2018 will mark the turning point for the world of plastic packaging. Never before had public opinion, the media and major organisations paid so much attention to the problem of plastic pollution, particularly with regard to seas and oceans. This is why at the start of the year, from Davos, the world's largest plastic packaging manufacturers and distributors announced that all plastic will be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

Leading the charge is the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which managed to bring together under a single umbrella more than ten major companies that between them produce over 6 million tonnes of plastic packaging per year. Among them are Unilever, Amcor, Ecover, evian, L'Oréal, Mars, M&S, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Walmart and Werner & Mertz. All have made public commitments to rethink their entire industrial approach to plastic. Today, only 15 per cent of plastic packaging is recycled.

Major companies set the pace

"It's great news that so many more big companies are responding to the challenge of plastic waste in the oceans," said Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever. "Unilever, as a consumer goods company, needs to do even more and faster in this area, taking the lead in transitioning to a circular consumption model, away from take-make-dispose."

And that is precisely the point. If we want to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy, it is essential that the consumer goods industry takes responsibility for providing new solutions, investing in technologies, innovation and materials. In 2016 (data from the Rapporto Italia del Riciclo 2018), global production of plastics stood at 335 Mt, representing a 4 per cent increase compared to 2015. In Europe, total production was 60 Mt, also up 3.4 per cent on the previous year. And it is packaging that remains the primary application for plastics, accounting for almost 40 per cent of plastics processed in Europe.

More must therefore be done. Danone has announced, for example, that within six years all its packaging will be produced from recycled plastic, while Nestlé will increase its use of recycled plastics, including using 25 per cent rPet (recycled PET) in its bottles across Europe by 2025. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Company also have ambitious targets. The latter, in particular, aims to collect and recycle 100 per cent of its packaging sold by 2030. A strong signal, certainly, that now simply awaits its effective implementation.