Kimberly-Clark, Mondelez Joins U.S. Plastics Pact

By Stephen Nakrosis

Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Mondelez International Inc. on Tuesday said they would be joining the U.S. Plastics Pact, an initiative to eliminate waste by seeing that needed plastics are reusable, recyclable or compostable.

The U.S. Plastics Pact said it is working to "bring together businesses, government entities, non-governmental organizations, researchers, and other stakeholders who will work collectively toward a common vision of a circular economy for plastics."

The U.S Plastics Pact is organized by the World Wildlife Fund, The Recycling Partnership and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

"We believe that sector-wide initiatives, in collaboration with government, are key to reducing the impact of packaging on our planet," said Christine Montenegro McGrath, chief of sustainability and global impact at Mondelez. "In joining The U.S. Plastics Pact, we are proud to continue to be a part of collectively advancing a unified approach to creating scalable solutions for a circular economy for plastics in the United States," she added.

"We aspire to be at the forefront of the transition to a circular, reuse economy and finding new ways of giving consumers the products they need," said Kim Underhill, president of Kimberly-Clark's North American Consumer Business. "We realize getting there will take game-changing innovation, and we know we're up to the challenge to do more by joining the U.S. Plastics Pact," Ms. Underhill continued.

Members of the U.S. Plastics Pact will work to create a list of packaging materials that are problematic or unnecessary, and take steps to eliminate them by 2025, the group said. Also by 2025, the group's members will strive to use packaging that is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable, and take action to "effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging." The group also said it has a goal that by 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.

Chile, France, South Africa and the Netherlands are among countries with national plastics pacts, the group said.

--Write to Stephen Nakrosis at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 25, 2020 16:08 ET (20:08 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.