Global Commitment Signatories' Virgin Plastic Use Shows Signs of Peaking, 2025 Cut Could Near 20%

A new report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) forecasts that virgin plastic used in packaging by major brands signed up to the Global Commitment could be cut by almost 20%.

The 2021 New Plastics Economy Global Commitment progress report shows that after decades of growth, virgin plastic use among brand owner and retailer signatories showed signs of peaking in 2021 and is projected to fall by nearly 20% by 2025.

Progress so far has been driven mainly by recycling and reuse, yet that alone is not enough to tackle plastic pollution; stakeholders need to accelerate the phase-out of single-use plastic packaging.

At the same time, calls for a global agreement on plastic pollution are gaining unprecedented momentum.

New data indicates that brand owners and retailers under the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment (the Global Commitment) have reduced virgin plastic in their packaging for two years in a row.

EMF and UNEP jointly noted that three years after the Global Commitment was launched, signatories' virgin plastic use has shown signs of peaking and is now trending downward.

In 2021, the Global Commitment introduced a mandatory virgin plastic reduction target, and all 65 brand owner and retailer signatories now have one in place. The new target is expected to reinforce and speed up the downward trend; if achieved, absolute virgin plastic use will be almost 20% lower in 2025 than in 2018.

If both the new targets and existing commitments are delivered, an estimated 8 million tonnes of virgin plastic production could be avoided each year by 2025—equal to preventing the extraction of 40 million barrels of oil.

Lower virgin plastic use is a positive trend, but brand owners and retailers still focus mainly on replacing virgin plastic with recycled plastic in current and future plans. That addresses only part of the problem and does not manage the total volume of plastic packaging placed on the market. Efforts to eliminate single-use packaging remain insufficient: the reusable rate of signatories' plastic packaging is below 2%, and more than half of signatories report zero reuse for their plastic packaging.

New industry commitments and action plans are expected to deliver tangible progress for plastic circularity.

All packaged consumer goods, retail and packaging manufacturing companies that have signed the Global Commitment have pledged that by 2025, 100% of their plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable.

All packaged consumer goods and retail signatories have also committed to an average recycled content of 25% in their plastic packaging by 2025—about ten times the current global average estimate. Some have set higher goals: Werner & Mertz, POSITIV.A and IWC Schaffhausen target 100%; Bio-D targets 75%; Diageo and L'Occitane en Provence target 40%; L'Oréal, M&S, Accor and Sealed Air target 30%.

As the first resin producers to sign the Global Commitment, Borealis and Indorama Ventures have committed to specific recycled material targets, shifting their business models from energy extraction and virgin materials toward material circularity.

To meet their 2025 targets, packaged consumer goods, retail and packaging manufacturing companies will create total demand for 5.4 million tonnes of recycled plastic—the largest commitment to date for recycled plastic in plastic packaging. Since the Global Commitment launched in 2018, signatories' use of post-consumer recycled plastic has risen by 60%. To accelerate the decoupling of plastic from fossil feedstocks, the Global Commitment added a virgin plastic reduction target for brand owners and retailers in 2021; if delivered, absolute virgin plastic use will be nearly 20% lower by 2025 than in 2018.

Dame Ellen MacArthur, founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said recycling and reuse alone cannot solve plastic pollution, and eliminating single-use packaging is an essential part of the solution. However, the report shows signatories have invested very little in this area, which is alarming. She stressed the need for far more urgent focus on upstream innovation and rethinking how products are delivered through packaging-free or reusable formats. This can avoid waste and carbon emissions from the design stage while creating new business opportunities. Estimates suggest that shifting just 20% of plastic packaging from single-use to reusable represents a business opportunity of about USD 10 billion.

Voluntary initiatives such as the Global Commitment have started to drive change, but many companies and countries recognise that voluntary action alone is far from sufficient. Global Commitment signatories cover only 20% of the world's plastic packaging. A coordinated global response mechanism is needed so industry and governments can act faster and at scale.

Support for a global agreement on plastic pollution continues to grow. More than 80 leading companies and 119 governments have called for a global agreement, and over 2 million people have signed a public petition in support. The second part of the fifth UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2) in February 2022 will be a critical moment, when governments will discuss next steps, including whether to launch intergovernmental negotiations on a global agreement.

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, said the Global Commitment demonstrates that coordinated voluntary action across the value chain, including governments, has begun to reverse the global tide of plastic pollution. All signatories report progress transparently against agreed metrics—an approach worth recognising and replicating. Frontrunners also show that the many benefits of plastic can be decoupled from virgin plastic use, and such pioneering actions can be driven and scaled through a comprehensive, inclusive global approach.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378706.html