A dozen additional companies are joining a high-profile consortium trying to find ways to combat environmental problems caused by plastics.
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, launched with fanfare earlier this year with its $1.5 billion goal to help the cause, began with 27 founding members.
New members of the alliance include Novolex Holdings Inc., Sealed Air Corp., Tomra Sorting GmbH, Storopack and PepsiCo. Others are Westlake Chemical Corp., Equate Petrochemical Co., Gemini Corp., Grupo Phoenix, Mondi, and SKC Co. Ltd.
Sinopac, the state-controlled Chinese oil and gas company, also is a new member.
"Plastic waste does not belong in the environment but into orderly recycling circuits. This is why we are joining the Alliance with the greatest conviction and in order to make a contribution," said Hermann Reichenecker, chairman of Storopack, a protective packaging maker.
Members of the alliance already have pledged more than $1 billion over five years to help end plastic waste in the environment. The group's goal is to raise $1.5 billion for that effort.
Member companies as well as plastic industry trade groups call the alliance a substantial response to the growing environmental scrutiny plastics finds itself under.
The alliance is focusing on four areas: infrastructure development; innovation; education and engagement; and removing plastic already in the environment.
That clean-up effort has a focus on "major rivers that carry vast amounts of land-based plastic waste to the ocean," the group said.
Global consumer products company Procter & Gamble Co. was a founding member and its CEO serves as chairman of the alliance.
"As leaders of companies that represent the full-spectrum of the plastics value chain, we are acutely aware that plastic waste in our environment is a serious and growing problem, especially in our oceans," P&G CEO David Taylor said.
"This complex, global challenge requires a comprehensive approach across the plastics life-cycle, and we are committed to bringing forth sustainable solutions," he said when alliance members were at the New York Stock Exchange July 8 to ring the closing bell.