The global production of plastics was about 388 million tonnes (Mt) in 2015. In addition, the majority of plastics are used for packaging (30%).
In that regard, in order to limit the use of virgin plastics, many attempts have been made by the 63 top companies in the FMCG industry to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals' 2030 agenda. After decades of growth, virgin plastic use appears to have peaked for Global Commitment brands and retailers and is set to fall faster by 2025. With all these companies now setting absolute reduction targets, this trend is set to accelerate - and it has been estimated that there would be a reduction of 17% in the use of virgin plastics by 2025.
But which are the main strategies that these companies are implementing?
In the Global Commitment 2021 agreement with the UN and retail signatories, brands have proposed the following initiatives:
- Progress on virgin plastic reduction has largely been driven by the growing use of recycled content in packaging; the recycled content is indeed growing, between 23% to 29% annually.
- Rethinking or redesigning packages, so that the amount of plastic decrease through the substitution of materials or lightweighting.
- Approximately 24% of them committed to change the business model in such a way that single-use plastics would be erased from their companies by using reused materials.
- Use of compostable packaging.
All these options are ambitious and cannot be applied to all the industries or products, given that the quality of the product needs to be ensured. The use of compostable materials or the addition of recycled content in the package may have a negative impact on the barrier properties of the package and would increase the raw materials' costs. That risk could not be assumed by the companies as the demand could fall and their generated waste would increase.
For instance, the food industry is a perfect example of the impact that these strategies could have on its products: nowadays, it is estimated that one third of food goes directly into the waste stream and one of the driving reasons is the wrong selection of packaging materials. If the barrier properties of materials against water vapor, oxygen, chemicals, etc., cannot be assured, then the food would be damaged throughout the supply chain and would be wasted causing a big economic loss and even bigger environmental impact that the packaging itself.
The alternative is switching to other materials or designs by lightweighting the package. However, by doing so, a multilayer scheme would be used. We can see this example in pharma (blisters or sachets), consumer health products, or food packaging. A thin film is introduced, but in most, if not all of the cases, they are made up of 3 to 7 different materials (3 different plastics, aluminium, lacquer, paper, etc.). This has the benefit of reducing transportation costs and they are easier to handle. However, these materials would never be able to be recycled; these kinds of materials are one of reasons why, that from the materials that we recycle, only 9% ends up being recycled at the end.
In the following diagram, the main strategies are summarized:
In any case, choosing the right strategy varies between sectors and it´s completely product dependant. That´s why any given implemented solution must be different to another. It is a complicated analysis and choice in which all the key factors need to be taken into account in order to ensure:
1. Maintenance or reduction of costs
2. An increase in the efficiency of energy used and minimisation of waste by-products throughout the supply chain
3. Erasing or decreasing waste - waste management
4. Market acceptance
5. Life cycle analysis with the key environmental and lean manufacturing indicators
