The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is urging more companies to back global efforts against plastic waste with a new action plan setting the direction for the next five years.
The 2030 Plastics Agenda for Business report calls on businesses to work together to drive market transformation.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation says the report defines what’s needed to deliver a circular economy for plastics at scale. It sets out three levers:
- Collective advocacy by businesses to help shape policy;
- Collaborative action to share risks, costs, and innovation to tackle barriers;
- Aligned individual action to push boundaries within businesses to stimulate policy and market change.
The report highlights the progress made by signatories of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment initiative, which represents a fifth of the world’s plastic packaging market.
Businesses representing 20% of the global plastic packaging market have now reaffirmed their support for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment 2030, one of three pillars of the agenda.
These include Amcor, Borealis, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, L’Oréal, Nestlé, SC Johnson, PepsiCo, TOMRA, and Unilever.
Collectively, signatories have avoided 14 million tonnes of virgin plastics. They have also tripled their use of recycled content and eliminated billions of problematic packaging items.
Launched in 2018 by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and UN Environment Programme, the Global Commitment has become the world’s largest voluntary effort to tackle waste and pollution.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has also highlighted continuing challenges, including systemic barriers, such as scaling reuse models, tackling flexible packaging waste, and building effective collection and recycling infrastructure.
The 2030 Agenda calls for mainstreaming proven solutions, addressing systemic barriers, and creating enabling government policy that aligns incentives with circular outcomes.
Rob Opsomer, Executive Lead for Plastics and Finance at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, commented: “Many business leaders ask me what comes next. 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.”
Commenting on the Foundation’s 2030 Agenda, Pablo Costa, Global Head of Packaging, Digital and Transformation at Unilever, said: “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.”