Recycling rates could rise in the short term through improvements to sleeve labelling on packaging, a new report by non-profit financial think tank Planet Tracker said. The report found that only 9% of plastic waste is recycled globally and 15% for plastic packaging, a rate which the organisation describes as “woefully inadequate”. Planet Tracker calls on consumer brands to adopt a “self-help approach”, ensuring that the material of labels matches the material of the container and thus boost recycling rates. It additionally says that currently “numerous colours make the sorting and recycling process more complicated than it need be”. By adopting this approach brands could establish a closed loop recycling system – where plastic is recovered and the output is used to manufacture another product in the same product category – that actively targets supply chain sustainability.
Currently, 141 million tonnes of plastic packaging is produced each year, with @CocaCola, @PepsiCo, @Nestle, @Unilever, @MarsGlobal & @LOrealGroupe some of the world’s leaders in #plastic #packaging consumption, using over 7.7 million tonnes in 2021 https://t.co/r2Va4z268M pic.twitter.com/9RWAVtiLwy
— Planet Tracker (@planet_tracker) January 26, 2023
