Goal #12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
Sustainable consumption and production aim at ‘doing more and better with less’, increasing net welfare gains from economic activities by reducing resource use, degradation and pollution along the whole lifecycle, while increasing quality of life. This requires a systemic approach and cooperation among actors operating in the supply chain, from producer to final consumer. It involves engaging consumers through awareness-raising and education on sustainable consumption and lifestyles, providing consumers with adequate information through standards and labels and engaging in sustainable public procurement, among others.
There is wide societal consensus that the linear business model of take-make-consume-dispose cannot be reconciled with resource efficient, sustainable economies. The circular economy model, where resource consumption is decoupled from economic growth, enables societies to thrive while respecting the limits of the natural world.
- In the past few years, the BPF has taken several steps and initiated different workstreams aimed at identifying priorities and areas of impact in the transition to the circular economy model. Some of these are:
- Monitoring and trialling different solutions as the retail environment evolves
- Investing in innovative sorting and recycling technologies around the world
- Being willing to promote reuse mechanisms in cases where it makes clear sense to do so
- Being willing to pay a fair share of the cost of recovering and recycling plastic products
- Developing and promoting eco-design guides to ensure plastic packaging is easily recyclable
- Being committed to stopping any plastic packaging going to landfill before 2030
BPF's PackScore Helps to Address Sustainability at Production Stage
The tool has been developed for brands, retailers and designers to use at the earliest stages of packaging design, to assess whether the packaging can be easily recycled, and adjust the product’s features to ensure it can.
The design of packaging often involves collaboration between designers, manufacturers, and brands. PackScore has been created to sit at the earliest stage in this often lengthy process, particularly for individuals without extensive technical knowledge, or for where exact material specification is not known.
Other eco-design tools typically require more technical detail than is often to hand at an early stage, and PackScore has been developed as a simplified tool to fill this gap in the market. The tool is designed to be easy to use, and works also to educate, and to help steer the final design to ensure sustainability is part of the conversation between all involved in the creation of plastic packaging.
