Global pact likely to miss targets to reduce plastic pollution by 2025

The substitution of virgin plastic packaging for those with recycled or reusable material is not expected to happen until 2025. In addition, almost half of global companies (42%) have not yet adopted measures to this end. This is what a report produced by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) shows.

Another alarm is the growth in the use of virgin plastic, which fell between 2018 and 2020, but frustrated expectations by returning last year to the level of 2018.

The Global Commitment for a New Plastics Economy was signed that year with 500 institutions, governments and non-governmental organizations and large companies, which account for half of the signatories and represent a fifth of the plastic manufactured in the world.

The joint objective is to combat plastic pollution by recycling and maintaining the material already manufactured in production and consumption chains, a proposal that comes from the circular economy. One of the ways to keep this plastic in circulation is the goal of having 100% of packaging on the market made of recyclable or reusable materials by 2025.

The share of materials of this type was 63.2% in 2019, but the small increments in its share, which reached 65.4% in 2021, should not be enough to meet the objective three years from now.

Although the main goal of the commitment is becoming unfeasible by 2025, the amount of recycled resin used has increased from 4.8% to 10% among the signatories, which is an advance in the view of Thais Vojvodic, manager of the New Plastics Economy initiative. at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

In an interview with Sheet, the specialist states that there are two main obstacles to the proposed objectives. One of them is the technical difficulty of recycling flexible plastics, precisely those used in packaging, such as sauce sachets and chocolate packaging.

The other is the deficient infrastructure for the collection and scale processing of packages. “It’s no use being technically recyclable. Our definition of recyclability is that there is evidence that there is infrastructure for recycling at scale”, says Thais.

“About 16% of packaging that companies put on the market is flexible. There is not enough progress so that by 2025 there is a concrete plan for them to be recyclable.”

The presence of virgin plastic in packaging, measured in MMT (millions of metric tons), is also alarming. Although there was a small drop through 2020, packaging with the material returned to 11.9 MMT last year, the same as in 2018.

To reach the target of 9.5 MMT in 2025, a 5.4% reduction would be needed from this year onwards, which should not happen.

“There is a great tendency to use recycled plastic, which tends to reduce the amount of new plastic that needs to be produced. But this growth is not being enough”, says Thais.

She explains that there is a tendency among the signatories of the commitment to use recycled plastic, but that this does not exceed the volume produced by large companies.

This share of recycled plastic has increased since 2018, but needs to grow at a rate of 27% per year to reach the 2025 target of 26% recycled for all plastic packaging used.

For the manager, the market and governments need to make bolder decisions that transform production, distribution and consumption chains and models. The resumption of the use of plastics is confused with the resumption of activities after the most severe restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic, as in the restaurant sector.

But she also attributes the increase to current business models. “We need to decouple business growth and single plastics growth. We need more ambitious action on how companies deliver their products.”

Some beverage companies, such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which are signatories to the commitment, have announced public commitments to reusable packaging. The practice, according to the report, can generate a trend among other companies.

In addition, joint actions could make recycling gain scale, such as common structures among companies for washing packaging, which is still a pilot.

Thais also highlights the role of governments, which add up to 50 of the signatories, which could update their legislation to promote policies with the concepts of circular economy and with laws and tax incentive programs.

Today there are only projects, and, for the specialist, “voluntary commitments are not enough”. Brazil still needs to invest in collection infrastructure — today with a large participation of collectors — and processing, which would actually allow for an increase in recycling.

The country should join others to define the direction of recycling in November, when the Global Plastics Treaty, scheduled for 2024, begins to be negotiated in Uruguay.