Injection molder AptarGroup Inc. is updating progress on environmental goals, including efforts to increase recycled content in products.
The Crystal Lake, Ill.-based company, which has operations around the world, is out with a new Corporate Sustainability Report that covers actions taken in 2022. New details show Aptar reached two targets the company set for 2022 and has more work to do to reach other 2025 goals.
"Our planet can no longer sustain a linear, take-make-and-waste model for consumer goods. We see circularity as an opportunity for us to work across sectors and geographies on systems change. By rethinking systems to be designed for reuse, use less energy, produce less waste, preserve natural resources and nurture people as an outcome, we can benefit consumers today and for generations to come," CEO Stephan Tanda said in the report.
Aptar reached a 2022 goal of achieving landfill-free status at 65 percent of the company's sites in 2022, exactly matching the company's 65 percent goal. The company avoided disposing 86 percent of operational waste through reduction, recycling and reuse last year, beating its 83 percent target for 2022.
Aptar used 0.8 percent recycled resin in the company's personal care, beauty, home care, and food and beverage products. At less than 1 percent last year, the company still is far below the firm's 10 percent recycled resin goal for 2025.
Another 2025 goal is the use of 100 percent recyclable, reusable or compostable materials for the same categories of products. Progress achieved as of last year was at 54.6 percent, Aptar reported.
In the area of personnel, Aptar is seeking to increase the percentage of women at vice president or above levels to 30 percent by 2030. The company just about met its 2022 goal of 25 percent by the end of 2022 by having 24.4 percent women leaders in 2022.
One area where the company has work to do is the elimination of formaldehyde, styrene, vinyl chloride and bisphenol A in personal care, beauty, home care, and food and beverage products by 2025. Aptar reported no 0 percent progress as of 2022 but said work is underway to change that.
The company, in 2022, introduced alternatives to polyoxymethylene (POM), or formaldehyde-based thermoplastics.
"We decreased the quantity of some POM-containing skin care cartridges on the market by 65 percent," the company reports. "Additionally, we continued testing several alternatives to materials to replace other materials we have identified for phaseout."
Aptar said part of the substitution process is working with customers that have custom requirements for their packaging.
"In 2022, we launched a process to identify PFAS in our products so that we have clear visibility on which of our products are impacted. This process is not linear. As we seek alternative materials, we must consider existing recycling streams, product performance and customer needs," the company report reads.
"We made steady progress on chemical phaseout activities in 2022. We focused our efforts on two materials (the largest contributors to this category) PFAS and POM, with successful pilot testing of alternative materials for our main product category contributors," the company said.
"In 2023, we are entering the industrial-deployment and customer-testing phases. Regarding PFAS (per– and polyfluoroalkyl substances), we have identified phaseout programs to switch to PFAS-free solutions with our customers. Progress on this plan will be more visible in 2023 and beyond," Aptar said.
Leadership in sustainability, Tanda said, will not only help the environment but also give Aptar a "critical competitive advantage."
Aptar said it already has surpassed original greenhouse gas emissions targets for both scope 1 and scope 2. Scope 1 emissions are those directly from the company, and scope 2 emissions are associated with energy purchased by the company.
Aptar, which had $3.3 billion in sales in 2022, originally wanted to cut scope 1 and 2 emissions by 28 percent from a baseline year of 2019. But the company has upped that target to 82 percent in March after achieving a 75 percent decrease last year.
The company also reports sourcing 97 percent of electricity from renewable sources, just shy of a 100 percent goal by 2030.
Regarding scope 3 emissions, those created by suppliers to the company, Aptar achieved a 9 percent decrease in 2022 compared with the 2019 baseline. The company's goal is 14 percent by 2030.
While estimating scope 1 and 2 emissions is pretty straightforward, scope 3 emissions tracking is more difficult because they consider the entire supply chain prior to direct company operations. Aptar, in its report, indicated the firm has improved its scope 3 accounting and transparency, resulting in more accuracy in reporting this metric each year.