MacArthur Foundation: '100% promise' may fail because of plastic bags
LONDON, 2 November 2022 – Businesses may fall short of their commitments to use “100% reusable, recyclable or compostable” plastic packaging by 2025, according to the newly released Progress Report on the Global Commitment to the New Plastics Economy.
Progress in the assessment of the Global Commitment shows that given the large-scale use of plastic flexible packaging and insufficient investment in waste collection and recycling facilities, most signatories are struggling to meet their 2025 goal of ensuring that all plastic packaging is 100% Reusable, recyclable or compostable.
The 2022 Progress Report on Global Commitments, produced jointly by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme, highlights the following: The use of recycled content in plastic packaging has doubled over the past three years, continuing strong growth.
Since 2018, more than half of the contracted companies have reduced the amount of virgin plastics used, but in 2021, the total use of virgin plastics from the global commitment contracted companies will rise again, returning to the 2018 level.
The share of reusable plastic packaging fell slightly to an average of 1.2%.
Four years after the launch of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, the 2022 annual progress report shows that the practices and progress of the signatories vary.
The use of post-consumer recycled content in plastic packaging has risen from 4.8% in 2018 to 10.0% in 2021. In the past, it took decades for companies to reach 5% recycled content, and signatories to the Global Commitment have doubled that number to 10% in just three years. To reach the overall target of 26% by 2025, brands and retailers must continue to redouble their efforts to increase the use of recycled plastic. Although some companies have achieved their set goals ahead of schedule, there are still some companies that need to step up their actions.
Since 2018, more than half (59%) of brands and retailers have started reducing their use of virgin plastic. However, 2021 saw an overall increase of 2.5% in virgin plastic usage, reversing the downward trend seen in 2019 and 2020, due to rising demand from some companies that use a large amount of plastic packaging.
The increase in the amount of virgin plastic is due to the fact that the total amount of plastic packaging in some companies is still increasing. Trends like this underscore the need for companies to decouple their growth from the use of plastic packaging.
For the first time in 2021, a handful of global brands have announced quantitative targets to increase their use of reusable packaging. However, 42% of signatories have yet to introduce any reuse patterns into their packaging strategies.
Many companies have made a lot of investment efforts to achieve 100% technical recyclability of rigid plastic packaging, but because the global waste collection and sorting infrastructure is not yet sound, such investment will not help companies achieve 100% recyclable. Target.
Plastic flexible packaging, such as pouches and films, is a major challenge in the transition to a circular economy for plastics. Flexible packaging is also a key reason why most companies will not be able to meet the 2025 goal of “100% reusable, recyclable or compostable” plastic packaging, as it is difficult to recycle such packaging on a large scale in practice.
