US Plastics Pact / Emily Tipaldo Executive Director

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-tipaldo-305b86a/

https://usplasticspact.org/

What are the 4 goals of the US Plastics Pact? 
1: Reduction of unneeded material 
2: 100% Reusable / Recyclable / Compostable 
3: Achieve a 50% Recycling rate for plastic 
4: Increase PCR usage to 30% 

Thank you so much Emily for being on our show! You're a very wise person and a real thought leader in this sustainable packaging world. 

Check out our sponsor Orora Packaging Solutions 
https://ororapackagingsolutions.com/

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/

I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.

This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

Cory Connors: 0:31

Welcome to sustainable packaging with Cory Connors . Today's guest is Emily Tipaldo . She is the executive director of the U S plastics pact. Hi Emily.

Emily Tipaldo: 0:42

Hi Corey. Thanks so much for having

Cory Connors: 0:44

me. Thanks for being on the show. I'm excited to talk to you. I know you guys are doing some great things in the sustainable packaging space and helping us out a lot, but I'd love to hear about your background. Can you, can you talk us through what, how you got into this?

Emily Tipaldo: 0:59

Sure I am a it's a non nontraditional path, I guess. So if you had asked me. Years ago where I would be in 2022. This is not what I would have told you. So I have a background I'm an undergraduate degree in American history and a graduate degree in international relations. And thought I would be doing some sort of work with a think tank or something. And the, when I was finishing up grad school, The economy was changing very quickly. Lehman brothers had collapsed and so on. So I had to kind of figure out what I was going to do because my plans weren't, weren't going to pan out as I thought. And I found my way to a trade association. I didn't even know what they were or that they existed. Even coming out of grad school really was unfamiliar. But I knew. I did have a sense that I wanted to use skills to work with businesses and to impact policy in some way, but I didn't really have an interest to get into politics or work on the hill or stuff like that. So I wanted to find that intersection and I was able to do that through my work with the trade association, I went to work for the American chemistry council. I started out in their regulatory. And technical affairs department. Initially did a little bit of paralegal work for them. And then about halfway through my time there, I was there for almost 10 years, moved to their plastics division. And that's where I worked with many of the major plastic resin suppliers for the U S packaging market. And then. All of their value chains and customers and so on. So I, and that's really where I was able to kind of sink my teeth into plastics, challenges and packaging and sustainability. I had done a little bit of sustainability work in the green chemistry realm in my role on the regulatory side of things with the association, but then. Really got to dig in more and learn. I learned a ton working with the companies and with the leadership that I had at the time. In my role as, as packaging director for the plastics division at the American chemistry council. So I then went on to work for a small consulting firm called Stena, Inc. Some folks may know it. They were formerly known as more recycling and they gather a lot of recycling data in north America. They do some project management. And then after that, I found my way to the plastics pact. So here we are.

Cory Connors: 3:49

Wow. That's quite a story. That's an amazing and impressive background. I've I've interviewed. I think you're number 95 on this podcast. No one has said, oh, I want it to be in packaging when I was young. Nobody actually one, one person, Jonathan Quinn. Cause his is, he's an amazing guy. He has a really cool story and history, but Yeah, he's the only one because he grew up around packaging with his family. But yeah. Wow. So tell us about the U S plastics pact. What is it?

Emily Tipaldo: 4:28

Sure. So, so the why I think is always the most important thing. The why of the last expect is we know that the plastics waste challenge is too big for any one company or organization to address. And plastic packaging is very much contributing to. Issue of mismanaged plastic waste. And our remit is to do that within the boundaries of the United States. And we are part of a larger global network of plastics packs that stem from work coming out of the Ellen MacArthur foundation. New plastics economy work. So in 2017 ish, the Ellen MacArthur foundation put together their global commitment to build a circular economy for plastic packaging. And they recruited signatories a lot of multinational companies and other service providers, some public sector folks signed onto this global commitment, again, sort of 2017. 2018 timeline. And they they've since had a number of other companies sign on, but it was then where companies were committing to particular things to build a circular economy for plastic packaging. And then I think folks quickly realized that in order to achieve these commitments at a global level, they had to be able to operationalize things in the major markets in which they operate. So then this idea. Individuals sort of in-country plastics packs came about and the UK plastics pact was the first one to form and they are the oldest packs. There are now 12 packs around the world and we launched in August of 2020.

Cory Connors: 6:24

Oh, wow. So fairly new.

Emily Tipaldo: 6:26

Yes, we are fairly new and it's been kind of a really interesting experience because we launched sort of in the middle of everything going on with the pandemic and until this past March. So. From August, 2020 until March of 2022, we did everything virtually and it was very like bizarre, but I you know, kudos to everyone who's been involved. We, we launched with 62 signatories, which we call activators because they are the companies and organizations taking action to meet. Commitment of building a circular economy. We now have over 110. Wow. So we've been able to gain a lot of momentum, have had really amazing participation and commitment in the short time that we've been together.

