Crunch time for plastics
From food packaging to construction and healthcare, if your sector depends on single-use plastics, your eyes are likely on Busan, South Korea. The city is abuzz, finalizing a global treaty to slash plastic pollution. There’s a lot at stake, with two camps struggling to get their way:
Pro-action nations from 66 countries and the EU Are pushing for controls across the entire plastic lifecycle: design, production, consumption, and disposal.
Oil-Producing Nations: Insist the focus should be on improving waste management, not limiting production.
But we can’t recycle our way out of plastics pollution. Even if recycling rates climb from 9% to 17% by 2060 (Wall Street Journal), plastic waste levels will still grow exponentially. And the ecological toll? We’re only beginning to grasp its impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems.
Is there a middle ground?
Enter A Bridge to Busan, a coalition of major players countries, and advocacy groups and businesses like IKEA, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Walmart. They’re calling for sustainable production measures, including production freezes, reductions against baselines, or other constraints to curb unsustainable plastic use. It’s a start, but far from enough to address the plastics tsunami that lies ahead.
What does this mean for your company roadmap?
For many industries, rethinking plastics is pivotal to carbon transition plans and goes to the heart of their business models. Rising costs and a focus on total lifecycle accountability will reshape their business, particularly in packaging, construction, and consumer goods sectors.
Innovation at Scale
The global sustainable packaging market, valued at $276B in 2023, represents nearly a quarter of the $1.2T global packaging market. By 2032, this market is expected to hit $500B. (Statista, 2024) Again, it’s a start, but clearly not enough.
#IKEA #Walmart #WSJ #sustainableplastics #IntergovernmentalNegotiatingCommitteeonPlasticPollution