Amcor, Colgate-Palmolive, and Kimberly-Clark joined the World Wildlife Fund-led activation hub ReSource: Plastic this week.
Launched last year, ReSource: Plastic is a global consortium of companies and organisations collaborating to keep waste out of the environment.
The hub aims to help accelerate large-scale plastic commitments by organisations. By 2030, ReSource has a target to prevent at least 50 million tonnes of plastic waste from entering nature.
A statement from ReSource said by aligning corporate activities under one framework, the organisation is breaking down the silos that have previously inhibited collaboration. It aims to be a “force that will catalyse the impact we will need to fix the broken plastic system”.
“For ReSource, strength is found in numbers. The more companies that join ReSource, the more information we have to fuel data-driven solutions, and the more power we have to bring these data-driven solutions to scale,” the statement said.
“Bringing on industry leaders Amcor, Colgate-Palmolive, and Kimberly-Clark not only strengthens our representation of the packaging and fast-moving consumer goods sectors, but also sends the signal to their peers and competitors that the level of ambition on plastic has been raised.”
Amcor CEO Ron Delia said keeping waste out of the environment will require not only the right package design but also efficient collection and waste management along with active consumer participation
“Amcor is leading the way on packaging innovation, but new products and technologies alone won’t be enough to meet our sustainability ambitions and to solve the global waste issue,” he said.
“Global challenges are best addressed together, and we are proud to work with Resource: Plastic and the world’s largest brands to better protect the environment.”
Kimberly-Clark vice-president of safety, sustainability and occupational health Lisa Morden said the company is committed to reducing waste and innovating new ways to give consumers the products they need with the smallest impact on the world’s natural systems.
“We are proud to join ReSource because partnerships like this are critical to delivering our commitment and accelerating circular solutions that protect the planet for generations to come,” Morden said.
Colgate-Palmolive packaging sustainability manager, global design and packaging Anne Bedarf said the company’s ambition to eliminate plastic waste includes making all its packaging recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025.
“It's important to understand how our efforts can bring solutions to scale, and only through collaboration can we meet our circularity goals and keep plastics out of nature,” Bedarf said.
“ReSource brings this needed collaborative leadership to reality.”
Also this week, ReSource released its inaugural report, Transparent 2020, which identifies a common measurement baseline for principal members and contains a detailed analysis of the challenges and potential solutions. The report can be downloaded from the ReSource website.
Erin Simon, head of plastic and business at World Wildlife Fund, said, “When WWF set our global vision of no plastic in nature by 2030, we knew we couldn’t achieve this feat alone. We’re thrilled to welcome Amcor into ReSource: Plastic and look forward to tackling the plastic pollution problem, together.”
A statement from Amcor pointed out that the company collaborates with industry partners, governments, and non-governmental organisations to improve collection, recycling, and recovery of plastic packaging and develop new approaches to advance a circular economy and better protect the environment.
Amcor said it has global partnerships with Ocean Conservancy and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, where experts led the development of a global design-for-recyclability standard for high-barrier flexible packaging.
