Activists Want Brands to Pay for Single-Use Packaging

Many of Americans’ favorite brands—think Oreo, Dove, Tide and Snickers, for example—rely on the availability of cheap, disposable packaging made mostly of plastics. Experts say shifting away from single-use plastic packaging is necessary, but it’ll require systemic, expensive changes to how Americans get their snacks—and most of their groceries, personal care products and cleaning supplies. To spur this, activists and environmental groups are pushing legislation that would require brands to pay for the trash they generate through single-use packaging. The goal of the legislation is to encourage less packaging over time and incentivize a shift to refill and reuse. Major brands and plastic producers say they’re supportive of this legislation on the condition that “advanced recycling,” which they say would create a circular system for plastics, be defined as a form of recycling. Environmental groups, however, argue that the technology is unproven at scale and amounts to “greenwashing incineration.” "Single-use packaging is the largest category of new plastic production and, therefore, one of the most impactful things we can do is to curb single-use plastic packaging," said Sarah Paiji Yoo, co-founder and CEO of household cleaning brand Blueland. "This is a critical step to effectively reduce climate change and plastic pollution, and paving the path for a better future for our planet and the generations to come." Why not just recycle it? The popularity of plastic packaging is creating a waste, health and environmental crisis. Single-use plastic is pouring into landfills, polluting the environment and filling our foods, bodies and oceans with microplastics at a rate of 190 million tons per year, according to estimates by nonprofit Plastic Oceans. 77% of Americans Say It’s on CPG Brands to Make Sure Their Packaging Gets Recycled And while recycling has been touted as the solution by plastic producers and consumer packaged goods brands for decades, it has repeatedly failed to meet targets set by the industry, largely due to its chemical makeup (there are broadly seven different types of plastics) and inherent toxicity. Less than 6% of plastics were recycled in the U.S. in 2021, according to a 2022 report co-authored by nonprofits Beyond Plastics and The Last Beach Cleanup. 'Polluter pays' laws As municipalities struggle to handle the thousands of tons of plastic flooding their waste streams, environmental groups like Beyond Plastics are advocating for "polluter pays" laws that require brands to pay a fee for the waste they produce. Similar laws, also called extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws, have been passed in the EU, five Canadian provinces, as well as in Maine, Oregon, California and Colorado. As written, though, each of these laws is either failing to keep up with the exponential growth of plastic production and its varied uses or has significant loopholes undermining its efficacy, said Jennifer Congdon, deputy director of Beyond Plastics. Packaging waste "has increased under standard EPR in Europe," Congdon explained. Those laws, initially passed in the 1990s, are "dinosaurs" compared to modern consumption and waste patterns. Advocates are currently working on adding packaging reduction requirements to those systems. New York’s opportunity A new bill in the New York State Legislature, introduced jointly by Sen. Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick, aims to address plastic waste while solving for the loopholes that exist in other attempts at EPR. The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would require brands to reduce single-use plastic packaging and incentivize a shift to refills and reusables, while also requiring brands to help pay for recycling and disposing of the waste they create. Fees, based on the amount and type of packaging that companies are using, are still to be determined. (It does not address bottles and cans. These are covered separately by New York’s Bottle Bill, which is also facing a proposed overhaul.) “We are awash in plastic waste, and the environment can no longer tolerate inaction,” Glick told ADWEEK. “As brands seek to appeal to a new generation, it is in their interest to embrace sustainable packaging.” Brands bank on tech ADWEEK reached out to Mondelēz, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Unilever for comment on the bill. Nestlé, Unilever and P&G pointed us to various trade groups including the Sustainable Food Policy Alliance (SFPA). While all of these companies have plans to reduce single-use plastic, advocates argue that those commitments are too weak. A letter from the SFPA to Glick’s office, shared with ADWEEK, said that the group supports EPR legislation in theory but outlined several concerns related to this bill, including that it “does not recognize the important role of a suite of recycling technologies called advanced, chemical, and/or molecular recycling.” The American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade group whose members include ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical and P&G’s chemicals division, also opposed the bill for this reason, adding that it would be too expensive to implement. The SFPA and ACC argue that advanced recycling would allow recycling of hard-to-recycle and mixed plastics, resulting in less plastic in landfill. But a February 2024 report from the Center for Climate Integrity demonstrates that the plastic industry has been pushing a narrative around advanced recycling since the 1970s without evidence of its efficacy or safety. Of the advanced recycling facilities announced since 2017, nearly all have either been delayed, abandoned or turned out to be waste-to-fuel facilities rather than plastic-to-plastic recyclers, according to reports from Reuters and the Natural Resources Defense Council. A new approach is needed The industry’s track record of missed targets on recycling has led environmental groups to approach advanced recycling projections with skepticism. As plastic pollution makes its way into human breast milk and bloodstreams, while threatening to overtake fish in the ocean by weight, environmental groups argue that production must stop—meaning that new systems of refill and reuse must be built. As of Feb. 27, both the Senate and Assembly versions of New York’s Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act had passed out of their respective committees, with a few standard procedural hurdles to clear before becoming eligible for a vote. To become law, a version of the bill would have to pass both houses—which could happen before this session wraps in June—and then be signed by the governor. "There's been so much greenwashing with consumer goods," said Beyond Plastics president Judith Enck. "If you have a strong EPR law on the books, companies can legitimately say that they're reducing plastics, they're reducing toxins. Smart consumers are more likely to accept statutory requirements as opposed to vague, voluntary pledges."

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Activists Want Brands to Pay for Single-Use Packaging

A landmark bill is currently making its way through the New York State Legislature

Kathryn Lundstrom

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Kathryn Lundstrom