What makes a plastic package sustainable? What strategies are companies using to reduce carbon footprint and improve recyclability, while still making sure that packages perform and meet consumer and brand owner expectations?
In our December Sustainable Plastics Live, Karen Laird covered complicated topics that the plastics packaging supply chain is tackling, and shared options about how they can be successful.
“We need plastics. I mean, what are we going to do without them? We don’t really have anything that’s going to replace them right now. And I don’t see that in the foreseeable future being developed,” said Laird, the editor of Sustainable Plastics magazine. “It’s just that we’re going to have to be smarter about them. We’re going to have to stop being the throwaway society. We’re going to have to re-adjust that mindset, get used to things like reusables, get used to using recycled content.”
With officials meeting at the United Nations climate conference, Laird talked about how plastics packaging fit into the climate debate.
“Many people are very, very worried about climate. But it’s not always been connected with the use of things like packaging, or plastics. So right now, we’re in a tricky time, we’re in a difficult time. Politically speaking ... I just I can’t tell you where we’re going on carbon. Except that I do hope that we don’t lose sight of the fact that we have to do something. But I’m getting the feeling that it’s becoming less important to governments, especially national governments.”
Topics included mechanical and chemical recycling, phasing out problematic materials, Europe’s Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulations and extended producer responsibility.
Sustainable Plastics Live is available to subscribers to Plastics News and Sustainable Plastics. The next livestream is scheduled for Feb. 6, 2024.