Sixty stakeholders in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands form ANZPAC, join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact initiative; 11th plastic pact overall, second regional pact and first in Oceania; 2025 goals include: 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable, 25% increase in plastic packaging collected and recycled by each country in the region
May 20, 2021
Reports investigate packaging and plastics in Africa
Two recent reports published by the African Circular Economy Alliance related to food packaging; “Five Big Bets to Africa’s path to Circularity” looks at opportunities to support African economy and environment, reviews current plastics and packaging infrastructure; “Building the African Circular Economy: Focus on Plastics” is a detailed research report of the plastics economy across Africa
May 20, 2021
Index identifies largest single-use plastic producers
Minderoo Foundation publishes “Plastic Waste Makers Index”; identifies 20 firms that produce polymers responsible for 55% of world’s plastic waste; calculates and illustrates global plastic flows from production through to end of life; provides recommendations for polymer producers, investors and banks, policymakers, and other companies along supply chain to enable shift towards circular economy
May 19, 2021
Recommendations for a circular chemical economy
Paper in Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering analyzes sources of chemical losses throughout the chemical life cycle, suggests approaches to improve chemical circularity; losses include fugitive emissions in manufacturing, dissipation in field use, impurities and regulatory incompatibility interfering with recycling; propose two changes to chemical assessments to guide sustainable production and use
May 7, 2021
Free tool helps companies design circular packaging strategy
The Recycling Partnership and SYSTEMIQ launch Plastic IQ, a free tool to help US companies make their plastic packaging strategy more sustainable; tool assesses current packaging impacts from consumption through end-of-life, builds customizable action plans, and compares “circularity of packaging strategy against industry best practices”
May 3, 2021
3RI publishes guidelines for corporate plastic stewardship
Reduce, Recover, Recycle (3R) Initiative and partners’ Guidelines for Corporate Plastic Stewardship aims to guide companies’ transition toward circular plastics supply chain; outlines pathways to three commitments of increasing ambition: net zero plastic leakage, 100% recycled at end-of-life, and net circular plastic; includes example case study
April 26, 2021
EC study guides creation of sustainable-by-design criteria
European Commission (EC) releases study mapping current sustainability initiatives and research applicable to creating sustainable-by-design criteria; particular focus on materials and chemicals, including a section assessing nanomaterials; finds few policies related to the production phase of a material’s life cycle; next steps are to identify specific aspects of sustainability to be covered in the criteria and how to evaluate them
April 22, 2021
Studies investigate circular economy barriers, consumer perceptions
Recent set of articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals review current barriers in flexible plastics to achieving circular economy, recommends regulatory policies be tailored to individual steps in supply chain; consumers easily confused by plastic waste management system, recycling processes, biodegradability claims; researchers instead propose food system shift towards decentralization, shorter supply chains
April 12, 2021
Green Alliance: Europe must halve resource consumption by 2050
UK think tank’s report shows culprits of current approach to resource management, suggests solutions, advocates for target to half resource consumption by 2050; provides roadmaps for specific sectors and strategically important materials; recommends identifying and setting interim goals to encourage investments in sustainable business models and infrastructure
March 26, 2021
Safe and Sustainable by Design: 1st EU stakeholder workshop
European Commission holds workshop with stakeholders to discuss criteria for chemicals that are Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD); implementation of EU’s Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) will depend on clear and implementable criteria for SSbD, amongst other central pillars such as essential use and generic risk assessment
