribute to plastic reduction and recycling in the United Kingdom. One of the major regulations influencing the plastic bags supply chain is the UK Plastics Pact, followed by most businesses involved in the industry, which aims to make 100% of plastic used in the country reusable or recyclable (Peake, 2020). Thereby, many organizations have become active in the field under discussion, addressing the plastic issue in different ways and generating a significant level of competition. Local companies, however, are not the only stakeholders since many international business groupings acting in the United Kingdom are involved. For instance, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, consisting of more than thirty companies worldwide, promises to invest much money into minimizing and managing plastic waste (Peake, 2020). Nevertheless, despite the high level of competition in the UK, all the organizations working on the reduction of single-use plastic packaging have the same primary goals, which is why competition may turn into collaboration, accelerating the process.
Potential Challenges and Issues
Although the situation and circumstances favor Blueland’s expansion to the United Kingdom, the company might face several potential challenges and issues. First of all, the ultimate goal of the organization – to reduce the number of single-use plastic packaging from everyday products – is challenging to achieve because of people’s dependence on plastic, which makes it a product that cannot be easily eliminated from people’s everyday lives (Sharon, 2020). Blueland will have to thoroughly analyze the usage of single-use plastic bags in the UK and create effective strategies to contribute to reduction and recycling and ensure citizens’ comfort simultaneously. Furthermore, problems may occur due to the country’s “reliance on export markets to handle around two-thirds of collected plastic packaging material and concern over how much of what is sent abroad is actually recycled” (Peake, 2020, p. 588). Blueland’s local activity in the UK may have an insignificant impact or no impact at all on the overall situation: plastic sent abroad deals with the issue in the country but does not solve the primary problem, which may undermine Blueland’s effectiveness.
References
Peake, L. (2020). Plastic waste in the United Kingdom. In Letcher, M. T. (Ed.) Plastic waste and recycling (pp. 585-600). Academic Press.
Sharon, G. (2020). Plastics we cannot live without. In Letcher, M. T. (Ed.), Plastic waste and recycling (pp. 449-466). Academic Press.
Xanthos, D., & Walker, T. R. (2017). International policies to reduce plastic marine pollution from single-use plastics (plastic bags and microbeads): A review. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 118(1-2), 17-26. Web.