Driving circularity together with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Rob Opsomer: When we set up the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2010, our aim was to accelerate the transition from a linear to a circular economy. Plastic packaging quickly became a focus, and we brought together a global group of companies from across the value chain to align on the challenges and a shared vision — as well as how to make progress together. That’s when I met David and his colleagues at Amcor. They joined our global dialogue group to actively shape the transition to circularity for plastic packaging, even before we launched the Plastics initiative.

David Clark: Back in 2018, we decided Amcor should be a first mover and part of the transition to circularity. Working with the Foundation and its partners through the Plastics initiative enabled Amcor and many other companies to understand their roles and responsibilities, while also helping harmonize activities across the value chain. It connected us with upstream and downstream companies, as well as governments and NGOs.
Since we launched our pledge to design all our packaging solutions to be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, we’ve made significant strides in innovating more sustainable packaging solutions for various applications and materials. Today, over 95% of our rigid packaging meets design-for-recyclability guidelines, and for the most challenging packaging — flexibles — we now offer 94%¹ recycle-ready solutions across our portfolio, up from 56% in 2019. I’m very pleased that we can offer our customers so many more recycle-ready options today.

RO: What David describes is also what we see more broadly within the initiative. Committed companies, for example, have doubled the share of recycled content in their plastic packaging — making as much progress in four years as in the four decades before. I remember visiting the Amcor facility in Ghent, Belgium, back in 2016. About a year ago, I went back there with David and saw the extraordinary R&D results they’ve achieved to make design-for-recycling solutions available.

DC: Looking ahead, Amcor’s next steps will be driven by elements we can control — like the design of our packaging and the materials we use, as well as broader advocacy and collaboration for the system change we need. But I also feel positive because of the mindset change that has happened across our organization since 2018. There’s much more awareness about where our raw materials come from, where our packaging goes after consumers use it, and how we can think differently about the products we provide.

RO: That point about mindset change really resonates with me. Our collective work has supported a mobilization in the search for solutions. When we started, plastic packaging wasn’t a prominent topic on the global agenda. Politicians and CEOs didn’t talk about it. Now, the Global Commitment from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the UN Environment Program has more than a thousand signatories, and a UN treaty to end plastic pollution is now being negotiated. That’s extraordinary progress in under a decade. And it results from the increased awareness and deeper knowledge gained in recent years.

Now, everyone needs to move faster and further. We need better infrastructure. We need to accelerate the shift to reusable packaging. And we need to solve challenges related to flexible packaging. That’s our future focus — together with strong partners like Amcor.

DC: Like Rob says, the shift to circularity needs progress in all areas. Success will require innovative technologies and business models. And there are great opportunities to make more progress in the years ahead.

¹ by square meter.