Canada Plastics Pact releases ‘2020 Baseline Report,’ setting a benchmark to measure future efforts in achieving a circular economy for plastics

OTTAWA, July 7, 2022 — The Canada Plastics Pact (CPP) today published its 2020 Baseline Report outlining the plastics packaging landscape the year prior to its launch. 

The Report marks an important starting point for the CPP and its efforts to transition to a more circular economy for plastics packaging in Canada, with an emphasis on collaboration to drive the systems change required.

In 2019, it’s estimated that Canada generated 1.89 million tonnes of plastic packaging, of which only 12% was recycled.  In response to the issues around plastic packaging in Canada, 41 stakeholders from across the plastics packaging value chain came together to launch the CPP in 2021. 

As part of the organization’s commitment to transparency, Partners that join the CPP have agreed to share data to support the initial baseline as a benchmark, followed by annual reporting to measure progress toward the four targets outlined in the CPP’s Roadmap to 2025. Key metrics reported in the 2020 Baseline Report include:

222,447 metric tonnes (MT) = total weight of plastic packaging were placed on the market by CPP’s Partners that reported for 2020.
At least 11.8% of plastics generated in the Canadian market was from CPP Partners.
The top 3 plastic packaging formats represented within the CPP by weight were PET bottles, HDPE bottles, and >A4 mono-material PE flexibles in B2C context.
 
Target 1: 66% of CPP Partners were taking specific action to eliminate certain types of plastic packaging in 2020.
Target 2: 43% of plastic packaging placed on the market by CPP Partners was designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable in 2020.
Target 3: 12% of plastic packaging is estimated to have been recycled in Canada in 2019, and only 1% flexible packaging.
Target 4: 10% was the average amount of post consumer recycled (PCR) content (by weight) across plastic packaging produced by CPP Partners.

“The Canada Plastics Pact’s 2020 Baseline Report provides data points that show that, while many of our CPP Partners are actively working to tackle the issues around plastics waste and pollution, we are just at the beginning of supporting the system-wide changes we’ll need to see to support the circular plastics economy of the future. There were good examples of leadership and collaboration underway in Canada, but many of the efforts were fragmented and lacked scale,” says Paul Shorthouse, Interim Managing Director at the Canada Plastics Pact. “While there is a lot of work still to be done, I’m excited about the opportunities in front of us and having this baseline to help measure our progress towards CPP’s 2025 targets and beyond is a critical first step.”

While there’s a long road ahead towards achieving full circularity, since the CPP’s launch in 2021, approximately 90 Partners are now actively involved with the CPP and its efforts to eliminate plastic packaging waste and create a more circular economy for packaging in Canada. 

“This report provides critical information for the industry as we all work together to tackle plastic waste.  While there has been progress, it is only by knowing where we are starting from that we can get to where we need to be and this data will help pave the way for the future and support action with the most impact,” says Catherine O’Brien, Chair and President at the Canada Plastics Pact and Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Nestlé Canada.

CPP Partners will continue to submit their progress annually through the World Wildlife Fund’s ReSource Footprint Tracker, which is a reporting tool used by all Plastics Pacts worldwide to ensure transparency, accountability, and comparability across regions and supply chains. 

Resources:
Read the 2020 Baseline Report.
Read the Canada Plastics Pact Roadmap to 2025.
Read quotes from Canada Plastics Pact Partners.
Learn more about our story in this video.

Media inquiries:
To arrange an interview, please contact:
Moojan Haidari, Communications Manager, Canada Plastics Pact
mhaidari@plasticspact.ca 

About the Canada Plastics Pact
The Canada Plastics Pact (CPP) is tackling plastic waste and pollution, as a multi-stakeholder, industry-led, cross-value chain collaboration platform. The CPP brings together Partners who are united behind a vision of creating a circular economy in Canada in which plastic waste is kept in the economy and out of the environment. It unites businesses, government, non-governmental organizations, and other key actors in the local plastics value chain behind clear actionable targets for 2025. The CPP is a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Plastics Pact network. It operates as an independent initiative of The Natural Step Canada, a national charity with over 25 years’ experience advancing science, innovation, and strategic leadership aimed at fostering a strong and inclusive economy that thrives within nature’s limits.