U.S. Plastics Pact 2022 Annual Report

Emily Tipaldo, U.S. Plastics Pact Executive Director

“The U.S. Pact is bringing forward never-before-seen plastics data and challenging companies operating under difficult market conditions to reduce waste. We must continue to rally Activators around our common language and definitions, gathering novel data to model the future potential, and, finally, supporting and inspiring companies to move toward our circular economy vision. Conceding on 2025 commitments will not foster the support still needed to shake the plastics packaging value chain out of the status quo. We must continue to push the boundaries of collaboration and transparency to build the circular economy for plastics packaging.”

Report Overview

The U.S. Plastics Pact leads with never-before-seen data from its member organizations (“Activators”) with the delivery of the 2022 Annual Report.

The U.S. Pact’s consumer packaged goods, retailer, and converter Activators produce 33% of plastic packaging in scope in the U.S. by weight, placing 5.8M metric tons of plastic on the market. Since its launch in August 2020, the U.S. Pact has more than doubled membership and impact with more than 135 businesses, not-for-profit organizations, government agencies, and research institutions addressing four targets to address plastic waste at its source by 2025.

Target 1

Define a list of plastic packaging that is problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate the items on the list by 2025

Target 2

100% of plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025

Target 3

Undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging by 2025

Target 4

Achieve an average of 30% recycled content or responsibly sourced biobased content in plastic packaging by 2025

Data Highlights

The report shares the U.S. Pact’s aggregate data toward achieving these ambitious goals and covers key actions the U.S. Pact and its Activators have taken in 2022.

The data helps the U.S. Pact have a better understanding of the scale of the challenge and action steps we must take to address the gap.

- 5.8 million MT of the total weight of plastics placed on the U.S. market was produced by U.S. Pact Activators in 2022.
- 33% of all plastic packaging in scope in the country by weight was produced by U.S. Pact Activators.*
- Top 3 plastic packaging formats represented within the U.S. Pact by tonnage were PET bottles, HDPE bottles, and PP other rigid packaging.

* This number represents the total weight of plastic packaging reported by all Activators divided by the estimated weight of all plastic packaging considered to be in scope for the U.S. Plastics Pact put on the market in the U.S. annually, as estimated using EPA and industry data.

Progress Since the 2021 Annual Report

U.S. Plastics Pact progress since the publication of the 2021 Annual Report includes:

Substantial decrease in the amount of plastic packaging that utilizes plastics on the Problematics and Unnecessary Materials List from 14% to 8% by weight;
improved design of recyclable, reusable, refillable, and compostable plastic packaging with recognition of top performers through the Sustainable Packaging Innovation Award;
increase in reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging from 36% to 47.7%;
creation of a PCR Procurement Toolkit to assist companies in increasing their PCR usage to reduce their virgin plastic footprint.; and
increased the use of post-consumer recycled content (PCR) in plastic packaging by 1.4% – moving from 8% to 9.4% average PCR or responsibly sourced biobased content.

Target Progress

circle image of ocean with 92% written over it in white

Target 1

92% of the plastic packaging put on the market by U.S. Pact Activators by weight did not contain items on the U.S. Pact's Problematic and Unnecessary Materials list.