Tipaldo champions aggressive recycling goals for plastic packaging

From the spring 2022 issue of Plastics Recycling.

An ambitious plan to eliminate unnecessary packaging and drastically boost recycling has found its champion in a sustainability professional who has had stints with MORE Recycling and the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council.  

Driven by a passion for fighting climate change, Emily Tipaldo heads up the U.S. Plastics Pact, an initiative that is not yet 2 years old. Led by the Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund, its goal is to unify stakeholders throughout the plastics value chain to rethink the way plastic packaging is designed, used and reused.  

“The intent of the U.S. Pact is not to duplicate efforts, but to streamline them to ensure existing investments work better and deliver more,” Tipaldo says. 

Its “Roadmap to 2025” strategy includes four ambitious 2025 targets: eliminating unnecessary packaging; making all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable; recycling or composting 50 percent of packaging; and achieving an average of 30 percent recycled or bio-based content in packaging. 

Tipaldo invites everyone to take a seat at the table.  

How is the Pact different from prior initiatives? There are three main elements of the U.S. Pact that set it apart. One, upon joining the Pact, U.S. Pact Activators are committed to working toward the four targets on an aggressive timeline. This sets common ground for all. 

Two, U.S. Pact Activators must report progress toward each of the four targets on an annual basis. The reported data is published in aggregate to demonstrate the progress of the U.S. Pact as a whole. This establishes transparency and accountability unlike any other voluntary effort in the U.S. One hundred percent of Activators who were members during the reporting period provided data for the baseline report. 

Three, the U.S. Pact is providing national leadership on the creation of a circular economy for plastic packaging in the U.S. 

Why will it succeed? The problems have been identified, and the cards are on the table. There is no longer an opportunity to hide behind a lack of understanding of the baseline or needs. Between the U.S. Pact’s Baseline Report [coming out this month], the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment Progress Report and World Wildlife Fund’s ReSource Plastic Transparent Report, we know what we are up against and cannot dwell. Transparency will continue to drive the U.S. Pact and Activator actions. Our Activators are putting their energy into solutions to help ensure a more circular future, and that is why we will succeed.  

Virgin resin production is continually growing. Will the initiative reduce virgin resin production? Reduction of material sits at the top of the waste hierarchy, and the goals of the U.S. Pact are no different. We are asking Activators to examine their packaging from an upstream perspective. It’s necessary to ask, are all elements of the packaging required? Is there another way the product could be delivered to the market, for example, as part of a reuse program? The U.S. Pact is also challenging Activators to eliminate what is defined as “problematic and unnecessary” plastic packaging materials. 

Additionally, others are setting a precedent of establishing virgin plastic reduction goals — for example, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and a couple of other plastics pacts, as well as commitments from individual companies. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s 2021 Progress Report, virgin plastic use appears to have peaked for [its] Global Commitment brands and retailers and is set to fall faster by 2025.  

Activators of the U.S. Pact are committed to use an average of 30 percent recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging by 2025. The U.S. Pact will also develop a plan to reduce virgin plastic packaging in 2023.  

Do pyrolysis and chemical recycling methods have a role to play? Chemical recycling plays a role in creating a circular economy for packaging, particularly for hard-to-recycle plastic. Large-scale chemical recycling will be needed to meet the postconsumer recycled content requirements for food and cosmetic packaging. While the U.S. Pact is supportive of chemical recycling, as long as the output is a product other than a fuel or oil to be used for combustion, we are cognizant that commercial-scale chemical recycling operations are on a longer timeline. For this reason, the U.S. Pact is focusing efforts on more-immediate solutions, such as ensuring all plastic packaging is designed correctly for reuse, recycling or composting, and maximizing the current recycling technologies.  

What will this initiative look like to the average American? The direct work of the U.S. Plastics Pact will largely go unnoticed by the average American, and we’re OK flying under the radar. Through U.S. Pact leadership upstream and back-of-house changes on the company and organization side, as well as support for partnering organizations, the U.S. Pact’s progress will be evident through more reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging, and, as a result, better-coordinated communication of packaging recyclability and compostability and greater use of recycled content. Yes, Americans also require greater ease and availability for both recycling and composting. The U.S. Pact will help advance these efforts.  

Will an increase in biobased and compostable materials adversely affect recycling streams of traditional plastics? Today, biobased plastics represent approximately 1 percent of the market. It’s also important to remember that biobased plastics can be identical, drop-in replacements for their petrochemical counterparts (for example, biobased PE or PET), or they can be novel polymers that may also be compostable or biodegradable. This continues to be a point of confusion for many. 

You can see in the U.S. Pact’s Roadmap that we prioritize reduction, reuse and recycling due to resource and time constraints — the 2025 timeline is tight! Creating wide-scale composting operations in the U.S. that are accepting of plastic packaging will need to extend beyond 2025. We also prioritize the use of postconsumer recycled content. Where that may not be possible, the use of responsibly sourced biobased material is an option. Bio-based content has an important role to play in the circularity of plastics by ensuring that the plastics industry can move towards 100 percent renewable sourcing. The U.S. Pact team is working on developing clear guidance on best practices, and case studies to guide when to use biobased content and/or postconsumer recycled content. 

Some countries have better recycling track records. What can we learn from them? While there are countries with better track records in recycling their plastic packaging, it’s important to dig into the reasons why and remember that at the heart of it, we’re facing many similar challenges globally. We currently lack value for a circular economy for plastics worldwide; this is especially true in the U.S. Economically, we don’t have the right drivers to make all the required investments and changes for a circular economy for plastics. Global subsidies for oil and gas extraction make virgin plastic extremely cost-effective, and landfilling is relatively cheap. The costs of the collection and reprocessing required to transform waste plastic into quality feedstock are often not economical. 

Policy has a role to play, which we’ve learned from other countries. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) can assist with the funding required to collect and sort recyclables. Deposit Return Systems (DRS) also incentivize recycling, enable the collection of quality material and generate postconsumer recycled content supply. The U.S. Pact supports both policies. The U.S. Pact needs EPR, DRS and postconsumer recycled content mandates to realize our four targets. 

Agreed-upon terminology is another need in the U.S. where the U.S. Pact is acting. Streamlined terminology and definitions help us to measure and manage progress in a way that is compatible with our global counterparts.   

Another major challenge in the U.S. is the lack of infrastructure for curbside recycling and composting. The Recycling Partnership’s “Paying it Forward” shows that public and private investment will significantly improve U.S. residential recycling and catalyze a circular economy. Seventeen billion dollars of investment in proven recycling solutions is needed over the next five years. The “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” is a step in the right direction. To make recycling equitable, more funding is needed. 

In addition to recycling and composting, affordable reuse schemes need to be made available at scale. We cannot rely on recycling alone to solve the issues with plastic waste. 

Is there a goal for how many organizations you want to be involved? Even though we have more than 100 Activators, there is always room at the table. Individual company or organizational actions and piecemeal activities alone will not get us any closer to a circular economy for plastics. The strength of the U.S. Pact and our ability to deliver on our targets comes from working together from a common set of targets, definitions, and Roadmap. 

In 2022, we are focused on adding representation from a few select sectors and shifting into implementation mode. Most of the time new members join because they have heard about the U.S. Pact at a conference, during a webinar or while reading a news article. There is likely someone reading this article right now who is doing innovative work with plastic packaging. How is your company or organization taking steps to create a circular economy for plastics? We’d love to hear, and I encourage anyone who wants to close the loop on plastics to reach out to U.S. Pact staff at [email protected] so we can continue the conversation.