Henkel North America and Kimberly-Clark are the latest firms to join the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative initiative to create a path forward toward a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025.
The U.S. Pact ”“ the first of its kind in North America ”“ is led by The Recycling Partnership, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Ellen MacArthur Foundation. It is designed to convene more than 70 brands, retailers, NGOs and government agencies to bring one voice to U.S. packaging.
“Our mission is to integrate materials from sustainable sources into intelligent designs to complete the circle,” said Jillaine Dellis, head of sustainability for Henkel North America”™s Consumer Products business in Stamford. “We are proud to join the U.S. Plastics Pact as a founding member, reinforcing Henkel”™s own comprehensive commitments to develop solutions that minimize and manage plastic waste.”
Companies joining the pact agree to:
”¢ define a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025; ”‹
”¢ make all plastic packaging 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025; ”‹
Ӣ take action to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging by 2025; and
”¢ make the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging 30%. ”‹
While the U.S. Pact is complementary to and follows the precedents set by the existing global network of Plastic Pacts, it will be tailored to meet the needs and challenges of the U.S. market.
“The U.S. Pact will accelerate systemwide change by inspiring and supporting upstream innovation through a coordinated national strategy, creating a unified framework and enabling members to accelerate progress toward our ambitious 2025 sustainability goals,” said Sarah Dearman, Vice President of Circular Ventures for The Recycling Partnership. “Members”™ full participation will be vital to reaching our shared goals.”
The U.S. Pact emphasizes measurable change and as such, Henkel is committed to transparent, annual reporting, guided by WWF”™s ReSource: Plastic Footprint Tracker, which will be used to document annual progress against the four goals.
The first task of the founding members of the U.S. Plastics Pact will be to establish a “roadmap” in Q1 2021 to identify key milestones and national solutions to achieving the U.S. targets and realize a circular economy in which plastic never becomes waste.
Henkel North America said its consumer products businesses are “well on their way” to achieving the company”™s global target of 100% of packaging being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. The company also aims to reduce the amount of new plastics from fossil sources in its consumer products by 50% by 2025.
To help avoid the disposal of waste into the environment, the firm said its consumer products manufacturing facilities are also on target to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2021.
The company has set global climate and energy commitments including being climate positive by 2040, with 2025 targets that include a 65% reduction of the CO2 emissions of its production, and a reduction of 100 million tons of CO2 saved together with its consumers, customers and suppliers.
