Some of the world's leading brands, including packaging giant Amcor and bottled water supplier Evian, have joined a pledge to work towards greener packaging, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF).
In an announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the foundation said that in total 11 major brands, retailers and packaging companies have now proclaimed their commitment towards using 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025 or earlier.
The list includes: Amcor, Ecover, evian, L'Oréal, Mars, M&S, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever, Walmart, and Werner & Mertz.
According to EMF, the companies together represent more than 6 million tonnes of plastic packaging per year.
A year after his company made the pledge, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, welcomed the move and called for more actions of this kind within the industry.
“Yet as a consumer goods industry, we need to go much further, much faster, in addressing the challenge of single use plastics by leading a transition away from the linear take-make-dispose model of consumption, to one which is truly circular by design,” Polman added.
Australia's Amcor announced today that it is the first packaging company pledging to develop all its packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025.
France's Danone also announced that its iconic brand Evian, whose bottles are already 100% recyclable, will make all of its plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025.
Evian plans to achieve this through “pioneering partnerships” to redesign its packaging, speed up recycling initiatives and clean up plastic waste from nature.
Another French outfit, health and beauty company L'Oreal, has also committed to making all of its plastic packaging “rechargeable, refillable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.”