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Progress Report of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Progress was being made toward 2025 goals, is said, but plastic packaging needs to be reduced.

 

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation certainly recognizes the industry's efforts to replace virgin plastics with recyclates, according to its recently released third progress report on the "New Plastics Economy Global Commitment". But efforts to reduce the use of single-use plastic packaging were barely noticeable, the report says. Brand-name manufacturers and retailers that have signed up to the voluntary commitment had reduced their consumption of virgin plastic packaging for the second year in a row, is said. By an estimated eight million metric tons annually, virgin plastic production could decrease by 2025, according to the commitments from industry, brand-name manufacturers, retailers and following pledges by plastics and packaging manufacturers to increase their use of recycled content, the report adds. According to the foundation's report, the targeted 2025 reduction in virgin plastics is expected to be driven primarily by an increase in recycled content. "Alarmingly low" the foundation calls the signatories' efforts to reduce single-use packaging in general. Plastic packaging would very often be replaced by other plastic or paper solutions. The commitment to reusable packaging, which was used by less than two percent of the signatories, is sobering. Politicians were also doing too little in this area, as the foundation complains in its report. Of the 18 governments that have joined the Global Commitment, only three had defined far-reaching reuse targets.
 

Sources:

  • Euwid Recycling und Entsorgung 49/2021 (12/7/2021)
  • Photo: @ ellenmacarthurfoundation.org

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