Plastics recycling deadlines loom – will companies meet their goals?

Many of the world's largest consumer product companies, including Cocoa-Cola, Unilever and PepsiCo, have set ambitious targets for replacing virgin plastics with recycled ones – typically 25 percent of their total packaging by 2025. So far, however, most companies have made only modest progress and will need to ramp up their efforts to reach these lofty goals, according to a new cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society.

In the U.S., only about 10 percent of plastics are recycled into new products, compared with nearly 33 percent in Europe, writes senior editor Alex Tullo. Facing mounting consumer pressure, many companies have made big promises to increase the amount of recycled plastics they use in packaging to 25 to 50 percent by 2025 or 2030. However, most currently hover at a recycling rate between 2 and 12 percent, meaning that they will need to greatly accelerate their efforts in order to succeed. Meeting these goals will require new technologies to help make plastics easier to recycle, as well as widespread collaboration and investment among brand owners, consumers, recycling facilities, chemical companies and others.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS' mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS' main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.