Page 35 - Plastics News Issue November - 2024
P. 35
FEATURE NEWS
During the pilot, the Consortium conducted Kate Daly, managing director and head of the
more than 38,000 checkout observations, near- Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop
ly 5,000 customer surveys, more than 200 em- Partners, said, “As we expand from ideation to
ployee surveys and 30 in-depth customer inter- implementation of solutions that support cus-
views. tomers and reduce single-use bag waste, we
aim to drive a cultural change toward reduction
In addition, the report found that the project’s and reuse.”
effects stretched beyond the physical store. For
example, one customer said, “I’ve been hearing In addition to releasing the report, the Consor-
more commercials on my Spotify about using tium – an industry collaboration managed by
your own bags and how the environment will Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular
thank you for it.” Economy – announced a renewed collabora-
tion with leading retailers to eliminate single-use
The report acknowledged that of the two cities, bags.
Denver experienced greater and faster behavior
change, because consumers “are further along Retailers Target, CVS Health, Kroger, Dollar Tree,
on their zero waste journey.” Family Dollar, Meijer and Walmart renewed their
participation in the Consortium.
In 2021, Denver implemented a 10-cent fee on
single-use fees, and the pilot project built on this, California recently expanded its ban on single-
specifically targeting customers who were still use plastic bags, and several states have more
using single-use bags. In contrast, Tucson has limited bans. Proponents say such measures will
free and readily available plastic bags, and many help curb plastics pollution, while opponents say
stores automatically provide bags at checkout. bans are detrimental to a growing recycling in-
dustry and rely on resource-intensive materials
The report findings “serve as a blueprint for the such as paper.
Consortium’s upcoming work to scale bag waste
reduction strategies.” Source – Plastics Recycling Update
Group encourages public-
private partnership in plastics
A told Plastics Recycling Update. Opening the
group of researchers hopes to foster
lines of communication could help increase un-
discussion and cooperation throughout
the plastics value chain with their recent
processed and which ones are most valuable
paper in the scientific journal Nature. derstanding of how materials are mechanically
from a commodity standpoint, she said.
The paper seeks to bring together diverse com-
munities, from plastics designers to MRF opera- “It’s not necessarily creating new knowledge, it’s
tors to traders, co-author Kara Lavender Law finding ways to connect it,” she said.
November 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 35
