Cincinnati — 2024 is coming fast. And right behind that is 2025 and the circularity goals so many companies have created.
When it comes to plastics recycling, the hard truth is that many of those goals will not be met — at least that's the popular thinking these days.
For Ben Ma, associate research director of packaging at Clorox Co., that means individual companies and entire industries need to be transparent about where they are when it comes to sustainability in plastics when 2025 arrives.
"I think it's really about being open, about what's appropriate," Ma said at the recent Baerlocher Recycling Summit in Cincinnati.
Ma was part of a roundtable discussion regarding sustainability at the summit and said being upfront about 2025 goals will help in the pursuit of 2030 goals that many companies also have made.
A slew of sustainability and recycling goals flooded the market in the mid to late 2010s, when 2025 and 2030 seemed both far away and like good targeted dates.
As 2023 continues to wind down, it has become clear that many goals set by consumer packaged goods companies to use a certain amount of recycled plastic will not be achieved by 2025.
Blame the pandemic. Or blame the inability to collect enough recycled plastic to fulfill the unmet needs. Or blame economic conditions that seem to continually mess with the recycled plastic market one way or another.
But Ma said setting goals, even if they are not met, is a good approach. That's because they push the market higher than it would ever reach without the aspirations.
Even missing 2025 goals, he said, could actually help in the push to achieve 2030 goals.
Recycling plastics is not for the faint of heart. Many factors are involved, including an inability to convince American consumers to value and recycle more of their plastics. Post-consumer plastic recycling is led by PET and high density polyethylene, but neither of those two resins can even reach a 30 percent recycling rate. The percentages essentially have been stuck in the mud for years.
"I think it's fair to understand what those hurdles are and be genuine about them and not hide behind them," Ma said.
As president of Green Group Consulting LLC, David Nix said consumers need to understand the value in recycling plastics. He has spent more than 30 years in the plastics business with a focus on polypropylene and recycling.
Gold, he said during the roundtable discussion, is the most recycled material by percent in the world because of the value people attach to the material.
"So we need value in our product. If people perceive value, it will get recycled. If there is demand for it, it will get recycled," he said.
The actual amount of plastics being recycled has increased over time, but so has the amount being used, leaving the recycling rate to essentially stagnate.
The people over at the Association of Plastic Recyclers, which represents the vast majority of post-consumer plastic recycling capacity in the country, have long said APR member companies as a whole have plenty of excess processing capacity. What they need, APR CEO Steve Alexander hammers home whenever he has the chance, is additional supply.
And consumer goods companies, as a whole, will not be able to reach their sustainability goals surrounding packaging without that additional supply.
"You need to be transparent," Ma said. "... If I have trouble hitting my milestone, be very clear about the problems that need to be solved so we can get to the bigger prize at the end.
"I'd rather set aggressive goals and maybe miss them by a little bit rather than goals that are too easy to hit. They would be layups. The way to make a bigger impact and bigger change is by having bold goals," he said.
True change, he said, comes by everyone participating.
"These goals have pushed every facet of the value chain. And every part of the value chain has made progress. MRFs [materials recovery facilities] have made progress. Converters have made progress. Brands have made progress. I think it's because those goals are so bold and so open, it created all this energy," he said.
But, Ma added, the work of the past six or seven years has not resulted in enough change to meet the goals. "There have been things that have worked," he said, but the industry has to understand "where the issues are and focus on those key issues."