Flexible packaging

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Plastics

This work has identified 21 specific and urgent actions for flexible packaging that need to be commenced immediately by businesses and policymakers in order to make significant progress towards 2025 targets and beyond.

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Move away: Direct elimination

Scope and action direct elimination opportunities

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Exhaustively identify and action opportunities for direct elimination (on average estimated at ∼5-10% of flexibles portfolios), taking inspiration from existing case examples

Question need for flexible packaging in any new products

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Embed a critical assessment of the need for flexible packaging in all new product development processes (∼5-10% of those considered are likely to be unnecessary)

Prioritise sector-specific opportunities for direct elimination

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Align on priority items to eliminate within sectors (e.g. personal care, clothing, fruit and vegetables) to drive up the ambition level across the entire industry.

Move away: Innovative elimination and reuse

Set ambitious innovation agenda

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Introduce a high-priority and well-resourced R&D agenda to make upstream innovation the major component of every flexibles strategy — acknowledging that existing efforts are well below where they can and need to be

Set up collaborative initiatives

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Set-up sector specific collaborative initiatives with specific objectives (such as facilitating roll out of an existing innovation or answering a key questions for a more nascent solution)

Support innovation through policy

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Create a supportive policy landscape for innovation (e.g. introduce subsidies, bans, epr)

Substitution: Compostable flexibles

Use compostable packaging where it supports food waste collection or reduces compost contamination

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For applications supporting the collection of food waste or addressing existing contamination in composting systems: implement compostable materials

Identify how to avoid contaminating composting and recycling systems

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Before pursuing compostables as a broader strategy for flexibles: demonstrate the mechanisms that would need to be in place to prevent contamination of both the composting and recycling systems

Create standards for composting systems

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Define and implement best practices for composting of food waste and align compostable packaging standards with this

Invest in collection and composting infrastructure for food and organics

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Roll out collection and composting infrastructure for food and organics

Substitution: Paper-based flexibles

Establish reduction, virgin reduction and regenerative sourcing strategy for paper

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For your organisation’s entire paper-based packaging portfolio, put in place a robust reduction, virgin reduction and regenerative sourcing strategy

Design for both recycling and composting

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Improve paper packaging design so that all paper-based packaging fits into both recycling and composting systems

Use compostable packaging where it supports food waste collection or reduces compost contamination

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For applications supporting the collection of food waste or addressing existing contamination in composting systems: implement compostable materials

Recycling: Formal sector

Improve design for recycling

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Radically improve packaging design, in particular, shift to monomaterials for the >40% of flexibles that are currently multi-material

Set specific targets for flexibles

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Set separate recycling targets for flexibles (e.g. in europe the 2030 targets need to be revisited)

Increase EPR fees for flexibles

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Increase EPR fees for flexibles (e.g. in europe, fees of ~eur 1,100 are a good estimate of what may be required)

Expand collection of flexibles

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Expand collection of flexibles for recycling (e.g. in europe >40% of the population do not have access to separate collection for flexibles)

Invest in infrastructure

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Invest in infrastructure (e.g. >eur 2 billion in the case of europe)

Recycling: Informal sector

Improve design for recycling

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Radically improve packaging design, in particular, shift to monomaterials for the >40% of flexibles that are currently multi-material

Be inclusive

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Establish an inclusive process, gathering data on existing structures and processes and identifying informal sector organisations to work with

Invest in recycling infrastructure, tech and tools

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Finance improvements in infrastructure, tech and tools through large infrastructure investments and microfinancing for the informal sector

Drive waste management of ALL materials

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Roll out holistic waste management legislation, including inclusive epr legislation

View the strategy summary, executive summary, and deep dives

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Flexible packaging: Strategy summary

  • Plastics

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