Companies with a shared revenue of more than 1 trillion euros have agreed to adopt new rules on plastic packaging by 2025. As well as reducing plastic use and phasing out ‘problem’ materials, colours and labels, members of the Consumer Goods Forum will work to improve waste management systems worldwide.
Unilever, Walmart, PepsiCo and Nestlé are among the 36 member companies of the Consumer Goods Forum committing to a future where no waste plastic ends up in nature. “Our industry generates a substantial share of the world’s plastic waste”, said Galen Weston, Executive Chairman, Loblaw Companies. “As the companies that design, package, and sell the products, we must be a substantial part of the solution.”
Coalition members have finalised the first two in a series of “Golden Design Rules” for better plastic packaging, which involve increasing the value of PET bottle recycling, and avoiding the use of carbon black, PVC and expanded polystyrene. The rules will change the manufacturing of products such as toiletries, household cleaning supplies, food wrappers and take-away containers.
However, the members recognise that the industry can’t create a circular economy on its own, and support the development of extended producer responsibility (EPR) programmes as an area where governments can encourage improved waste management.
SYSTEMIQ supports the Consumer Goods Forum’s approach. “We are stepping into a new age in which industry will take full responsibility for its products through the entire life cycle”, explains Martin R Stuchtey, circular economy expert and SYSTEMIQ’s co-founder. “Many leaders of the consumer goods industry are fully supportive of this development and ready to take full accountability. Extended Producer Responsibility is the mechanism of choice. It ensures that all post-use costs of a product are paid and good product design is rewarded – fairly, transparently and collectively. To work in ways optimal for consumer and industry, this requires strong government leadership and industry support. This is what the CGF is offering.”
