Many brand manufacturers wanted to make their packaging recyclable by 2025 and defined ambitious sustainability targets a few years ago. Since the spring, more and more companies have been rowing back and admitting that they will probably not achieve their self-imposed targets on time - including companies such as Unilever, PepsiCo and Colgate-Palmolive.
Back in April 2024, consumer goods manufacturer Unilever, one of the world's largest users of plastic packaging, reneged on its promise announced in 2019 to halve the use of virgin plastic by 2025. Instead, the company is aiming to now aiming for a reduction of one third by 2026, reports the British daily newspaper The Guardian. This would correspond to around 100,000 tonnes more new plastic per year. The postponement of the self-imposed target was attributed to shortcomings in the existing recycling systems, among other things. In addition to the environmental targets, the company is also abandoning its goal of paying its suppliers a living wage by 2030.
According to its sustainability report published in the spring, Colgate-Palmolive is also likely to miss its target of only using technically recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging by 2025. However, the Group had achieved 89.5 per cent by the end of 2023. However, according to the ESG report, the challenges in connection with flexible plastic packaging will remain, currently prevent a complete switchover by 2025.
Share of new plastic increased
The food and beverage company PepsiCo also recently admitted that it would probably not be possible to design 100 per cent of its packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable by 2025. The company assumes this in its latest sustainability report, that 92 per cent could be achieved by 2030. According to the report, PepsiCo is also missing several targets to improve corporate sustainability, including in relation to recycling and reducing plastics. According to the company, it used around 2.6 million tonnes of plastic in its packaging in 2023. This the amount of new plastic used increased by six per cent. However, PepsiCo is aiming for a 20 per cent reduction by 2030.
In its 2020 Sustainability Report, Henkel announced its intention to actively promote the development of a circular economy, including 100 per cent recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025. 87 per cent of packaging has already been designed for recycling or reusability in the last two years. The amount of new plastics from fossil sources is also to be reduced by 50 per cent by 2025 and the proportion of recycled plastic increased to more than 30 per cent. According to the company, the proportion of recycled plastic at the end of 2023 was 19 per cent. The company is currently sticking to its timetable for achieving its sustainability targets.
A study by Handelsblatt, which analysed the sustainability reports of cosmetics companies last year, came to the conclusion that the companies were not meeting their targets, for example, to produce 30 per cent of packaging from recyclate by the end of 2025, could well fall short of the target. Beiersdorf managed to more than double its quota compared to 2020, but at ten per cent it is still a long way off the 30 per cent target. L'Oréal had even targeted the use of 50 per cent recycled plastic by the end of 2025, but was only at 26 per cent in 2023.
Food company Mars also currently doubts that the targets for sustainable packaging can still be achieved by 2025. In the recently published Sustainability Report 2023, it states that although good progress is being made in adapting the packaging portfolio to future recycling requirements, the necessary design and infrastructure changes will take time. take more time than expected.
Less oil from plastic waste
In its recently published ESG Report 2023, Ferrero emphasised the progress made in improving the sustainability of packaging. This includes, for example Efforts to reduce packaging weight and increase the use of PCR content. The target for 2025 is for at least 90 per cent of packaging to be designed in such a way that it is recyclable, reusable or compostable. The company currently aims to have already achieved 90.7 per cent - compared to 88.5 per cent in 2022. However, as the US business magazine Packaging Dive reports, the 90 per cent target from the current report was still stated as a 100 per cent target in the previous year's report (2022).
And the oil company Shell has also just admitted that its ambitious promise, to convert one million tonnes of plastic waste into oil every year from 2025 by means of chemical recycling, is no longer technically or economically feasible. A new target was not specified. The step was justified with a global demand for recycling chemicals falling short of expectations, The economic service Euwid reports that the main reasons for this are a lack of available raw materials for pyrolysis oil production, the slow development of the necessary technologies and an unclear legal situation.
