The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact Network is a globally aligned response to plastic waste and pollution, which enables vital knowledge sharing and coordinated action. It is a network of national and regional (multi-country) initiatives which brings together key stakeholders to implement solutions towards a circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. for plastic, tailored to each geography. Each initiative is led by a local organisation and unites businesses, government institutions, NGOs and citizens behind a common vision, with an ambitious set of local targets to:
Eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging through redesign and innovation
Move from single-use to reusereuseThe repeated use of a product or component for its intended purpose without significant modification.
Ensure all plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable
Increase the reuse, collection, and recycling or compostingcompostingMicrobial breakdown of organic matter in the presence of oxygen. of plastic packaging
Increase recycled content in plastic packaging
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastic Pact Network includes national plastic pacts in the UK, France, Chile, the Netherlands, South Africa, Portugal, the US, Poland and Canada. Regional pacts include the European Plastics Pact and the Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands (ANZPAC) Plastics Pact.
Lessons learnt and best practices are exchanged across regions to accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastics.
The global Plastics Pact Network
Since the launch of the first plastics pact in the UK in 2018 in collaboration with WRAP, this pioneering approach of mobilising cross-value chain collaboration towards a circular economy for plastics has inspired the development of many more pacts and similar initiatives around the world - both within and outside the Foundation's Plastics Pact Network.
While encouraging the development of plastics pacts by others to drive action towards the circular economy for plastics in further geographies, the Foundation actively supports and advises only those pacts that form part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Plastics Pact Network (as listed on this page). Plastics pacts not listed here are not part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact Network, and the Foundation is not involved in them.
