Single-use plastics aren’t the problem; viewing mechanical recycling as the only solution is. The Consortium for Waste Circularity says advanced recycling waste-to-syngas technology has the potential to fundamentally transform waste handling.
Anne Marie Mohan | www.packworld.com | View original article
Dec 15th, 2021
As brand owners large and small struggle to meet ubiquitous sustainable packaging goals for 2025 centered around recyclability and the elimination of single-use plastics, the Consortium for Waste Circularity (CWC) is proposing that they not just “think outside the Blue Box,” but that they get rid of the Blue Box altogether.
That was the message conveyed in an educational webinar hosted by CWC in November, “The Future of Packaging Circularity: Creating a sustainability strategy with a circular approach.” The CWC, whose founding members include packaging material suppliers, the Flexible Packaging Assn. (FPA), and others, is aligned around creating a world where waste is treated as a valuable resource that can be converted to feedstock for virgin materials. For CWC, this means employing technologies beyond mechanical recycling. Instead, it advocates for investment in and support of robust and flexible science-based solutions, primarily the production of syngas from mixed-waste…