PART 2: THE CHALLENGE
Coot on a nest with plastic, River Lea, London. © Jack Perks / Greenpeace
To tackle the plastic problem, companies and governments must commit to bolder, more systemic action It is clear that a ‘business as usual’ scenario based on recycling, which has been the focus of most corporate commitments to date, simply cannot provide the core solution. Its vulnerability to oil price changes, lack of investment in infrastructure and the ever-increasing complexity of the types of single-use plastics companies have been putting onto shelves are some of the factors that sit behind one shocking fact: that only 9% of all of the plastic ever produced globally has actually been recycled. The rest has been burned or ended up in landfill or the oceans. We need a bolder approach from companies: one that focuses squarely on reduction and reuse and enables recycling systems to focus on tackling what is left over. That's why Greenpeace is calling on companies to set targets to reduce overall single-use plastic packaging by at least 50%, and for 25% of this target to be met by reusable packaging systems.
Industry is already acknowledging that we need a radical shift to reuse Amongst progressive businesses, governments and NGOs, there is a growing consensus about the need to move our economy from the current linear “take, make, dispose” model to a circular one that decouples economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, designs waste out of the system and regenerates natural systems. Through the Ellen Macarthur Foundation’s (EMF) New Plastics Economy Global Commitment10, more than 350 organisations have already signed up to building a circular economy for plastics. They explicitly acknowledge that we cannot simply recycle our way out of this issue, and that changing how products are packaged is a crucial part of the solution. The Global Commitment has also seen over 100 businesses sign up to take action to move from single-use to reusable packaging by 2025.
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