Global brands consortium NextWave Plastics has announced consumer technology company Logitech and ocean-bound plastic suppliers Prevented Ocean Plastic and #tide ocean material have joined the network.
NextWave Plastics is a consortium of multinational technology and consumer brands to collaborate and promote transparency to help decrease the volume of plastic litter by developing a global network of ocean-bound plastic supply chains.
A growing number of its member companies across a range of industries are collaborating to reach their shared goal of diverting a minimum of 25,000 metric tons of plastic, equivalent to 2.7 billion single-use plastic water bottles, from entering the ocean by the end of 2025.
Adrian Grenier, the co-founder of Lonely Whale, said: “The addition of Logitech and ocean-bound plastic suppliers Prevented Ocean Plastic and #tide ocean material adds to the strength, diversity of knowledge, experience, and potential of the NextWave consortium to create even greater impact and transformational change within and across industries.”
Logitech joins the ranks of NextWave member companies like HP and IKEA; in addition to its pledge to avoid single-use plastic packaging whenever possible, Logitech was the first consumer electronics company to make the commitment to provide detailed carbon impact labeling on product packaging across its portfolio, with its first carbon labeled products hitting shelves back in April 2021.
Prakash Arunkundrum, global head of operations and sustainability, Logitech, said: “At Logitech, we are committed to continuing to expand our efforts to eliminate single-use plastic and we are increasingly using post-consumer recycled plastic as our preferred material at scale as we design for sustainability across our portfolio.”
A global multi-participant project has been launched to address polypropylene (PP) in the plastics recycling stream.
Data suggests that PP accounts for around 20% of the world’s plastic, mostly used in pots, tubs, trays and films for food packaging.
It is also prevalent in non-food household and personal care products, which complicates recycling the 700,000 tonnes/ annum used in the UK alone.
PP packaging usually either goes to waste-to-energy, landfill or being down- cycled into low-performance applications.
Additionally, the absence of food-grade recycled PP (FGrPP) means that all PP food packaging is currently made from virgin plastics.
With the Plastic Packaging Tax due to come into effect next year, Nextek’s NEXTLOOPP project uses ‘commercially proven’ technologies to separate food-grade PP using marker technologies.
These include new decontamination stages to ensure compliance with food-grade standards in the EU and the USA.
Major organizations including brand-owners, suppliers, universities, and industry associations, through to end-users in the PP supply chain, have joined NEXTLOOPP to produce a ‘world-first quality FGrPP that will be available in the UK by 2022.
So far 29 organisations across the PP supply chain have joined NEXTLOOPP.
Edward Kosior, chief executive of Nextek, said creating a circular economy for food-grade PP packaging waste fills the gap in the packaging recycling sector and helps reach net-zero carbon targets.
“It will allow brand owners to meet their recycling targets and significantly reduce the use of virgin plastics from petrochemicals. It will also greatly reduce CO2 emissions and divert waste from landfill and waste-to-energy.”
WRAP has confirmed that The UK Plastics Pact is supporting the NEXTLOOPP project. Acting director insights and innovation, Claire Shrewsbury, said: “Achieving this will enable UK Plastics Pact members to reach the target of an average of 30% recycled content across all packaging by 2025. WRAP believes that NEXTLOOPP offers a potential solution to this and we will work closely with the other stakeholders to develop the project further.”
Viridor’s director of business development (polymers), Luke Burgess, said: “Viridor believes that extending its polymers expertise and recycling experience to cross-sector collaboration and innovation is key to ensuring more waste is valued as a resource and returns to the circular economy where it belongs. Reducing our reliance on virgin plastic not only empowers greater circularity, but the continued use of recycled material also offers significant energy savings, contributing to considerable wider environmental benefits for the UK.”
Lubna Edwards, group sustainability and marketing director at Robinson Packaging, added: “Demand for this high-value recycled material will continue to rise as we shift away from using virgin material. Much of our UK business depends upon PP and this ground-breaking project gives us the opportunity to tap into cutting-edge technology, learn from industry partners and trial the material for sustainable use in our packaging.”
Adam Elman, group sustainability director at Klockner Pentaplast, said: “Capturing the value of plastics by keeping them within the economy and out of our natural environment is key to meeting the Plastics Pact targets and very much part of our business strategy. Swapping the traditional ‘take-make-waste linear model for a circular system is also one of the many important steps towards significantly reducing our carbon emissions. We are proud to be working in collaboration with NEXTLOOPP on this important project.”
Global FMCG Giant Unilever Commits to 100% Recyclable Plastic by 2025 ensuring that all of its plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
The move is also designed to encourage other FMCG firms to accelerate progress towards the circular economy.
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), just 14% of the plastic packaging used globally makes its way to recycling plants, while 40% ends up in landfill and a third in fragile ecosystems. By 2050, it is estimated there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans. To help transform global plastic packaging material flows, Unilever has committed to:
Ensure all of its plastic packaging is designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
Renew its membership of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation for another three years and endorse and support their New Plastics Economy initiative.
Publish the full “palette” of plastics materials used in its packaging by 2020 to help create a plastics protocol for the industry.
Invest in proving, and then sharing with the industry, a technical solution to recycle multi-layered sachets, particularly for coastal areas which are most at risk of plastics leaking into the ocean.
Unilever has already committed to reduce the weight of the packaging it uses this decade by one third by 2020, and increase its use of recycled plastic content in its packaging to at least 25% by 2025 against a 2015 baseline, both as part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.
In 2015, it achieved its commitment of sending zero non-hazardous waste to landfill across its manufacturing operations.
Paul Polman, Unilever chief executive, said: “To address the challenge of ocean plastic waste we need to work on systemic solutions – ones which stop plastics entering our waterways in the first place. We hope these commitments will encourage others in the industry to make collective progress towards ensuring that all of our plastic packaging is fully recyclable and recycled.
“We also need to work in partnership with governments and other stakeholders to support the development and scaling up of collection and reprocessing infrastructure which is so critical in the transition towards a circular economy. Ultimately, we want all of the industry’s plastic packaging to be fully circular.”
Ellen MacArthur added: “By committing to ambitious circular economy goals for plastic packaging, Unilever is contributing to tangible system change and sends a strong signal to the entire fast-moving consumer goods industry. Combining upstream measures on design and materials with post-use strategies demonstrates the system-wide approach that is required to turn the New Plastics Economy into reality.”
McDonald’s restaurants are unveiling new carry-out bags, fountain beverage cups and sandwich boxes this month.
McDonald’s the fast-food giant said the new look is simple, fresh and consistent with the company’s vision to be a modern and progressive burger company.
Added to this is the more visible branding on the packs, with bigger type faces taking up more space on the bags and cups.
The new packaging will initially roll out in the US this month before expanding worldwide to over 36,000 restaurants throughout 2016.
The company has also committed to sourcing 100% of all fiber-based packaging from recycled or certified sources by 2020.
“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and initiatives like this are important to our customers who care about the planet,” said Matt Biespiel, senior director of global marketing.
As part of the new packaging launch, two students from Miami International University of Art and Design were selected to create a couture collection using the new packaging.
A student duo created an assortment of ‘must-have accessories’ for McDonald’s, including the hat pictured below, by using 50 bags, 72 straws, 22 cups, eight sandwich boxes along with some ‘bling’, including rhinestones and pearls.
“McDonald’s is a fun and modern brand and this was a progressive way to turn our packaging into art and support a community where fashion is an expression,” said Biespiel. “Every day 69 million customers visit McDonald’s around the world and this new packaging will be a noticeable change. It was fun to join these ideas together and create playful pieces that connect our customers to the Brand.”
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