The beauty industry has been plagued by accusations that they don’t talk plastic waste seriously and since then many brands have individually chosen to become more sustainable.
Well, now the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaboration led by The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) aims to cause further change toward a circular economy for plastic with the support of 60+ brands, retailers, government agencies, and NGOs collaborating to advance all plastic packaging to become reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.
“Together, through the U.S. Plastics Pact, we will ignite systems change to accelerate progress toward a circular economy,” says Sarah Dearman, VP of Circular Ventures for The Recycling Partnership.
“As the lead organization that engages the full supply chain to advance circularity in the U.S., it’s a natural fit for The Recycling Partnership to further collaborative action with other industry leaders to create substantial, long-lasting change for the betterment of our planet. The results from the U.S. Plastics Pact’s efforts to advance packaging, improve recycling, and reduce plastic waste will benefit the entire system and all materials.”
The pact is part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network and in line with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s vision of a circular economy for plastic the U.S. Plastics Pact brings together plastic packaging producers, brands, retailers, recyclers, waste management companies, policymakers, and other stakeholders to work collectively toward scalable solutions tailored to the unique needs and challenges within the US landscape through vital knowledge sharing and coordinated action.
To join the Plastics Pact activators agree to collectively deliver these four targets:
- Define a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025.
- By 2025, all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
- By 2025, undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging.
- By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.
More than 60 Activators—including for-profit companies, government agencies, and NGOs—have joined the U.S. Plastics Pact.
To track the progress/results of this program an annual report will be made available through WWF’s ReSource: Plastic Footprint Tracker. This will provide a way to track companies’ plastic footprints and publicly report on their plastic waste commitments each year.
We can start to address the plastic waste issue by taking fast and transformative action at every point in the plastic cycle. Recycling alone can’t solve the circular economy, but the circular economy can help solve the problem on waste and recycling” says Viviana Alvarez, Head of Sustainability – North America at Unilever.
Both Henkel and L’Oréal have both joined The Pact.
