Leaders from SC Johnson, Honeywell, the Consumer Brands Association, and more highlighted the need for clearer policy and smarter infrastructure Friday at the Packaging Recycling Summit in Dallas, Tex.
Limits of the FTC Green Guides
The FTC may be working toward an update to the Green Guides, but that won’t excuse CPGs from complying with state law.
Paul Nowak of GreenBlue (left), Joe Dages of Steptoe (center), and John Hewitt of the Consumer Brands Association (right)Packaging WorldJohn Hewitt, senior vice president, packaging & sustainability and state affairs at the Consumer Brands Association, explained this at the Summit alongside Joe Dages, partner at Steptoe, and Paul Nowak, executive director at GreenBlue.
To help standardize guidance federally, Hewitt suggested a reframing of how federal guidance functions.
Said Hewitt, “There's no shortage of groups, companies, interested parties that want a singular solution, a federal bill that attempts to define this, get some clarity, and even give teeth - I say that a little tongue and cheek - give teeth to the FTC, but with the implied or expressed benefit that it'll take a state to apply the law, apply the regulations in a manner that the brands can adhere to across all states.”
SC Johnson calls for EPR clarity
Jeff Bezzo, executive director of plastic & packaging sustainability at SC Johnson (left) with Matt Reynolds, chief editor at Packaging WorldPackaging WorldAs brands prepare for extended producer responsibility laws in the U.S., harmonization across states would go a long way in supporting compliance.
That’s according to Jeff Bezzo, executive director of plastic and packaging sustainability at SC Johnson, who spoke at the Summit Friday. He shared a few suggestions for what a national framework on EPR could address.
“We could have common definitions for producer, for covered materials, the timelines to implement, and even reporting timelines as well as what gets reported," said Bezzo. "If we could get some of these definitional pieces aligned at the federal level, it would help.”
A take-back program for pharma circularity
For the pharmaceutical industry to limit pain points as it works toward circularity, the time to act is now. Duncan Flack, global sustainability lead, HoneywellPackaging World
That’s according to Duncan Flack, global sustainability lead at Honeywell and chairman at CiPPPA. He explained at the Summit that this is a driving force behind a CiPPPA-proposed solution to create a take-back program grounded in minimizing difficulty for consumers.
In the proposal, consumers would drop off their empty packaging wherever they pick up their prescription, and healthcare distribution agencies would collect the packaging for recycling in a reverse logistics scheme. In the long-term, CiPPPA hopes to open the door for recycled content in pharmaceutical packaging to further improve circularity.
“Instead of waiting for EPR to come up and bite us in 10 years’ time, how much better for the industry to be on top of all this and be in control of it all, and proactive steps, so that come 2035 when all these things fall into place, we can say we’re on top of this, we’ve got solutions in place," said Flack.
Mapping the waste stream
For CPGs to improve the recyclability of their products, transparency in the waste stream is vital.
Gaspard Duthilleul, COO, GreyparrotPackaging WorldThat’s why Greyparrot created its Deepnest waste detection platform, Gaspard Duthilleul, COO at Greyparrot, explained at the Packaging Recycling Summit today in Dallas, Tex. He said this is the first platform dedicated to waste intelligence for brands, capable of identifying over 100 different package types, and providing a score for detectability, sortability, and other insights like rates of loss due to residue.
“This platform is really big to enable collaboration across the value chain. We need to collaborate, or to discuss at least, based on facts, based on data. [Deepnest] is about to enable this.”
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Paul Nowak of GreenBlue (left), Joe Dages of Steptoe (center), and John Hewitt of the Consumer Brands Association (right)Packaging World
