US Plastics Pact eyes major changes in packaging

Meeting the ambitious goals of the new U.S. Plastics Pact will require major changes in packaging design and recycling, according to the head of the organization.

Emily Tipaldo, executive director for the pact, thinks it could, for example, require doubling the recycling rate for plastic bottles and asking hard questions about whether companies should keep using resins with poor track records around sustainability.

The pact was formed in August by consumer product brands — and major buyers of plastic — such as Coca-Cola Co., Unilever US and Clorox Co., who see it as a way to find common ground at a pre-competitive level to meet ambitious plastics goals that they have publicly set.

In a March 17 presentation at the Plastics News Executive Forum, Tipaldo told the industry audience that the pact sees itself as hoping to bring broad changes.

The effort is voluntary, and some environmental groups have asked how much a voluntary undertaking like this can do when some of its goals, such as higher recycling rates, seem certain to require new laws.

But groups like the Association of Plastic Recyclers have said it could have a major impact.

Tipaldo said the pact came together out of the "recognition that there's a vacuum at this point in how you would even achieve a circular economy for plastics."

At its August launch, it announced some big goals for plastic packaging, all by 2025. They include a 50 percent recycling and composting rate, 30 percent recycled or bio-based content, having 100 percent of plastic packaging be reusable, recyclable or compostable, and eliminating "problematic" plastic packaging.

When you consider the gap between those goals and where plastics recycling is now in the U.S. — the overall U.S. recycling rate for plastics in containers and packaging is 13.6 percent — there's a lot of ground to make up.

"We're under a lot of pressure because our timeline is crunched," Tipaldo said.

Its 89 member companies, government agencies and environmental groups plan to release a detailed road map by the end of June and then by year-end publish their list of "problematic or unnecessary" plastics packaging.

While the road map is still being worked out, some packages will likely need to get well above a 50 percent recycling rate to compensate for lower rates for other types of plastics packaging and keep the average at 50 percent, she said.

"We're still in the early days of gelling around this within the pact, but my personal belief is that we need to look at like 70 percent rates for bottles," she said. "We need to maximize our collection and recycling rates on bottles, which probably means we need to be open to considering deposit return systems in addition to extended producer responsibility."

Bottles are the most recycled types of plastic packaging, with PET and high density polyethylene bottles each having a national rate of about 30 percent. But states with container deposits generally have bottle recycling rates of 60-90 percent.

Part of what motivates the pact, Tipaldo said, is a sense that plastic packaging is likely to face much stricter regulation.

She said the U.S. pact, which is one of 10 globally operated under the umbrella of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is the only pact in a country without new national rules aimed specifically at reducing plastic waste. But pact members feel that may be changing.

"I think there's … a sense in the U.S. that we may not go on that much longer without some regulation around either a circular economy or though things like extended producer responsibility, like more recyclable packaging, so how do we get ahead of that and start to move in that direction preemptively," Tipaldo said.

By the end of the year, the pact plans to publish its list of "problematic or unnecessary" packaging that member companies aim to phase out by 2025. Tipaldo said the list illustrates how the pact's goals are intertwined because replacing hard-to-recycle resins with different materials or with reusable packaging will make it easier for the pact to hit its 50 percent overall recycling rate.

The group, she said, will be "thinking through what are the resins and [packaging] formats that we really need to maximize in order to achieve that 50 percent piece."

Tipaldo said the group has discussed in its working sessions how the United States tends not to like "bad lists" of products that should be restricted in commerce. But she also said she sees attitudes in packaging changing around material selection.

"We've enjoyed the ability for companies to sort of do what they will," she said. "I think, though, because of the challenges we've experienced, companies have come to this realization that in order to achieve a circular economy for plastics, if that's the goal, then we need to look at what is the circular trajectory for packaging format X or this particular material's inclusion in packaging format X."

Part of the pact's discussions, she said, will be guided by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's definition of what is recyclable. It says a packaging material should have a recycling rate of at least 30 percent to be used.

But Tipaldo acknowledged that under that definition, most if not all of plastic packaging right now in the United States would fail.

"The harsh reality of using the EMF definition of recyclable package means that it's questionable, depending on how you're defining things, if a PET bottle in the U.S. meets that definition," she said.

But she said the group will also be looking at what trajectory a packaging material will be on to be recyclable, reusable or compostable.

"Just because it's not recyclable today does not mean that it's problematic or unnecessary," she said. "We are meant to meet that definition of recyclable packaging in the recycling context by 2025."

EPA figures show that for 2018, the last year available, only two types of plastic packaging come close to 30 percent. PET bottles and HDPE natural bottles had rates of 29.1 and 29.3 percent, respectively. But the overall recycling rate for plastics in packaging and containers was 13.6 percent, and for other materials much less, EPA said.

The overall rate for polypropylene packaging was 2.7 percent (PP bottles were 8 percent), while polystyrene packaging was 3.6 percent. Low density PE and linear low density PE bags, films and sacks had a recycling rate of 13.3 percent.

Assessing a particular resin's potential is complicated, Tipaldo said, noting ongoing discussions and investment in recycling polypropylene, as an example.

The plastics and consumer goods industries announced a $35 million effort last year to boost recycling of PP packaging.

"Polypropylene falls short on some of these things but not on all of them," she said. "Polypropylene is unique in that there's great value for the material and there are markets.

"Where we fall short is largely on the sortation piece," she said. "Not all materials recovery facilities are equipped to separate polypropylene so some of them lose out on that value."

But Tipaldo said the pact will be looking at the investments going into particular materials or packaging types to deal with recycling problems and trying to assess whether that's enough to address shortcomings. If not, the material could face problems, at least in being used by pact members.

"There are certain products on the market today where there is a lot of industry investment," she said. "There are other things on the market today that don't have that similar level of commitment, and I think that's where red flags might come up and where you need to start asking questions about 'What does the future of this material or format really look like?'"

She also used her presentation to urge plastics companies to get more involved in pact. She said the group includes a few materials suppliers and plastic packaging makers but is interested in more involvement from them in part to get more technical knowledge.

"While we may have consumer brands companies participating, and some of them, at least the bigger ones, have their own R&D expertise within the company," they have challenges that the supply chain can help with, Tipaldo said. She referred to the plastics packaging makers as "solutions providers."

She said the pact has 17 public sector groups among its 89 participants and works to keep federal agencies like the EPA informed, even if they're not formal members.

But she told the forum they would like more participation from the plastics materials sector. Eastman Chemical Co. is a pact member, but she said the pact wants to broaden that to tap into the research and development strength of the plastics sector.

"To be totally honest with this audience, one of the sectors where we're a bit underrepresented is the material suppliers, the resin producers side of things," she said. "We've had conversations with others and would definitely welcome additional resin producers."