Progress on our global plastic problem now up to business leaders

This week’s gathering in Glasgow, Scotland, for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) calls for collective action to halt and mitigate the worst impacts of human-created climate change. Carbon emissions have taken center stage, and organizations will make pledges. But these pledges alone will not directly address one of the most distinct and addressable environmental crises the world is now grappling with: the impact of plastic on health, climate, and the ecosystem.

Pledges and platitudes are not enough. Businesses must get serious about solving the plastic problem. At the time it was invented, plastic was seen as a miracle material for everything from medical devices to food packaging, but its proliferation has led to unintended and disastrous impacts for human health and the environment. A new report released in October, 2021 by Beyond Plastics calls plastic the “new coal” and cites that by the end of this decade, the plastics industry in the United States is on pace to eclipse the carbon footprint of our coal-fired power plants when measuring all stages of plastics production, usage and disposal.

And yet, when consumers try to reduce the plastic in their lives, they’re overwhelmed by the pervasiveness of it, in packaging, supermarkets, take-out containers and everyday hygiene products and disposables. The World Economic Forum put it this way - every minute, one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our oceans. That statistic is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030, and four per minute by 2050. Microplastics are ubiquitous in our food chain, our water, and the air we breathe, and plastic is associated with a litany of negative health conditions like endocrine disorders and reproductive abnormalities. ?Something has to change – and while regulations are already getting more aggressive, real change has to come from business.

So why is it that we can make progress that matters now, that we couldn’t make even a few years ago? Innovation – and collective awareness about the importance of developing new materials technologies.

Barriers in cost and performance of materials, and lack of innovative alternatives, prevented this transition out of plastic sooner – but those barriers are no longer main blockers.

Footprint has already delivered plastic-free, patented technologies that for the first time compete with plastic on price. While the plastics industry has done a great job of greenwashing about recyclability, less than 9% of plastic gets recycled in America. The rest gets dumped in landfills, shipped abroad, incinerated, or ends up in rivers, oceans and streams, causing further harm to human and environmental health.

We’re at the tipping point of change for plastic.?Great global brands want to have a roadmap without plastic. It is not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because legislation is forcing it, consumers want it, and alternative solutions exist. Sustainable options can even improve the bottom line by bringing?healthier solutions to consumers. According to a Wunderman Thompson study, 86% of people surveyed now expect businesses to play their part in solving big challenges, like climate change or social justice. In a multi-country BCG study, 84% of consumers surveyed said they’d select products with less single-use packaging.

It’s time to get aggressive about change.

Personal care brands, such as Native Deodorant, have already found a way to package deodorant in a plastic-free container, and consumers don’t have to work hard to make the swap. Online retailers like Grove Collaborative have pledged to prioritize products that avoid plastic, and many companies are embracing alternative and plant-based materials that can replace plastic without sacrificing performance. These are exciting innovations that in many cases unlock new scenarios including extended shelf life. ?Solving this crisis will have to include multiple solutions working together.

At Footprint, we’ve worked with forward-looking customers, including Conagra whose?January 2020?announcement?was a universal commitment to sustainable packaging. The plant-based fiber Healthy Choice bowls we’re making for Conagra have even shown to drive up sales as consumers get more savvy about healthy food served plastic-free.

While being on the right side of sustainability is increasingly expected, it’s also rapidly becoming an investor priority as more scrutiny is put on ESG, and it’s also good for business, as consumers are increasingly expecting and choosing sustainable options, and local and national governments are passing regulations to slow the deluge of plastic. ?

Certainly, we still need more scale and additional innovations to replace all single- and short-term use plastic we encounter daily, and we’re working to make that happen with plant-based, sustainable solutions. These and other innovative new solutions can be found already throughout supermarkets; and we’re constantly working on new materials science innovation always with a view of being the healthiest solution for people and the planet.?

So before the window on addressing the climate disaster closes, I call on my fellow business leaders to take an aggressive approach to eliminating plastic from products wherever they can, to explore new ways of doing business that eliminate waste, and I encourage consumers to support businesses that make better choices for themselves and the planet. We’re already two decades in to this new century. The planet will not wait. Human health will not wait. Let’s turn platitudes into progress and all be champions for a healthier planet.

#sustainability #ESG #greentechnology #COP26 #climatechange #plasticfree