The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) has joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative rooted in four ambitious goals intended to drive significant systems change by unifying diverse cross-sector approaches, setting a national strategy, and creating scalable solutions to create a path forward toward a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025.
The first North American Pact of its kind, the U.S. Pact is a collaboration led by The Recycling Partnership, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
The APR has recognized that significant, systemwide change is imperative to realize a circular economy for plastics. The U.S. Pact will convene more than 60 brands, retailers, NGOs, and government agencies across the plastics value chain to bring one voice to U.S. packaging through coordinated initiatives and innovative solutions for rethinking products, packaging, and business models.
APR President and CEO Steve Alexander, who sits on the pact's advisory council, called it the "single most important effort to address the growth and sustainability of plastics recycling in the past 20 years."
"This effort will ensure that brand companies will be publicly held to achieve the sustainability commitments they have made," he said. "There has never been another program like this."
As a founding Activator and Advisory Council member of the U.S. Plastics Pact, the APR has agreed to provide its industry perspective and technical expertise to support the U.S. Pact in achieving these four ambitious goals:
1. Define a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025.
2. By 2025, all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
3. By 2025, undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging.
4. By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.
"Together through the U.S. Plastics Pact, we will ignite system change to accelerate progress toward a circular economy," says Sarah Dearman, Vice President of Circular Ventures for The Recycling Partnership. "The U.S. Pact will accelerate systemwide change by inspiring and supporting upstream innovation through a coordinated national strategy, creating a unified framework and enabling members to accelerate progress toward our ambitious 2025 sustainability goals. Members' full participation will be vital to reaching our shared goals."
