Page 47 - Plastics News October 2019

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

PCR bottle mandate approved in Greenpeace USA says plastics

California solutions from multinationals

are unsustainable
recycled plastic requirement for beverage container
A producers cleared the California legislature last reenpeace USA has
week. But comprehensive legislation reducing single-use Greleased a new report
packaging failed to advance.Producers of most plastic which claims multinationals
beverage containers sold in California will need to include
are "pretending" to solve
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the plastics crisis.Entitled
DQG E\ $VVHPEO\ %LOO FOHDUHG WKH "Throwing Away the Future:
California State Assembly on a 60-12 vote on Friday, which How Companies Still Have It
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session closed. Under the bill, plastic bottles that are
covered under the state’s container redemption program 6ROXWLRQV WKH SDSHU ZDUQV
will be subject to phased-in recycled plastic mandates. consumers to be skeptical
Manufacturers’ usage will be evaluated across the of the so-called solutions introduced by multinational
company’s entire product line sold in California, meaning corporations aimed at tackling plastic pollution. The
not all of a company’s containers will need to include environment protection charity says that switching
recycled plastic as long as the overall percentage meets to paper or "bioplastics" [sic], or embracing chemical
the mandate. The percentages and timeline were softened recycling, are failing to move consumers away from
single-use packaging and towards systems which
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plastic can cause to our environment and communities,
plastic production is projected to dramatically increase
in the coming years,” said Greenpeace USA senior
research specialist Ivy Schlegel, author of the report.
“Multinational consumer goods companies continue to
promote so-called sustainable alternatives that would
put unacceptable pressures on natural resources such
as forests and agricultural land, which have already
been overexploited. To solve the plastic pollution
crisis, companies need to rethink how products are
multiple times during the course of the bill’s development. GHOLYHUHG WR FRQVXPHUV DQG LQYHVW VLJQLÀFDQWO\ LQ
,W RULJLQDOO\ VHW D UHF\FOHG SODVWLF PDQGDWH E\ UHXVDEOH DQG UHÀOODEOH GHOLYHU\ V\VWHPV µ *UHHQSHDFH
/DWHU WKDW ZDV UHGXFHG WR D PD[LPXP RI E\ 86$·V UHSRUW ÀQGV WKDW FKHPLFDO FRQYHUVLRQ ´UHF\FOLQJµ
7KH PDQGDWH ZDV IXUWKHU UHGXFHG WR E\ LQ WKH technologies offer false hope, while locking in
ÀQDO YHUVLRQ WKDW SDVVHG ODVW ZHHN $ OHJLVODWLYH DQDO\VLV demand for plastic packaging. Further, companies
of the bill put the mandates in the context of major have "obscured" the true impacts of packaging behind
beverage companies voluntarily increasing their recycled confusing market terms, sustainability language,
plastic use. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, for example, have and industry alliances, hoping that consumers will
announced recycled feedstock goals in recent years. continue to believe the false promise that plastic
´:KLOH WKHVH JRDOV LQGLFDWH WKDW LQFRUSRUDWLQJ DGGLWLRQDO can be improved. Greenpeace states that because a
recycled content is possible, currently the vast majority product is compostable, biodegradable or made from
of plastic beverage containers contain little to no recycled plants does not mean it is good for the environment,
content,” the analysis states. or will reduce plastic pollution.

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49 October 2019 Plastics News