Unilever, Ikea, other major consumer firms back plastic waste pledge

Major consumer goods makers and retailers, including Unilever and Ikea, signed on to the G7 economic bloc's plastic charter targeting waste and ocean pollution at a Sept. 20 summit, as some business executives called for dramatically cutting back on single-use plastics.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman, for example, said the consumer products industry could reduce its plastics use by 30 percent with better design.

Speaking at a forum of G7 environment ministers meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he told the government leaders that "consumer goods industries are starting to challenge really the use of single-use plastics."

"I think the whole industry can reduce its plastics by 30 or 40 percent, just with technologies that are available," Polman said. "Reuse or recycling alone is not enough."

Other companies endorsed the charter in Halifax, including Coca Cola Co., Ikea, Walmart Stores Inc., Dow Chemical Co. and BASF Canada. The non-binding charter had been signed in June by top leaders of five of the seven countries in the economic bloc during a summit in Quebec.

As a followup, G7 environment ministers met in Nova Scotia Sept. 18-20 to flesh out more details.

Governments announced some new commitments, among them Canada — which pledged $65 million — and Norway, which announced an investment fund. Both countries targeted the funds to combat plastic pollution in developing countries.

Business executives also talked about working with their supply chains to rethink use of plastics.

"Single-use plastic items pollute ecosystems such as oceans and waterways and harm wildlife if not disposed of responsibly," said Marsha Smith, president of Ikea Canada. "This is a complex problem with no single solution."

She noted in an address to the ministers that Ikea has previously announced it would eliminate single-use plastic products from home furnishings by 2020, and phase out virgin plastics in Ikea products by 2030. Smith framed it as moving toward more environmental business models.

"Our relentless pursuit of economic growth in the post war period combined with the externalization of environmental costs from balance sheets has resulted in rapid degradation of the natural environment," she said.

Polman said Unilever is working with other companies to unveil plastic pollution commitments that go beyond the G7 charter at the upcoming Oceans Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in late October. He said the group has about 60 companies signed up and hopes to have about 500.

"I hope that soon we will be able to discuss more aggressive commitments," he said. "No question that that goes well beyond the Ocean Plastics Charter. I think [G7] just put a stake in the ground that is the minimum that the whole world should adhere to."

Polman said public attitudes toward plastics are "drastically changing" because of media coverage like the BBC's Blue Planet documentary series, National Geographic's report on plastic waste worries and articles about whales and other marine life dying from eating too much plastic.

"We have an issue that I've never seen in my 40 years that [I've been] in consumer goods, if I may be honest," Polman said. "This is an issue where the consumer for the first time is way ahead of us.

"One of the fastest growing aisles in supermarkets is plastic free aisles," Polman said.

He noted that only 14 percent of plastics are recycled and called it "absolutely ridiculous" that so much of the value of plastics is lost because of poor waste management, collection and recycling.

"Who is designing a system where 95 percent of its value gets lost after one use?" Polman said. "Yet that is what we are doing with plastics."

The government of Canada, which holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, plans to push the plastics charter in other forums.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna told Canadian journalists she plans to bring the charter to both the United Nations and the G20 economic bloc.

At the summit, she suggested she's building links with businesses. She told a public session on plastics that she's had "wide-ranging conversations" with Polman and argued that there's significant economic opportunity in finding solutions to plastic waste problems.

"We do need business leaders who are going to step up, who are going to bring folks together, who are going to overcome sometimes old school mentalities that you can't tackle these problems or there isn't a huge economic opportunity moving forward," McKenna said.

Plastics industry groups were also in Halifax. Keith Christman, director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council, told the summit that the U.S. industry has committed to having all plastics packaging re-used, recyclable or recoverable by 2040.

A trio of polystyrene companies unveiled a depolymerization technology at the summit they said can significantly boost PS recycling, and Nova Chemicals repeated a $2 million commitment to help fund plastic waste cleanup in Indonesia.

Attendees noted the positive roles of plastics in society. Erik Solheim, head of the U.N. Environment Program — which declared "war" on ocean plastics last year — said plastics in automobiles reduce fuel consumption and plastic packaging can reduce food waste.

"Those are good purposes," he said, "but it goes without saying that we can be a lot more innovative."

Solheim called for much better use of plastics, including phasing out applications like straws or plastic bags that are only used for a very short time but can remain in the environment for many years, and urged companies to pursue better design.

Polman believes public concern will continue to grow, and he made a veiled criticism of the two G7 governments that did not sign the plastics charter, Japan and the United States, without naming them.

"Even though I realize there are some countries here still hesitating to sign I can only tell you, you are out of line with where the consumers are and you're out of line with where the bulk of the industry is," Polman said.