Walmart Addresses Plastic ( Cont’d from Page 1)
the problem by focusing on the retailer’s private brand packaging, building upon existing efforts to re- duce plastic waste inWalmart U.S. and Sam’s Club op- erations, and encouraging national brand suppliers to set similar packaging goals. At the supplier forum, Walmart executives highlighted that the company is working with suppliers to expand efforts to improve the sustainability of its private brand product packag- ing, with an emphasis on increasing recyclability and making it easier for customers to recycle. Walmart announced that it will work with its U.S. pri- vate brand suppliers on the following commitments: • Seek to achieve 100 percent recyclable, reusable or industrially compostable packaging for its private brand packaging by 2025; • Target at least 20 percent post-consumer recycled content in private brand packaging by 2025; • Label 100 percent of food and consumable private brand packagingwith the How2Recycle label by 2022; • Work with suppliers to eliminate the non-recy- clable packaging material PVC in general merchan- dise packaging by 2020; and • Reduce private brand plastic packaging when possible, optimizing the use to meet the need. Committed To Improvement During the forum,Walmart encouraged it’s national brand suppliers to make similar packaging commit- ments through the retailer’s Project Gigaton platform. The retailer has also introduced a new recycling playbook designed to provide information to compa- nies pursuing recyclable packaging and recycled con- tent goals. The recycling playbook gives overviews on what type of plastic packaging is more easily recy- clable and provides information on recycling chal- lenges for certain packaging materials. This new recycling guidance is a supplement to Walmart’s ex- isting sustainable packaging playbook that offers in- formation on sustainable packaging best practices such as optimizing packaging design and using con- sumer-friendly recycling labels. Plastic waste is a growing concern for Walmart cus- tomers, associates and other key stakeholders.Walmart’s aspiration is to achieve zero plastic waste by taking ac- tions across its business and working with suppliers to use less plastic, recycle more and support innovations to improve plastic waste reduction systems. Some of the retailer’s current efforts to reach this goal include: • Offering low-cost, high-quality alternatives for sin- gle use plastic consumable products such as straws, cutlery and disposable tabletops;
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4 March 4, 2019 Flexo Market News
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