The Sustainability Consortium Announces Coalition to Tackle Recycling Small Format Packaging
The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) announced the formation of a new coalition of companies and organizations committed to creating resources to recycle small format packaging and other materials. This is the first coalition of its kind to include CPG companies, non-profits and universities. TSC, alongside P&G, Burt’s Bees, Colgate-Palmolive, GSK, Sustainable Packaging Coalition, The Recycling Partnership, Balcones Resources, University of Arkansas and Arizona State University are collaborating to accelerate progress on building increased circularity of small format packaging of all material types through science-based, collective action projects.
The Association of Plastics Recyclers (APR) defines small format products and packaging as items smaller than 2” in two dimensions and has developed related sortability protocols for further testing. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) estimates that 10% of all packaging by weight is small format. Small format is commonly used in cosmetics and food service (e.g., lip balms, compacts, travel size shampoo, take away containers, disposable utensils) but includes items like beverage bottle caps, toys and other small packaging components which are currently unrecyclable in most curbside recycling programs due to the size of the screens used for sorting within Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs). As a result of these challenges, the majority of small format is going to landfill or has the potential to become litter, rather than being captured as valuable material that can be used in other products and packaging through a more circular path.