Multinational corporations are failing to reduce their use of plastics fast enough, according to a report released today, despite having pledged to use only reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025
framed progress around virgin plastics in optimistic terms. “After decades of growth, virgin plastic use appears to have peaked for Global Commitment brands and retailers, and is set to fall faster by 2025,” read the 2021 update.
This year’s report cites an economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic as a small part of the reason for the increased plastic use. More important, perhaps, is the fact that there has been “alarmingly little” progress by companies toward designing systems that eliminate the need for single-use packaging at all. “Without curbing the growth in overall plastic packaging use, it is unlikely that virgin plastic consumption will be significantly reduced,” the report said.
Negotiators are meeting in Uruguay this month to debate a treaty to limit global plastic use. “[The] report pours cold water on the celebrated commitments made by big corporations who signed on to this high-profile project to eliminate plastic pollution,” Graham Forbes, head of Greenpeace’s global plastics project said in a statement.
Not all the signatories of the pact, however, are equally to blame. Unilever, for instance, managed to cut its substantial virgin plastic consumption by 15%—or, more than 100,000 metric tons of plastic—between 2018 and 2021. Coca-Cola, meanwhile, increased its use of virgin plastic by almost 100,000 metric tons between 2019 and 2021. The company is a sponsor of the upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt, which starts on Sunday.
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