Organisations in the US, including Colgate-Palmolive Company, L’Oreal USA, Mars and The Coca-Cola Company, have signed up to a new Plastics Pact as part of their efforts towards a circular economy for plastic.
The collaborative is being led by The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and has been launched as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network.
It follows a pledge made by businesses in the UK in April 2018 to fight plastic pollution, following which a roadmap was launched later that year to help deliver the ambitious goal.
More than 60 businesses, government agencies and NGOs have so far joined the US Plastics Pact, representing each part of the supply and plastics manufacturing chain.
They seek to collectively meet impactful goals by 2025 that they could not otherwise meet on their own.
They have agreed to collectively deliver four targets, including defining a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025 and ensure all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable over the next five years.
The organisations also aim to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging and ensure 30% of plastic packaging is recycled or responsibly sourced bio-based content by 2025.
Sander Defruyt, Lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative said: “This is an exciting step on the journey towards a circular economy for plastic in the United States, one that keeps plastic in the economy and out of the environment.
“This effort will not only help to create solutions in the US but across the world, as part of our global network of Plastics Pacts. We are looking forward to working with all those involved to drive real change, by eliminating problematic and unnecessary plastic items, innovating to ensure all plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable and circulating it in practice. We encourage others to join us on this journey towards a United States free of plastic waste and pollution.”