Cory Connors: 7:20

That's incredible. Can you give us a couple names of companies that are really involved with this?

Emily Tipaldo: 7:26

Sure, sure. And I invite anyone to just take a look at our, our website. There's a bunch of information there and all of our, our activators are signatories are listed there, but we have so I mentioned we have over 110, roughly half of those would fall as corporate entities and it just kind of organically. Worked out that way. And so those corporate groups or companies span the gamut again of the plastics packaging value chain. So we have for example, Eastman and any owes as resin producers who are participating with the pact, we have a handful of converters who are participating. With the pact. I don't mean to leave anyone, leave anyone out here, but

Cory Connors: 8:13

no, it's okay.

Emily Tipaldo: 8:14

But so, so major converters, as well as a handful of consumer goods companies, like all shapes and sizes publicly held multinational CPGs, privately held companies. Smaller companies, bigger companies Murph. So material recovery, facility operators, and some hollers, some other reclaimers or recyclers all the way at the other end. We have five retailers who are participating with us, so all hold all the targets. Walmart Grove collaborative. So it's a great group. And then like there's a whole cohort of nonprofit entities, which includes environmental NGOs, academic institutions, and public sector public sector entities as well. So it's, it's really cool to have, we have some participating cities as well as counties and the state of Washington.

Cory Connors: 9:15

And of course the state of Washington, I live in Oregon. So Oregon I'm sure will follow next. It, all you have to say is Washington did it and they'll say, oh, wow, well, you should do that too. There's a friendly competition between the two states as to who, who will be the most green and environmentally friendly. So. That makes perfect sense. Can you, can you tell us what a Murph would, would, would do as involved with the pact that they wouldn't do? If they weren't?

Emily Tipaldo: 10:24

That's a great question. So. One of the great things about the pact is everyone who's signed on and participating has the same access to information ability to participate, ability to hold leadership positions. So it's great to bring all of the different entities together. I think a few things. So being able to kind of be at the table as a Murph and offer your. Thoughts and see kind of what other companies are thinking. So those who are putting product out into the marketplace, how are they thinking about making changes? What are the conversations that are happening about that offering guidance? So we not too long ago in January of 2022, This year, we released our problematic and unnecessary materials list, which has brought about a lot of conversation. It's, it's one of our deliverable on one of our primary targets that we're trying to reach in terms of eliminating things that may be contaminants or problematic for the recycling or composting streams. And again with that eyes, toward , we're trying to build a circular economy and we can't continue to do the same thing and kind of cram it into this other system and expect it all to work. Right. So, you know, taking you know, I like to kind of lead people back to the U S CPAs waste hierarchy, where reduction is at the very top of that. So we need to look at, you know, what can we reduce from the system? Because we're not necessarily going to recycle our way out of our challenges. And so I, in that process of building that list of what should be reduced, our MRF's, their voices were definitely heard in terms of, you know, what is winding up in our residuals, what causes contamination. Our facilities and so on. So being able to kind of plug in in that way and offer some thought leadership to, , for, for the broader group, as we're making considerations and, and ensuring that those voices are heard.

Cory Connors: 12:42

Yeah, that's absolutely great. And it sounds like what I've heard from some of the folks in the recycling world is we want mono material. It has to be, and. You know, mixed material, packaging is garbage. It becomes waste without some kind of advanced recycling techniques, which are in process. So there is positive coming. But I was at a waste 360 last year and there, there was a sorting machines that were with a puff of air sorting the different plastics that could scan the material. Incredible. And they could tell if it was HTPE P E T E PVC w whatever the material wasn't, it blew it into the right zone to be grouped together. But those, I definitely think those machines will be at most Murph's in the future. There's

Emily Tipaldo: 13:37

some incredible technology.

Cory Connors: 13:40

Yeah, so that's kind of exciting, but as from my point of view, as a packaging supplier, I want to be able to know what what's positive for them. So that was you know, why that was so interesting to me. So tell us about the roadmap to 2025. I was impressed by this, on your website and would like to hear.

