U.S. Plastics Pact gains support

The U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative led by The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), was launched on August 25 as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network. The U.S. Plastics Pact is an ambitious initiative to unify diverse public-private stakeholders across the plastics value chain to rethink the way we design, use, and reuse plastics, to create a path towards a circular economy for plastic in the United States.

U.S. industry leaders recognise that significant, systemwide change is needed to realise a circular economy for plastic as individual action is not enough, thus The U.S. Plastics Pact brings together companies, government entities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), researchers, and other stakeholders in a pre-competitive platform for industry-led innovation. The U.S. Plastics Pact will drive collaborative action and deliver a significant system change towards a circular economy for plastic, enabling companies and governments in the U.S. to collectively meet impactful goals by 2025 that they could not otherwise meet on their own.

In line with the Ellen McArthur Foundation’s vision of a circular economy for plastic, which unites more than 850+ organisations, underpinned by common definitions and concrete targets, the U.S. Plastics Pact brings together plastic packaging producers, brands, retailers, recyclers, waste management companies, policymakers, and other stakeholders to work collectively towards scalable solutions tailored to the unique needs and challenges within the U.S landscape, through vital knowledge sharing and coordinated action.

As of today, more than 60 Activators – including for-profit companies, government agencies, and NGOs – have joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, representing each part of the supply and plastics manufacturing chain. By joining the U.S. 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%.

Results of measurable change in each of the target areas and transparent reporting are key outcomes of the U.S. Plastics Pact. Progress of the U.S. Pact will be tracked through WWF’s ReSource: Plastic Footprint Tracker, which provides a standard methodology to track companies’ plastic footprints and publicly report on their plastic waste commitments each year. The report will be made publicly available each year.

Achieving this vision will require new levels of innovation and collaboration from all Activators of the U.S. Plastics Pact and beyond. The U.S. Pact is launched as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact network, joining Plastics Pacts in Europe, Latin America and Africa as a globally-aligned response to plastic waste and pollution that brings together shared ambition, combined expertise, and collaboration to create regional and national solutions towards a circular economy in which plastic never becomes waste.

The next step for the U.S. Plastics Pact will be to create a roadmap, laying out the steps to achieving the targets outlined above. For more information on how to join the U.S. Plastics Pact and drive collective action, visit the website usplasticspact.org or contact takeaction@usplasticspact.org.

To maintain continual and effective collaboration, the U.S. Plastics Pact will seek guidance from a robust Advisory Council, made up of 10 Activator organisations, companies, and governments. Those included in the Advisory Council are: Amcor, Balcones Resources Inc., Austin Resource Recovery (City of Austin, TX), Eureka Recycling, Grove Collaborative, Mars, Incorporated, Target, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever United States, and Walmart, Inc.