Closed Loop Partners and the Consumer Brands Association are among the founding members of the Recycling Leadership Council (RLC), which aims to ‘modernize’ the American recycling system and tackle plastic waste.
The coalition sets out to support modern manufacturing solutions, strengthen resource efficiency, and back policies that improve recycling rates.
While it acknowledges that plastic packaging is an affordable, lightweight solution used to protect food, medical, and electronic products, it also warns that ‘outdated’ recycling frameworks in the United States cannot keep up with the current volume of plastic waste.
According to the RLC, existing policies fail to account for emerging technologies or low consumer confidence in current recycling labels and claims.
This year, the coalition plans to take ‘urgent’ and ‘coordinated’ action, working alongside Congress to drive manufacturing and recycling innovation in America.
“To reduce plastic waste, we must modernize our recycling system,” explained John Hewitt, senior vice president at the Consumer Brands Association. “The formation of the Recycling Leadership Council is a pivotal step toward transforming how America manages plastic waste.
“Leaders across technology, automotive, consumer goods, toys, and other industries are working together to meaningfully address policies and practices that prohibit plastic recycling at scale.
“The RLC is united in support of policy frameworks that will unlock the investment and manufacturing innovation needed to modernize America’s ageing recycling infrastructure to adequately handle the amount and types of plastic materials discarded today.
“The RLC has the strength of America’s leading industries behind it, sending a powerful signal to policymakers and consumers that the urgency to act is here.”
Members of the RLC include Closed Loop Partners, the Consumer Brands Association, the Ag Container Recycling Council, the National Lubricant Container Recycling Coalition, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the Meat Institute, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, and the Vinyl Institute.
In similar news, the U.S. Flexible Film Initiative was formed last summer. It aims to build a ‘scalable, responsible and circular’ system for recovering and recycling flexible plastics, with founding corporate members including Nestlé, PepsiCo, Mars, and Mondelēz International.
Meanwhile in Europe, Searious Business, Maastricht University, and TOMRA were among the signatories of a campaign seeking to resolve the ‘broken economics’ of the EU’s plastics recycling industry, including high recyclate costs and recycling plant closures.
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