Styrenics giant Ineos Styrolution (Frankfurt / Germany; www.ineos-styrolution.com) says it has joined the collaborative US Plastics Pact led by the Recycling Partnership (Washinton, D.C.; www.recyclingpartnership.org) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF, Washington D.C. / USA; www.worldwildlife.org), in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF, Cowes / UK; www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org).

EMF’s global Plastics Pact is a network of initiatives that brings together key stakeholders at national or regional levels to implement solutions towards a circular economy. The US Plastics Pact – launched about a year ago (see Plasteurope.com of 31.08.2020) – is assembling various brands, retailers, NGOs, and government agencies across the value chain to employ initiatives and solutions for rethinking products, packaging and business models.

As part of the pact, members like Ineos Styrolution recognise that significant change is essential to realising a circular economy for plastics, the German company said. Other members include brand owners such as Coca Cola USA, Mondelez USA, Nestle, Aldi, Danone, L’Oreal, Henkel, Unilever and Walmart.

Ricardo Cuetos, vice-president of standard products for Ineos Styrolution America, said, “We must be solution-focused. It is paramount that we see innovative advancements in sustainability and a circular economy of plastics brought into a global reality.”

In March 2020, the European Plastics Pact was launched in Brussels / Belgium and faced criticism from European plastics converters association EuPC (Brussels; www.plasticsconverters.eu – see Plasteurope.com of 09.03.2020).

The US Plastics Pact recently unveiled a national strategy to ensure all plastics packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Titled Roadmap to 2025, the strategy is said to be supported by 100 corporations, start-ups, research entities, NGOs, universities, and state and local governments across the plastics packaging value chain. All signatories are committed to report on goal-related performances within specific timeframes. The roadmap includes the following goals:

• Defining a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021, and taking measures to eliminate them by 2025.
• 100% of plastics packaging is to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.
• By 2025, undertaking ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastics packaging.
• By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastics packaging is to be 30%.