Closed Loop Partners secures PepsiCo, Starbucks and McDonald’s for Composting Consortium launch

11 Nov 2021 --- Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy is launching the two-year Composting Consortium to increase the recovery of compostable food packaging and pursue circular outcomes. 

“As the market for compostable packaging is poised to grow 17% annually between 2020 and 2027, it’s critical stakeholders align to meet the growth and fully recover the value of these materials,” Katy Daly, managing director at the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, tells PackagingInsights.

Composting Consortium’s founding partners are PepsiCo and the NextGen Consortium, composed of Starbucks, McDonald’s and other foodservice brands.

They are joined by supporting partners Colgate-Palmolive, The Kraft Heinz Company, Mars, Incorporated and Target Corporation, and industry partners the Biodegradable Products Institute and the US Plastics Pact.

The consortium’s advisory partners include Compost Manufacturing Alliance, Foodservice Packaging Institute, Google, ReFED, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, TIPA, University College London and World Wildlife Fund. 

“When diverse stakeholders come together, this sends a unified market signal incentivizing manufacturers to adopt [environmentally] sustainable practices, accelerate advancements by increasing efficiencies through shared insights, and reframe the issue beyond short-term fixes to long-lasting, systemic solutions,” adds Daly.

Consortium goals
The consortium will execute on-the-ground pilots and consumer insight research to identify best practices for design, labeling, policy and collection and processing of compostable materials.

Based on its findings, it will then make recommendations for investment in the recovery system. Its initiatives also include: 

• Creating a decision-making design tool to establish packaging formats best served by compostable versus other materials.
• Incentivizing market pull to recover valuable compostable materials, and avoid unintended consequences from shifting to new materials.
• Identifying opportunities for regional pilots testing consumer understanding of labels, processing and sorting innovations at composting facilities.

Supporting legislation
National and regional legislation supporting investment in expanded composting infrastructure will play a “critical role” in ‘closing the loop’ on compostable materials, says Daly.

These key stakeholders are uniting at a critical time as the regulatory landscape around compostable packaging evolves.For example, the Cultivating Organic Matter through the Promotion of Sustainable Techniques (COMPOST) Act was introduced to the US Congress this July. 

The new bill aims to create new US Department of Agriculture grant and loan guarantee programs for composting infrastructure projects, including large-scale composting facilities and farm, home, or community-based projects. 

At the time, PackagingInsights spoke with Gary Robinson, director of public affairs at TIPA, about how consumer education is instrumental in getting the bill passed.

Furthermore, Daly points to regional legislation mandating the diversion of organics from landfills, and the US Composting Infrastructure Coalition, encouraging policymakers to expand US composting infrastructure. 

A shared responsibility
Three of the consortium’s partners − PepsiCo, Mars International and Colgate-Palmolive − are repeatedly named “global top polluters” in Break Free From Plastic’s annual brand audits.

“Competing brands experience the same shared challenge. Typically, after point of sale, they lose sight of their product or packaging,” Daly emphasizes.

According to Innova Market Insights, 64% of consumers worldwide view consumer behavior as the most significant contributor to the global plastic pollution crisis, followed by packaging suppliers (51%), FMCG companies (44%) and regulatory bodies (42%).

Daly insists a collaborative spirit is a prerequisite for joining the Composting Consortium. “The consortium will gather insights and data ranging from consumer responses to labeling to best practices for innovative sortation technologies, while making recommendations for where capital can be most catalytic in increasing food scrap and compostable packaging recovery,” she concludes.

By Anni Schleicher