Emily Tipaldo: 14:03

So our roadmap before I get into the roadmap, I think it's worth noting because they all kind of fit together. So , our broader goal is building this circular economy , for plastics packaging. And as part of that, the U S plastics pact as with other packs around the world we are working toward for really aggressive goals on a 20, 25 times. And I kind of alluded to one of those in talking about the problematic and unnecessary materials list. So the first target or goal is around reduction of those, those things that may be problematic or unnecessary and identifying those. The second goal is around ensuring that a hundred percent of plastic packaging is either reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. And they're very kind of, and I can come back to this to they're very specific definitions when we use those terms about reusable, recyclable, compostable. The third target that we're working toward is taking action as the U S plastics pact to achieve a 50% recycling rate or composting rates in the U S so that's. Being able to impact the national recycling rate and then last, but definitely not least the fourth target focuses on really driving up the use of post-consumer recycled content. So our goal is to to aim for 30%. On average and that's by weight, post-consumer recycled content in plastic packaging. And that would be, again, sort of the parameters of that would be the packaging that is put on to the U S market by our cohort, or, you know, those members of the U S plastics pack. So we've gotten these. For Target's really aggressive timeline. And then it became, okay, well, how are you going to do it? Like, what are the outcomes that track back to those four? And then what are the tactics and activities? And that's what our roadmap is. So the other way I like to talk about it too, because I think this is a true sort of point of value of the plastics pack is we currently do not have. Federal leadership on the creation of a circular economy. Either writ large or for plastic packaging and. So we very much see ourselves as developing that strategy for plastic packaging. And that in essence is our roadmap that we published last June. So again, it's on our website and encourage folks to take a look, but it very much starts, it breaks down those four targets that we're looking to meet by 2025 and speaks to. Again, what are we expecting in terms of outcomes? How are we going to get to those outcomes with different activities and engagement and deliverables and goo meaning which part of the value chain will be sort of critical to ensuring that those deliverables actually happen?

Cory Connors: 17:21

Well, it's an impressive list. Wow. Well done. And I think, I think it's doable. I think you guys can do it. I want to, I want to talk about a couple of these specific points because a lot of people say only 9% of plastic is, is recycled. And the reason why that's wrong when we talk about packaging, maybe that stat is correct for all of plastic, but then, but then we have to look. You know, 60% of our vehicles were made out of plastic. So that's never going to get recycled because you're going to use your car for 30 years. You know, things like that really make that number skewed. So I'd like to, I'd like to focus on the fact that you said 50% recycling rate for, for ha plastic packaging specifically. And my understanding of that number is it's about 35%, right? Is that

Emily Tipaldo: 18:15

accurate, that might even be generous. So our calculation and another great piece of work that we actually published in early March, also on our website is our first baseline report. And I can talk about that more, but in there we did a calculation specific to plastic packaging, and what's kind of in scope And it tracks with, if you go back to the USCPA sustainable materials management report, which is, I know a couple of years old at this time at this time, but it's more like 13.3 or 13.4, 13.3% ish for plastic packaging, but you're right. And that. The 9% thing kind of drives me bananas because it, because it is you're talking about all plastics in the economy and to your point, like a big chunk of those are in durable goods. And so you got to peel that off and then just look at the. Plastic packaging

Cory Connors: 19:13

piece. Yeah. And unfortunately, 13% isn't much better. So to get to 50% is awesome. It's a huge Delta, but with some aggressive actions, I think it's possible we'll have to make some really quick decisions and, and changes. Do you feel like extended producer responsibility is going to take shape here? As a, as a big effect on.

Emily Tipaldo: 19:40

So hopefully that's one of the things that the U S plastics pact has voiced sort of general support for extended producer responsibility, as well as deposit return systems kind of nationally across the U S to really help drive up the material coming into the stream. As well as post consumer recycled. Mandates, we're also supportive of those to drive the demand side of things. But yes, I mean, definitely EPR and deposit return. I think, you know, we need, we need the funding and, and the other thing that comes with with EPR, which is also needed, sort of is just kind of the streamlining of what is collected in each municipality. And. A more sort of baseline understanding and acceptance of, of things collected. So EPR could help with all of that. And yes, we definitely see it as part of the solution.

Cory Connors: 20:44

That's excellent. I interviewed the national can manufacturers Institute just earlier this week. And to hear the numbers of aluminum is really exciting, but they have, they have aggressive goals there. They're shooting for 70% recycling rate. If you understand how a Murph works to pull metal out is I know you do. I'm talking to the audience. The I was like, I'm not criticizing you. I know you're a brilliant. The to, to understand how a Murph works. There's magnets in there that pull out metal very easily. So any aluminum or steel is, is highest recycling rates which is wonderful. So that number to get to 70%, if we get plastic to 50%. You know, this is, this is the kind of change that we need so well done. I

Emily Tipaldo: 21:36

don't know if you've ever mentioned this to your listeners, but I always encourage people to contact their local Murph. And because Nora, they often do educational tours and it is mind blowing. If you've never been in a Murph to go, I encourage everybody to go check it out.

Cory Connors: 21:54

I agree. That's a great statement. Everybody listened to Emily, go to your Murph, go talk to them, call them up. If they don't have capabilities that are necessary, then work with companies like Bridwell and recycling. To, to make positive change in your area and set up programs where you can actually recycle there's also recycling available at different grocery stores for plastics to be I interviewed trucks just a few months ago an amazing company. They are absolutely affecting positive change in a huge way with plastic recycling and It's exciting to see what's possible when people really do things that are positive. So, so what do you think companies should be focused on in regards to sustainable packaging?

