Canada Plastics Pact promotes ‘Golden Design Rules’ for plastics packaging

Image Credit: Canada Plastics Pact

In a bid to help companies adjust packaging design “to contribute to a circular economy for plastics packaging,” the Canada Plastics Pact (CPP) and some large brand companies have put together a list of so-called “Golden Design Rules” that are publicly available through a new microsite.

According to the CPP, 30 Canadian companies – including 20 CPP partners – have already signed on to 50 per cent or more of the Golden Design Rules. The rules include increasing value in PET recycling, removing problematic elements from packaging, increasing the recycling value in rigid HDPE and polypropylene, among others.

“The Golden Design Rules…were developed by The Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastic Waste Coalition of Action, and they outline specific design changes aligned with globally recognized technical guidelines and targets laid out in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment,” CPP officials said.

CPP said the nine Golden Design Rules are “voluntary, independent, and time-bound commitments” which provide a clear framework to drive innovation and scalable actions that will result in less plastic packaging overall and easier to recycle plastic packaging by 2025.

“The Golden Design Rules address a root cause of why plastic packaging ends up in nature: the complexity of plastic recycling,” CPP said. “Plastic recycling is complicated by poor packaging design, the inclusion of problematic materials, the presence of excess packaging, and the low commercial value of post-consumer recycled content.”

The CPP is a multi-stakeholder, industry-led, cross-value chain collaboration platform created in 2021 to tackle the nation’s plastic waste and pollution problem. CPP members include some of the country’s largest consumer product makers and retailers, including Coca-Cola Co., Colgate Palmolive and Walmart Canada.