Kickstart: 'Peak virgin plastics' and climate change

The concept of peak oil has been widely debated. Now we may start to talk about the idea of "peak virgin plastic."

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation put the idea out there this week, that at least among major consumer product companies and retailers and their packaging, they've peaked on their use of virgin plastic.

Are the actions of those major companies, like Coca-Cola, Unilever and Walmart, foreshadowing what's coming in the rest of the plastics packaging market? Certainly could be.

EMF's Nov. 16 report card is an annual update on the detailed steps taken by about 100 large companies that signed up for its Global Commitment.

It's a multiyear effort to rethink their plastics use, whether that's recycled content, reusable packaging or other steps, and report publicly on what they're doing.

Looking further into the future, but on a similar theme, the consulting firm Wood MacKenzie released its own report Nov. 18 arguing that the world will hit "peak plastic," calling it a time "in which demand growth moderates and consumption of fossil fuel feedstocks declines."

"The plastics industry must go under the knife for a more sustainable future," it said.

Plastics companies are beginning to contemplate a plastics future divorced from fossil fuels.

Packaging giant Berry Global announced yesterday a "long-term vision to decouple from fossil fuels," as part of an effort to hit 30 percent use of "circular" plastics by 2030.

Machinery makers, too. The German VDMA association, which represents that country's large plastics and rubber equipment sector, released an executive interview Nov. 18 discussing how the industry could, theoretically, "do without fossil fuels altogether" with much more recycling.

On the heels of the COP26 summit, it's interesting to see a series of reports focus attention on the possibility of separating plastics from fossil fuels.

With President Joe Biden's workplace COVID-19 vaccination mandate now in the courts, a new survey of manufacturing companies finds that employee vaccination rates "remain low."

A Nov. 17 survey by the accounting and services firm Sikich reported widely divergent rates among manufacturers. But it said the most common response, from 28 percent of firms, was that 41-60 percent of the workforce was vaccinated.

That compares with 70.7 percent of the U.S. population 18 years or older being fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 81.7 percent with at least one dose.

In manufacturing, Sikich said 16 percent of the firms reported more than 80 percent of employees vaccinated, and 22 percent reported between 61-80 percent of its workforce was vaxxed.

About a quarter of the companies said they didn't know, and 10 percent reported vaccination rates below 40 percent.

The Sikich survey was small, about 100 firms, but another survey this month of 48,000 U.S. adults by Morning Consult looked a little better. It found that 64 percent of people who identified as working in manufacturing reported being vaccinated.

It said that 6 percent of the factory workforce planned to get a COVID-19 shot, while 10 percent were uncertain and about 20 percent were unwilling.

The National Association of Manufacturers has been providing resources to companies that want to encourage employees to get vaccinated.

California dairy farmers have launched an education campaign to try to boost recycling of HDPE milk bottles with the "Pour it. Cap it. Bin it." message.

As the California Milk Advisory Board explained to PN's Jim Johnson, they see a lot of consumer confusion around recycling and they want to reinforce to milk drinkers that the material actually gets recycled if they put it in their bins.

"I think to most people, that gives them the confidence that it's not going to end up in the landfill if they put it in their blue recycling bin," said Bob Carroll, vice president of business development for the board.

The two-year campaign, which is spending several hundred thousand dollars, has a website for consumers. The California board, which developed the materials with a national milk processing association, said they've heard from other states that are interested in doing the same kind of campaign.