Emily Tipaldo: 22:47

That's a great, a great question. And I know I always find myself trying not to make assumptions about things because of. I get in trouble when I do. And I'm, I am realizing that. You know, companies of all shapes and sizes are hungry for guidance and direction. And they're, they're interested in case studies, they're interested in what their competitors are doing. Of course, they're interested in how others have approached challenges, whether, whether it worked or it didn't work. I mean, all of those points are good to learn from. So I think whether it's part of. You know, part of the U S plastics pact or other research initiatives and projects, just being part of some sort of pre competitive space as a company to kind of work through and talk about challenges that you're having. If you're looking to make changes in your supply chain or changes to certain packaging lines, or even just, if you're focused on one sort of material change You know, there you're not alone, most likely, and there are others grappling with the same issues. So again, being able to kind of find the pre-competitive way to work through that is helpful. The other thing I kind of challenge companies with is to kind of take a moment to stop and think about what you're trying to do. And in your mind, tease apart. What is in my control and what is not in my control, right? Because as, as a consumer goods company or as a converter, there's a lot that is within your control. It may not necessarily be cheap or easily. But you have so many opportunities and capabilities of impacting again, how things are delivered to the market and converters have such amazing sort of engineering power to create solutions for things. There is a lot that's within your control. And then there are these other things that I would argue are more like system-wide things where it takes, you know, multiple parties together to impact change, or policy might be an example of that. But at the same time, you can't ignore and you really need to kind of just grab it and take ownership, even if it's hard, all of the things that are within your control in terms of making. Positive changes toward commitments or goals or trying to meet.

Cory Connors: 25:32

Yeah, well said. And I wish that sustainability was sourced like Tesla, you know, like let's just share everything that we've known that we've learned that we know with everybody so that we can all get to this point where we are sustainable and circular and renewable and all of these things that need to happen to you know, Calm everything down. It seems like, you know, it seems like there's this fear which is great because I think fear drives change. And I hope that these people will listen to you. I really, I want to be an advocate for what you're doing there and So thank you for your hard work. I did have a great interview with Dallas specialty plastics. They're doing, they're doing some amazing things with multilayer, mano materials. Wow. Like my, my friends that are just like blew me away with the different comments and the different things that they're working on. But

Emily Tipaldo: 26:31

yeah. Yeah. They're, they're doing great things. So when you said open source there. Good recent example that pops to mind. I don't know if you've ever interviewed anyone from Colgate, but they have done they might be a good guest. They've done a ton of work recently around their toothpaste tubes and provided a lot of open source information about the redesign of their tubes to be To be mano material high density polyethylene. So I think that's a great example because they know that in order for something to really kind of take hold and consumers, to be able to act on it in terms of what do we do with this package when we're finished, the majority of the market needs to be there. So that's one great example.

Cory Connors: 27:22

And if anybody's listening from Colgate, reach out to me, I'm, I'm down. Let's talk. Because I've heard about this, I've watched some different shows and what a, what a huge innovation actually ahead of its time before it could even be easily recycled. But that's what it takes. You have to sometimes it's cart before the horse. Sometimes it's chicken before the egg, you know, it just, we need to make all of the positive changes and then it'll all come together to make this, these big numbers work. Yeah. Well, this has been amazing. Thank you so much, Emily. How, how do people get involved? How, how can I get Oregon to sign up? What's the deal? How do you guys do it?

Emily Tipaldo: 28:04

Yeah. So again, I encourage folks to check out our website. You can contact. There encourage any kind of companies or organizations to, to think about joining us. We'd be happy to set up time to talk about it. Just for everyone familiarity with what you can. Recycle is a great way to start. So going to your municipal website in terms of what is or isn't collected and being an advocate for that, I think like one thing that really sticks with me and just thinking about our recycling rates and whatnot, I mean, we, right now aren't even recycling a pet water or soda bottle above 30%. It's like, And there are so many out there. So it's like, and this is kind of, there is a silver lining there because we know how to do this. Right. And we have the capabilities to do it. We just need to do it. So you know, encouraging folks I'm like that person at parties, who's like picking stuff out of the trash. You know, just thinking about small actions that you take every day. Really helpful.

Cory Connors: 29:23

Yeah. Well said. And if, if you're a student, if you're listening and you're part of a school or a teacher you know, encourage your whole school to jump in to this idea, or if you work in an office, encourage people to bring their own containers or set up a recycling program for bottles and cans. And you know, there's so many little things that can make big impacts. Yeah, definitely. Well, I'd like to thank Landsberg Orora for sponsoring this podcast. If you're listening, please give us a review. It means a lot to us and make sure you subscribe. So you don't miss the next episode. Thank you so much, Emily. I appreciate it.

Emily Tipaldo: 30:03

Really appreciate it.