What is a plastic packaging company doing at Net Impact?

Amcor Team

October 25, 2016

As a packaging leader, Amcor is committed to responsible packaging. Innovative, responsible packaging protects the product, extends its shelf life and can reduce waste in the supply chain.

Amcor is driving environmental change by redesigning the world of packaging - learn how at their panel discussion, Closing the Loop: Collaborating to Scale the Circular Economy at the 2016 Net Impact Conference in Philadelphia, November 3-5.

Amcor and the New Plastics Economy

Unless you work in the packaging industry, you probably haven’t given too much thought about packaging in general. And yet, it’s a ubiquitous part of everyday life. What did you eat for breakfast? How did you rehydrate at your last sporting event? Did you take any medicine the last time you had a headache? The truth is, our modern urban lives wouldn’t be possible without effective packaging.

A plastic packaging leader

Amcor is one of the world’s largest producers of plastic packaging with operations in 44 countries worldwide. We make flexible and rigid plastic packaging for food, beverage, home and personal care, and pharmaceutical products. We’ve been working to reduce our environmental impacts in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and water use for many years and have long prided ourselves on our work to make efficient, responsible packaging- which includes using the right amount of packaging and the right materials for the package.

What does the data say?

Students participating in Amcorâs hands-on workshop at 2014 Net Impact Conference in Minneapolis — Students participating in Amcor’s hands-on workshop at 2014 Net Impact Conference in Minneapolis

Data reveals that most of a product’s impact is in its raw materials, and only a minor impact is from its packaging (less than 10%). Furthermore, often using fewer materials is the most effective way to reduce the package’s impact, even if the material is not widely recycled. At the workshop we facilitated at the 2014 Net Impact Conference, however, we saw firsthand that consumers want to be able to recycle packaging.

Not only that, but the literature on the effects of plastic waste on the environment is shocking. The February 2015 article by Jenna Jambeck et al. in the journal Science quantified the amount of plastic waste entering the oceans each year- 8 million metric tons.

Amcor co-workers participate in a scientific expedition to capture and measure marine debris in the Whitsunday Islands, Australia

That is the equivalent of five plastic grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world. Then you have the September 2015 report from the Ocean Conservancy, “Stemming the Tide,” which demonstrates that most of the waste entering the oceans is from countries in which waste management infrastructure has failed to keep pace with population growth: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Amcor has operations in four of those five countries. In January 2016, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation released “The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics;” this report stated that if we don’t take action, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

The New Plastics Economy

Amcor, as a member of the Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Alliance and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, is ready to tackle this challenge. At our panel discussion at the 2016 Net Impact Conference, we’ll be discussing our work to develop a circular economy for plastic packaging: one that recognizes plastic as a resource to be used again and again, rather than garbage to litter our environment. Packaging, as a vital part of our everyday lives, must be rethought, redesigned, and recycled. Join us November 4th at 2:45pm for Closing the Loop: Collaborating to Scale the Circular Economy.

Read more about Amcor and the new plastic economy here:

Ocean Conservancy

Ellen MacArthurFoundation