English
March 2024
Report: The Global Commitment - five years in

Since its launch in 2018, the Global Commitment has led the way and quickly become one of the first and largest coordinated efforts to tackle plastic waste and pollution on an international scale.

Initiated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the UN Environment Programme, the Global Commitment has seen over 1000 organisations from across the world, including businesses representing 20% of all plastic packaging used globally, and 55 government signatories, mobilise behind a common vision to stop plastic packaging from becoming waste.

The signatories all agreed to ambitious voluntary targets by 2025 and collectively committed more than US$10 billion towards meeting those goals.

As the latest annual report shows, while many of these targets will likely be missed, the five years of learnings will be used to chart an achievable path beyond 2025. The Global Commitment has certainly encouraged businesses to address plastic pollution as a key issue and record data on their packaging footprints.

The report now calls for stricter measures to be introduced, including support for a legally binding instrument – with the Global Plastics Treaty highlighted as a key mechanism in this regard.

Additionally, it stresses the need to accelerate the rollout of Extended Producer Responsibility regulations for packaging in countries without an EPR policy, to meaningfully scale collection and recycling infrastructure, and drive the circular economy, by seeking to:

  • Eliminate plastic not needed;
  • Innovate towards new materials and business models; and
  • Circulate all the plastic still in use.

 

READ THE REPORT

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