Dive Temporary:
- The Canada Plastics Pact confirmed some progress towards its 2025 objectives, together with decreasing the usage of plastic packaging thought-about “pointless or problematic” and designing extra sorts of packaging to be recyclable, in response to its most up-to-date 2023-2024 affect report launched in mid-December.
- The report additionally notes incremental progress on its objective to recycle or compost no less than 50% of all plastic packaging. The recycling charge for plastic packaging in 2022, the 12 months with the newest obtainable information, was 16%.
- In a associated Plastic Packaging Move report, CPP provided extra info on the way it calculates the nationwide plastic packaging recycling charge. It famous that the 16% recycling charge is decrease than the 20% beforehand reported in its 2022 affect report as a result of its methodology now consists of information from the economic, industrial and institutional sectors, which usually have decrease recycling charges.
Dive Perception:
CPP, made up of about 100 members from manufacturers and recycling teams, goals to curb plastic waste and air pollution by 4 principal targets outlined in its Roadmap to 2025 plan. CPP is a member of the bigger Ellen MacArthur Basis’s International Plastics Pact community, a set of country-based teams working in tandem on comparable objectives.
Canadian companions embrace the Stable Waste Affiliation of North America, Affiliation of Plastic Recyclers, EFS Plastics, Walmart, Unilever and others.
CPP’s annual report comes simply after its U.S. counterpart, the U.S. Plastics Pact, launched its personal progress report that touched on comparable objectives.
CPP famous in a information launch that progress on its objectives is “slower than anticipated,” however added that collaboration between companions has helped the group advance. It additionally mentioned that newly obtainable information has helped paint a extra correct image of the nation’s plastic recycling stream.
“The information reveals that whereas there’s nonetheless work to be carried out to realize our mission and imaginative and prescient, we’re heading in the right direction,” mentioned Catherine O’Brien, Canada Plastics Pact’s president and board chair, in an announcement.
CPP’s plastics circulation report reveals that in 2022, Canada’s deposit return system had a 60% recycling charge in 2022, down from 63% in 2019. The residential sector’s charge stayed flat at 16%.
Canada generated 1.96 million metric tons of plastic packaging in 2022, almost 3.6% greater than it did in 2019, the 12 months of CPP’s baseline report. CPP additionally attributes that rise in packaging to the report’s new inclusion of ICI-generated plastics.
Canada generated 17% extra inflexible plastic packaging and recycled 2% much less of that materials in 2022 in contrast with 2019. Conversely, the nation generated 6% much less versatile plastic and recycled 13% extra of it in 2022 in comparison with 2019.
The circulation report notes that whereas the nation is enhancing versatile packaging recycling, extra work is required because of “challenges with its assortment, sorting, and last recycling.” It referred to as for firms to enhance packaging design, however it famous that “a swap from versatile to the extra recyclable inflexible packaging shouldn’t be more likely to remedy this problem.”
Nationwide recycling developments, together with for prolonged producer duty and container deposit programs, are anticipated to assist enhance plastic recycling in future years, together with for flexibles, the report states.
The recycling charge for the ICI sector was 11%. This sector “has not but been comprehensively studied,” CPP mentioned within the report abstract. Future alternatives to enhance ICI sector recycling may embrace concentrating on recycling options for key subsectors, similar to meals service, manufacturing and well being care.
Together with reporting on its recycling charge objective, CPP’s principal affect report additionally charted companions’ 2023 progress towards its three different principal 2025 objectives.
- 4%: The share of CPP companions who nonetheless had 10 packaging gadgets of their portfolio outlined as “pointless or problematic.” The objective is to get rid of 13 sorts of plastic packaging on this record. CPP developed a steering doc in April 2024 to assist companions proceed to satisfy this objective.
- 50%: Proportion of plastic packaging positioned available on the market by CPP companions that’s designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. That’s up from 43% in 2022; the objective is 100%.
- 10%: The quantity of postconsumer recycled content material, by weight, throughout plastic packaging utilized by CPP companions in 2023. It is a 2% decline in PCR use in comparison with the 2022 report. The objective is for such packaging to have no less than 30% recycled content material. CPP famous restricted entry to PCR provide, together with larger prices for recycled content material in comparison with virgin resin.
CPP says it is going to use information from the 2023-2024 report back to create a brand new Roadmap to 2035 doc meant to replace its path towards making a round financial system for plastics.
This story first appeared within the Waste Dive: Recycling publication. Join the weekly emails right here.