Plastics

• [New] Asahi's project will recycle the equivalent of 1bn 60 cl PET plastic bottles in raw plastic material every year, while increasing the amount of locally-sourced and recycled PET produced in Australia by two-thirds.
• [New] Multiple studies that have sought to quantify plastic waste project that the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean will continue to increase over the next several decades.
• [New] A regional action plan could strengthen the ASEAN legacy on marine plastic and provide a model for global action.
• [New] Encouraging consumers to switch from small to medium-capacity beverages could help reduce plastic waste by over nine thousand tonnes per year in the USA.
• [New] If the current plastic production and recycling trend continues, by 2050 roughly 12 billion metric tons of plastic waste will have accumulated as waste on our planet.
• [New] A global agreement to address the issue of marine plastic pollution could establish a common framework for data collection and assessment.
• Disposable plastic straws, cutlery and containers will soon be banned in Victoria in a state government crackdown on single-use plastics.
• Victoria will ban certain single-use plastics by 2023 in a bid to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
• One of the aims of the Circular Economy Action Plan - an EU roadmap for achieving climate neutrality by 2050 - is to make sustainable packaging and other plastic products mandatory and increase producer responsibility.
• $815 million will go to manufacture critical testing supplies on things like filter pipette tips, nitrocellulose used in antigen tests, and specialized injection molded plastics needed to house testing regents.
• HHS and the Department of Defense will make an $815 million investment to increase manufacturing of testing supplies and raw materials, including filter pipette tips and injected molded plastics needed to house testing reagents.
• HHS and DOD will spend $815 million to increase domestic manufacturing of testing supplies and raw materials, including filter pipette tips, nitrocellulose used in antigen point-of-care tests and specific injected molded plastics needed to house testing reagents.
• By 2025, across sub-Saharan Africa, Dow aims to recover at least 5,000 metric tons of plastic waste annually; have flexible packaging included in the recyclable waste stream - not just rigids and PET.
• California became the first state to set minimum recycled content requirements for certain plastic beverage containers last year, a move others are expected to follow, but supply remains an open question.
• By 2050, an estimated 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste will be sitting in landfills or polluting the natural environment.
• The total weight of plastics produced per year currently stands at more than 380 million tonnes and is set to top 900 million tonnes by 2050.
• Announcing approximately 84% of packaging materials by volume were renewable, recyclable or compostable: To combat the growing issue of waste from plastic packaging, Conagra made progress on its goal to make 100% of its current plastic packaging renewable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
• Will produce chemicals from recycled waste, known as circular chemicals, and by 2025 aim to annually process 1 million tonnes a year of plastic waste.
• Another example of consumer demand influencing the development of recycled products is Mars, Inc., which recently announced it will incorporate recycled polypropylene plastic into its packaging for some of its pet food brands in order to reduce virgin plastic use across its packaging portfolio.
• Waste streams like single-use plastics will need to be eliminated to restore the world's oceans.
• The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released a research paper that finds trade in plastics is immense, and offers an opportunity to reduce plastic pollution and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through more effective trade policy.
• Ahold Delhaize USA, too, will seek to reduce overall use of problematic single-use plastics by 2025, including making private-label products 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable and increasing recycled content by 25% by 2025.
• Investments in new processes, such as APK's solvent-based Newcycling, will be essential in enabling production of purer recyclate grades on an industrial scale and opening up new, high-quality product segments by 2025 and 2030.

Last updated: 07 March 2021