Focus on eliminating single-use plastics and promoting closed-loop packaging has fallen off the agenda in recent months as the devasting impact of the coronavirus pandemic has forced businesses to re-evaluate priorities. For many, those corporate CSR efforts that were gaining momentum in 2020 were put on pause as the lockdown forced businesses into remote working and social distancing overnight.
But in the last month, some of our biggest brands have been resurrecting their sustainability initiatives. There are positive signs that plastic recycling is returning to the business agenda once again.
In October, Boots made headlines as the latest retailer to launch an in-store take-back scheme for hard-to-recycle packaging and products offering customers £5 worth of loyalty points for every five products deposited. This followed the news in September that more than 80 European brands including PepsiCo, P&G and Mondi would be collaborating in the HolyGrail 2.0 project, backing the use of “digital watermarks” to improve the sorting of recyclable packaging. L’Oréal too confirmed that they would be making bottles of Paris Elvive from 100 percent recycled plastic, and Lidl expanded its commitment to reducing own-label plastic packaging, targeting a 40 percent reduction by 2025.
As we move into 2021, we are likely to see yet more businesses taking responsibility for the packaging they manufacture and use, with the new Plastic Packaging Tax coming into effect from April 2022.
For Goplasticpallets.com, 96 percent of the plastic pallets we supply are already made entirely from recycled plastic and at the end of their long use, we promise to collect and recycle them. Despite the hurdles we’ve faced as a company these last eight months, plastic recycling has remained and will remain a constant focus for us.
Website: www.goplasticpallets.com
