NEENAH, Wis., Aug. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark today announced it has joined the U.S.
Plastics Pact, a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative rooted
in four ambitious goals intended to drive significant systems
change by unifying diverse cross-sector approaches, setting a
national strategy, and creating scalable solutions to create a path
forward toward a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025. The first North
American Pact of its kind, the U.S. Pact is a collaboration led by
The Recycling Partnership, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Ellen
MacArthur Foundation.
As part of the U.S. Plastics Pact, Kimberly-Clark and its trusted brands including
Kleenex®, Cottonelle® and Huggies® join more than 70
brands, retailers, NGOs, and government agencies across the
plastics value chain working to bring one voice to U.S. packaging
through coordinated initiatives and innovative solutions for
rethinking products, packaging, and business models.
"We aspire to be at the forefront of the transition to a
circular, reuse economy and finding new ways of giving consumers
the products they need," said Kim
Underhill, President of Kimberly-Clark's North American Consumer Business. "We
realize getting there will take game-changing innovation, and we
know we're up to the challenge to do more by joining the U.S.
Plastics Pact."
As a founding Activator of the U.S. Plastics
Pact, Kimberly-Clark has agreed to collectively deliver
against these four ambitious goals across its U.S. business, in
alignment with the company's 2030 strategy and goals.
- By 2021, define a list of packaging to be designated as
problematic or unnecessary and take measures to eliminate them by
2025.
- By 2025, ensure all plastic packaging is 100% reusable,
recyclable, or compostable.
- By 2025, undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or
compost 50% of plastic packaging.
- By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced
bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.
While the U.S. Plastics Pact is complementary to, and follows
the ambitious precedents set by the existing global network of
Plastic Pacts, it will be tailored to meet the unique needs and
challenges of the U.S. market. The Pact will reflect national
priorities and realities, while still propelling the nation closer
to other developed nations in its management of plastic waste.
"Together through the U.S. Plastics Pact, we will ignite system
change to accelerate progress toward a circular economy," says
Sarah Dearman, Vice President of
Circular Ventures for The Recycling Partnership. "The U.S. Pact
will accelerate systemwide change by inspiring and supporting
upstream innovation through a coordinated national strategy,
creating a unified framework and enabling members to accelerate
progress toward our ambitious 2025 sustainability goals. Members'
full participation will be vital to reaching our shared goals."
Achieving this vision will require new levels of accountability
from all facets of the plastics supply chain. The U.S. Plastics
Pact emphasizes measurable change and as such, Kimberly-Clark is committed to transparent, annual
reporting, guided by WWF's ReSource: Plastic Footprint Tracker,
which will be used to document annual progress against our four
goals. The first task of the founding Activators of the U.S.
Plastics Pact will be to establish a "roadmap" in Q1 2021 to
identify key milestones and national solutions to achieving the
U.S. targets and realize a circular economy in which plastic
never becomes waste.
In addition to joining the U.S. Plastics Pact, Kimberly-Clark recently announced its new 2030
sustainability strategy and goals, aimed at addressing the
social and environmental challenges of the next decade with
commitments to improve the lives and wellbeing of one billion
people in underserved communities around the world with the
smallest environmental footprint. Kimberly-Clark understands
that a strong and enduring focus on the smallest environmental
footprint is just as essential to helping people live a better
life. To that end, the company is focused on the areas where it can
make the biggest difference – climate, forests, water and plastics.
For more information on Kimberly-Clark's sustainability ambitions for 2030,
please visit Kimberly-Clark.com.
About Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its trusted brands
are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175
countries. Fueled by ingenuity, creativity, and an understanding of
people's most essential needs, we create products that help
individuals experience more of what's important to them. Our
portfolio of brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex,
Cottonelle, Poise, Depend, Andrex, Pull-Ups, GoodNites, Intimus,
Neve, Plenitud, Viva and WypAll, hold the No. 1 or No. 2 share
position in 80 countries. We use sustainable practices that support
a healthy planet, build stronger communities, and ensure our
business thrives for decades to come. To keep up with the latest
news and to learn more about the company's 148-year history of
innovation, visit kimberly-clark.com.
About The Recycling Partnership
The Recycling
Partnership is a national nonprofit organization that leverages
corporate partner funding to transform recycling for good in
states, cities, and communities nationwide. As the leading
organization in the country that engages the full recycling supply
chain from the corporations that manufacture products and packaging
to local governments charged with recycling to industry end
markets, haulers, material recovery facilities, and converters, The
Recycling Partnership positively impacts recycling at every step in
the process. Since 2014, the nonprofit change agent diverted 230
million pounds of new recyclables from landfills, saved 465 million
gallons of water, avoided more than 250,000 metric tons of
greenhouse gases, and drove significant reductions in targeted
contamination rates. Learn more at
www.recyclingpartnership.org.
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SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Corporation