The U.S. Plastics Pact has officially announced the release of its strategic plan, which will help empower companies to change how they design, use, and reuse plastics in their packaging. Named as Roadmap 2.0, this strategic plan establishes a focus on practical steps to create a circular economy where plastic packaging is reused, recycled, composted, and kept within the economy instead of becoming waste. In case you weren’t aware, the new action plan actually follows up on the success of and lessons learned from the initial Roadmap to 2025. You see, since the launch of this original Roadmap to 2025, we have already seen, for starters, a major reduction in problematic materials. The stated feat was achieved, by and large, by the creation of a dedicated Problematic & Unnecessary Materials List, which made a point to educate us on harmful materials, and therefore, succeed in taking their footprint from 14% to an estimated 8%. Next up, we saw increased amounts of reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging that went straight away from 37% to 47.7%. Building upon that is a serious scale up in the context of recycled content. This translates to how post-consumer recycled or responsibly sourced biobased content in packaging has gone from 7% to 9.4%. Delivering comprehensive resources in the form of a PCR Procurement Toolkit, PCR Certification Principles, and the Design for Circularity Playbooks, the whole initiative has also seen substantial community growth, with its activators more than doubling from 62 to 130.
Having referred to its original version, we now must turn our focus Roadmap 2.0’s take on improving upon the same. Conceived to carry forward the unfinished targets from the original plan and introduce new objectives based on the experiences of U.S. Plastic Pact Activators, the new plan will go about its business by preaching reuse of innovations. With an intention to encourage wider use of products like, for instance, returnable cup systems at events, the idea behind this goal is to reduce single-use plastics. To support that bid, the plan will also facilitate the production of a packaging type which is reusable, recyclable, or compostable. Furthermore, Roadmap 2.0 will extend the original plan’s vision by eliminating all items on the expanded Problematic & Unnecessary Materials List by the year 2030, while simultaneously reducing virgin plastic by almost 30%. Another goal we have in the mix is rooted in recycling where the overarching goal is to recycle 50% of plastic packaging. In comparison, plastic packaging will achieve an average of 30% post-consumer recycled or responsibly sourced biobased content. Rounding up highlights would be Roadmap 2.0’s pledge to address the social impacts and disparities attached with plastic production and use.
“The current reliance on virgin plastics is unsustainable. Roadmap 2.0 aims to make a tangible difference by changing how we design, use, and reuse plastics. The focus is on practical, achievable steps companies can take to contribute to a circular economy. “Roadmap 2.0 is not just a continuation; it’s an evolution. Our initial targets were intentionally ambitious to spark rapid change. With Roadmap 2.0, we’re taking what we have learned and succeeded to the next level, focusing on innovative solutions and addressing broader impacts. We are committed to working collaboratively with our Activators and stakeholders to make these targets a reality,” said Emily Tipaldo, Executive Director of the U.S. Plastics Pact.
