For 2021, As You Sow’s work on plastic pollution shifts focus from pressing companies to make plastic packaging more recyclable to using less plastic. Scores of companies have pledged to make their packaging recyclable by 2025; it is time to turn up the temperature and press for more impactful actions like commitments to stop using so much plastic.

A recent authoritative report from the Pew Charitable Trusts rang alarm bells about how much more work needs to be done to address plastic pollution. Developed in partnership with a panel of 17 global experts, the report, Breaking the Plastic Wave, estimates that current commitments by industry and government on cutting plastic pollution are far from adequate.  If fully implemented, they would reduce the amount of plastic ending up in oceans by only 7 percent!  

Using a new, first-of-its kind economic model that quantifies the flow and amount of plastic in the global system, the Pew study finds that without immediate and sustained new commitments in eight areas of the plastics value chain, annual flows of plastic into oceans could nearly triple by 2040. Improved recycling, the focus of much of our previous effort, will not be sufficient to stem the plastic tide and must be coupled with upstream activities like reduction in demand, along with materials redesign and substitution. 

“Brand owners, fast-moving consumer goods companies, and retailers should lead the transition by committing to reduce at least one-third of plastic demand through elimination, reuse, and new delivery models,” the report says, adding that reducing plastic production is the most attractive solution from environmental, economic, and social perspectives.  

This year, our efforts will focus on educating corporate management and shareholders about these urgent new findings and engaging management to immediately begin the process of transitioning to less use of plastic for packaging. As You Sow has filed 10 proposals with major consumer goods companies asking them to evaluate opportunities for dramatic reductions in plastics used for packaging. The shareholder proposals are at Amazon.com, Keurig Dr Pepper, KraftHeinz, Kroger, McDonald’s, Mondelēz International, PepsiCo, Target, and Walmart—and the Canadian company Restaurant Brands International.

We want to see companies follow the lead of Unilever, which has pledged to eliminate use of 100,000 tons of plastic packaging (a 14 percent reduction) and cut in half its use of virgin plastic by ramping up use of recycled plastic. These actions force companies to innovate by exploring new methods of product delivery that don’t involve plastic – or sometimes any packaging at all. Unilever, for example, has developed shampoo than comes in the form of a bar, like soap, rather than in a bottle, and toothpaste in tablet form rather than in a tube.

The Pew study findings align with the conclusions of As You Sow’s Waste & Opportunity 2020 report, released in June 2020, which said companies have been far too slow to adopt responsive actions like promoting alternative delivery systems for packaging, developing reuse/refill options reusability, and reducing future use of plastic. 

Conrad MacKerron
Senior Vice President, As You Sow