The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has launched a new action plan setting out its agenda to tackle plastic waste and promote a circular economy between now and the end of the decade.
The 2030 Plastics Agenda for Business calls on businesses to ‘work together, not just on their own, to drive market transformation’, and sets out three levers for action: collective advocacy to share policy; collaborative action to share risks, costs and innovation; and aligned individual action to inspire policy and market change.
The announcement follows ten years of progress under the Foundation’s Global Commitment initiative, created alongside the UN Environment Programme in 2018.
To date, companies representing around one fifth of global plastic packaging have signed up to the initiative, reducing the use of virgin plastic by 14 million tonnes and tripling the level of recycled content used in their in packaging.
At the same time, however, around 80% of the market has yet to meet the same standards, promoting the Foundation to publish the 2030 agenda, which seeks to address systemic barriers to adoption.
‘Don’t wait’
“Many business leaders ask me what comes next,” commented Rob Opsomer, executive lead for plastics and finance at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “My answer is simple: don’t wait. The companies that act now can help shape effective policies and make circular solutions the new normal.
“By working together, they’ll cut transition costs and build resilience in a fast-changing world. They can make what once seemed impossible not only possible but ultimately inevitable.”
Global Commitment 2030
Companies such as Amcor, Borealis, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, L’Oréal, Nestlé, SC Johnson, PepsiCo, TOMRA, and Unilever have ‘reaffirmed their support’ to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment 2030, one of the three pillars of the new agenda.
“Ending plastic pollution and keeping plastic in circulation requires innovation, infrastructure and enabling policy, combined with focused, collective action and advocacy right across the plastics value chain as identified in this 2030 Plastics Agenda,” added Pablo Costa, global head of packaging, digital and transformation at Unilever. Read more here and here.
