US Plastics Pact celebrates 5 years of advancing the circular economy for plastic packaging

The US Plastics Pact (USPP) is celebrating five years of bringing together companies, nonprofits, governments, and innovators to tackle one of the nation’s most urgent sustainability challenges: creating a circular economy for plastic packaging.

Since its founding in 2020, the USPP has united every segment of the plastics value chain around ambitious, shared goals—turning vision into action and demonstrating that progress is possible through collaboration and accountability. The USPP is one of 13 national and regional Plastics Pacts worldwide, collectively spanning every continent and representing more than 900 organizations.

“From the beginning, our mission has been to convene the full plastics value chain around targets that once felt out of reach,” says Jonathan Quinn, president/CEO of the US Plastics Pact. “Over the past five years, we’ve seen what can happen when ambition meets action: companies innovating together, policies informed by real-world data, and systems built for impact. While we are proud of this progress, this milestone is also a call to action—we must go further, faster.”

USPP Activators—member companies and organizations committed to advancing circularity—are leading the way. Collectively, they have:

Reduced their use of virgin plastic,
Increased the amount of recycled content in packaging, and
Outperformed industry peers on key sustainability metrics.

These results reflect the power of shared goals and transparent reporting. By bringing the right stakeholders to the table, the USPP has proven that collaboration can drive measurable change and set a higher bar for the entire industry, the group says in a press release.

As the Pact transitions from its original Roadmap to 2025 to the new Roadmap 2.0, it enters its next phase with updated targets and a continued resolve to eliminate plastic waste. Looking ahead, the USPP will continue to serve as a convener for the entire plastics value chain, fostering innovation and providing the tools, best practices, and shared knowledge needed to accelerate progress.