L’Oréal and Henkel Join Plastics Pact

L’Oréal USA and Henkel North America are among the first companies to join the newly formed U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative rooted in 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.
 
L’Oréal USA
 
In June 2020, L’Oréal launched a new sustainability program, “L’Oréal for the Future,” the Group’s latest set of bold sustainability targets for 2030. Recognizing the growing environmental and social challenges the planet is facing, “L’Oréal for the Future” accelerates the beauty leader’s transformation towards a business model that respects planetary boundaries and reinforces its commitments to both sustainability and inclusion around the world.
 
“L’Oréal is committed to doing our part to protect the planet from the global climate crisis we are facing, and we are transforming our business to do so, said Danielle Azoulay, head of CSR and Sustainability, L’Oréal USA. “We know that the impact of our global sustainability commitment, L’Oréal for the Future, will reach its full potential through collaboration—across our entire value chain, our industry and beyond it. We are proud to be part of the U.S. Plastics Pact and join over 60 organizations in working together toward system-wide change toward a circular economy for plastic in the United States.”
 
Henkel North America
 
Henkel North America‘s consumer products businesses are well on their way to achieving the company’s global target of 100 percent of packaging being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. The company also aims to reduce the amount of new plastics from fossil sources in its consumer products by 50% by 2025.
 
To help avoid the disposal of waste into the environment, Henkel’s North America consumer products manufacturing facilities are also on target to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2021. As part of its broader sustainability strategy, the company has set global climate and energy commitments including being climate positive by 2040, with 2025 targets that include a 65% reduction of the CO2 emissions of its production, and a reduction of 100 million tons of CO2 saved together with its consumers, customers and suppliers.
 
“Henkel is committed to developing more intelligent packaging for the benefit of people and the planet. Our mission is to integrate materials from sustainable sources into intelligent designs to complete the circle,” said Jillaine Dellis, head of sustainability for Henkel North America’s Consumer Products business. “We are proud to join the U.S. Plastics Pact as a founding member, reinforcing Henkel’s own comprehensive commitments to develop solutions that minimize and manage plastic waste.”
 
Goals of the Pact
 
In joining the U.S. Plastics Pact, L’Oréal USA and Henkel commit to deliver these four targets:
 

• Define a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025. 
• By 2025, 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%. 

 
Results of measurable change in each of the target areas and transparent reporting are key outcomes of the U.S. Plastics Pact. Progress of the U.S. Pact will be tracked through WWF’s ReSource: Plastic Footprint Tracker, which provides a standard methodology to track companies’ plastic footprints and publicly report on of their plastic waste commitments each year. The report will be made publicly available each year.