Henkel North America, a provider of high-impact solutions in adhesives, sealants, and functional coatings, has joined the U.S. Plastics Pact — a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative.
Henkel’s consumer products businesses are close to ensuring that 100% of the packaging used is recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025.
As part of the U.S. Pact, activators like Henkel recognize that significant, systemwide change is imperative to realize a circular economy for plastics. As such, the U.S. Pact will convene more than 70 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.
The intent is 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 U.S. by 2025.
“Henkel is committed to developing more intelligent packaging for the benefit of people and the planet. Our mission is to integrate materials from sustainable sources into intelligent designs to complete the circle,” said Jillaine Dellis, head of sustainability for Henkel North America’s Consumer Products business.
As a founding Activator of the U.S. Plastics Pact, Henkel has agreed to collectively deliver against these four ambitious goals:
- Define a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025.
- By 2025, all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
- By 2025, undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging.
- By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.
While the U.S. Pact is complementary with, and follows the ambitious precedents set by the existing global network of Plastic Pacts, it will be tailored to meet the unique needs and challenges of the U.S. market. The Pact will reflect national priorities and realities, while still propelling the nation closer to other developed nations in its management of plastic waste.
“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,” says Sarah Dearman, VP of Circular Ventures for The Recycling Partnership.
Achieving this vision will require new levels of accountability from all facets of the plastics supply chain.
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.
Filed Under: Fastener industry news
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