Dive Brief:

• Plastic for packaging made up 36% of all plastic production in 2015. This is higher than any other use, according to a 2017 study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Georgia; and the Sea Education Association. The researchers said the publication was the "first global analysis of all mass-produced plastics."
• Packaging represents a greater share of the plastic waste stream than its share of the total plastic currently being produced. The plastics from packaging entering the waste stream were more recently produced than plastics from other areas, the study found. 
• "Most of the packaging plastics leave use the same year they are produced, whereas construction plastics leaving use were produced decades earlier, when production quantities were much lower," the study reads.

Dive Insight:

More packaging plastic is being recycled than ever before, and retailers and manufacturers are taking a hard look at their practices in an attempt to reduce the amount of plastic packaging they use in their operations.

Adam Gendell, the associate director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), said progress is being made on making more sustainable packaging. SPC is a nonprofit with members that include many of the nation's largest companies; its Executive Committee includes employees of 3M, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics.....Read more

Source web page: Supplychaindive.com