Systemiq and Earth Action have launched a new data platform to tackle gaps in packaging recycling data, backed by corporate partners including Amcor and Colgate-Palmolive.
As businesses look for evidence of whether their packaging is recycled in practice, the Packaging Data Hub aims to address the challenge of recycling figures being drawn from different sources. These often use different definitions, making it complex to compare performance between markets or identify where investment is most needed.
Based on the data currently in the Hub, approximately 18% of plastic packaging is recycled in practice across the 50 countries it covers, which together account for around 80% of the world’s plastic packaging waste.
Across these markets, flexible packaging makes up around 40% of plastic packaging waste, yet only around 10% is currently recycled.
The EU recycles around 35% of its plastic packaging, against a 2030 mandatory target of 55% under the PPWR. The Hub counts only plastic that comes out of the recycling process as usable material, after losses at collection and sorting, which is why it sits below official EU figures.
The new platform brings together harmonised, comparable data on 50 countries and 12 plastic packaging formats, giving companies, policymakers, investors and environmental organisations a shared picture of what happens to packaging after use.
Amcor and Colgate-Palmolive helped shape, test and validate the methodology through its technical advisory board, alongside Mars, Nestlé, Unilever and others.
Strategic oversight comes from a steering committee comprising the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, WWF, CDP, WRAP, the Global Plastic Action Partnership and The Consumer Goods Forum. Funding support comes from EIT Food and the Röchling Foundation.
Users can search, compare and download data by country, packaging format and year. The platform estimates the volumes of packaging entering each market, collected for recycling and recycled in practice, going beyond broad material averages to give a more detailed view of individual formats.
David Clark, chief sustainability officer at Amcor, said, “Better data enables better decisions. As a founding member of the Packaging Data Hub, Amcor is helping build a shared evidence base to guide packaging innovation, inform policy and target infrastructure investment where it can have the greatest impact and accelerate progress toward a circular packaging economy.”
Companies access the platform through a paid subscription. Policymakers, academic institutions and other independent organisations can request free access to the full platform for non-commercial use. Anyone can explore a free sample country and aggregate data.
For more information, visit: www.packagingdata.earth
