Costco Wholesale and Green Century have reached a deal to expand the scale of the major retailer’s plastic reduction efforts and increase its plastic footprint disclosures.
Green Century, a capital management company for sustainable investing, approached Costco, proposing that the company should work to address the growing crisis of single-use plastic. As a part of the agreement, Costco will release the total plastic footprint of its in-house brand, Kirkland Signature, and will also reveal the total percentage of recycled content in its plastic packaging.
In December of next year, Costco plans to release a five-year plastic action plan that will explain how the company will reduce total plastic in Kirkland Signature products.
According to Green Century, companies have a responsibility to reduce their single-use plastic packaging, implement reusable materials systems, and phase out hazardous chemicals.
“Companies need to take single-use plastic risk seriously,” said Douglass Guernsey, shareholder advocate at Green Century. “Single-use plastics cost society an estimated $350 billion per year in emissions, ocean pollution, and collection. Increasing regulation and litigation risk means these costs will be returned to companies that produce such excessive, unrecyclable plastic. Frankly, it’s past time to act.”
Along with Costco’s new commitment, other major companies have worked to reduce plastic waste, such as Coca-Cola’s implementation of recycled PET bottles and Amazon’s efforts to replace plastic packaging with recyclable paper alternatives.
According to a Duke University study, 72% of the top 300 companies from the Fortune 500 list have made some form of voluntary commitment to reducing plastic pollution. However, researchers claim little emphasis is put on the root of the issue: reducing the use of virgin, or newly-made, plastic. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that more than 430 million tons of plastic are produced annually, and more plastic is produced each year.
While recycling efforts certainly help, Green Century mainly assists companies in reducing the use of new plastics and using non-plastic materials for packaging in the first place. With widespread adoption of this approach, increased use of plastic alternatives may help bring down rising plastic production and accompanying pollution.
