Colgate-Palmolive becomes first company to fund navigation of five‑step gated recyclability process
BENTONVILLE, ARK. (Nov. 6, 2019) – The Recycling Partnership officially launched its new Pathway to Recyclability initiative to help packaging suppliers outline, address, and successfully navigate current and future packaging and recycling system challenges that limit the recycling of packaging materials today at the Walmart Sustainability Innovation Summit. A key component of the initiative will be the creation of material and packaging-specific collaboratives to solve these packaging challenges. This new initiative was identified as a critical need to build the circular economy in the U.S. in the recently released Bridge to Circularity Report published by The Partnership on Oct. 22, 2019, which called for investments and partnerships to improve the current recycling system and to lay the groundwork for a circular economy in the U.S.
“The end of life for a package is determined at the beginning when it’s designed,” said Sarah Dearman, VP of Circular Ventures, The Recycling Partnership. “Companies and citizens want to see a better future for items not currently recyclable. The Pathway to Recyclability will provide a stage-gate analysis of what changes must be addressed at each step along the recycling supply chain – from the packaging engineer to the consumer purchasing the package, to the end market buying post-consumer recycled material, and back again.”
While this initiative is new, it builds upon a five-step-gated methodology highlighted in the ASTRX (Applying Systems Thinking to Recycling) Navigating the Recycling System tool. ASTRX is a collaboration between The Recycling Partnership and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) – a membership-based collaborative that believes in the power of industry to make packaging more sustainable. ASTRX will support this new initiative. The Association of Plastic Recyclers will also be a critical partner.
This important work received initial financial support from Colgate-Palmolive. The Pathway to Recyclability will kick off this new initiative with Tom’s of Maine® toothpaste tubes teed up to be the first packaging material to work its way through the Pathway to Recyclability. Tools for the Pathway to Recyclability will be published in early 2020. This will pave the way to drive action through collaboratives for specific materials and packaging formats.
“Colgate-Palmolive is dedicated to bringing safe, effective products to our consumers that are also good for the planet,” said Jean Luc Fischer, President, North America & Global Sustainability for Colgate-Palmolive. “We’re excited to soon be taking our new Tom’s of Maine® toothpaste tubes through this new Pathway to Recyclability and use it as a model for other innovative recyclable package designs across product categories.”
“The Pathway to Recyclability is a roadmap to help producers ensure their packaging is recyclable and really gets recycled,” Dearman said. “By working collaboratively to connect existing tools and fill critical gaps, we will develop a clear and concise process. This will result in an honest and real assessment by recycling realists of what it takes, what it costs, and what the environmental, economic and societal benefits are when we design for recyclability. Let the journey begin.”
For more information on the Pathway to Recyclability or becoming a funding partner, contact Sarah Dearman, VP of Circular Ventures at sdearman@recyclingpartnership.org.
About The Recycling Partnership
The Recycling Partnership (recyclingpartnership.org) is a national nonprofit organization that leverages corporate partner funding to transform recycling for good in states, cities, and communities all across America. As the only organization in the country that engages the full recycling supply chain from the corporations that manufacture products and packaging to local governments charged with recycling, to industry end markets, haulers, material recovery facilities, and converters; The Recycling Partnership positively impacts recycling at every step in the process. By the end of 2019, The Recycling Partnership expects to have served more than 1,300 communities with tools, resources, and technical support, placed nearly 600,000 recycling carts, reached 60 million households, and helped companies and communities invest more than $55 million in recycling infrastructure. In doing so, The Recycling Partnership has created meaningful social, environmental, and economic change, including diverting 230 million pounds of new recyclables, saving 465 million gallons of water, avoiding 250,000 metric tons of Greenhouse Gases and driving significant reductions in targeted contamination rates.
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