Plastics treaty could boost packaging firms offering alternative materials

Companies pushing new business models for packaging say a global plastics treaty can provide a big boost by endorsing policies like recycled content mandates, bans on problematic single-use applications and better definitions of plastic.

At least those were some of the ideas in a new report from the World Economic Forum that profiled 24 companies touting ways to reduce the environmental impact of single-use plastics, and the role of the plastics treaty in doing so.

The companies profiled ranged from small startups like the United Kingdom-based Notpla making seaweed-based alternatives to petroleum plastics, on up to global resin makers like Braskem and its Cazoola circular plastics design laboratory.

On a June 12 webinar outlining the report, several of the firms focused on what they said the global plastics treaty needs to do to help, particularly in developing countries like Indonesia.

French waste management firm Veolia, for example, said recycled content mandates in the treaty would support investments it has made with Danone Aqua in a large bottle-to-bottle PET recycling plant in East Java.

"I think by creating a stronger framework, in particular on minimum recycled content … it will put what I would call the necessary pressure on brands and on some countries that are a bit behind, a bit late," said Laurent Besson, general manager of PT Veolia Services Indonesia. "That's where we are expecting the treaty to have a large impact."

He said content mandates will mean stronger commitments from consumer brands to use recycled materials so that "the raw material cost is not only about buying the cheapest material but it's also integrating the indirect cost of potential penalties, the cost of circularity and the cost to the environment."

Besson said purchasing commitments from brand companies outside of legislation are also critical. Without an agreement from Danone Aqua to buy recycled PET, the plant in East Java plant probably would not have been built, he said.

"Definitely securing a large volume of production with an uptake agreement was critical to the investment decision we made to build what is today still the largest PET recycling plant in Indonesia," Besson said.

The head of Indonesian reusable packaging company Alner said it's "crucial" for the treaty to include bans on problematic single-use packaging that's difficult to recycle, as a way to spur a transition to other packaging models like reusables or new materials.

"I've seen that working very well in Indonesia, when it comes to the ban of single-use plastic for shopping in minimarkets or supermarkets," said CEO Bintang Ekananda. "There must be a way to reduce this kind of problematic packaging."

Jakarta-based Alner delivers daily necessities to Indonesian homes in reusable packaging, what it calls a "milkman model," but it also allows its packaging to be returned to markets or to reverse vending machines.

Problematic packaging is on the treaty's agenda. It's one of the topics slated for discussion in a negotiating session in August where countries hope to hash out technical points to make it easier to reach agreement in the final negotiating session in South Korea in late November.

The report said the profiled companies generally agreed that the treaty should lead to more harmonized global standards in areas like reusable packaging, extended producer responsibility, compostability and a definition of what is a plastic.

Suzanne Kuiper, one of the report's authors and a director in the global decarbonization hub of consulting firm KPMG International, said the discussion around bans was nuanced among the companies.

"A ban could significantly speed up some of those innovation S curves but the interviewees were also a bit in the middle on whether or not that needs to be globally harmonized," Kuiper said.

She noted splits between those who argued bans could keep problematic plastic applications from flooding some countries, and respondents who said bans may not work in all countries and that the treaty should be flexible.

The WEF report highlighted a range of solutions, from a new adhesive developed by Avery Dennison Corp. that cleanly separates labels and PET bottles in recycling plants, to a new coconut fiber material from Fortuna Cools Inc. designed to replace foamed plastic in coolers.

One of the webinar panelists said the treaty could speed up innovation by having clear definitions of what is a plastic polymer versus a natural or non-plastic polymer.

Pierre Paslier, co-CEO of Notpla, a maker of seaweed-based polymers for packaging, said his company's materials last year became the first to be certified as plastic-free in a program overseen by the Dutch government. Such standards can send signals to the market, he said.

"One of the biggest challenges in this industry has been the lack of clear and consistent definitions, which has led to a lot of greenwashing and [claims of] natural, plastic-free, plant-based, whatever we want to call it, without really substantiating what is behind it," Paslier said.

But he said the new materials also should have to undergo their own life-cycle analysis to demonstrate that they have a smaller environmental footprint than what they are replacing and don't create a new set of problems.

"We have to have a strong holistic life-cycle analysis of those materials so that we know we're not creating the next problematic set of extractive practices," Paslier said.