In this report, we examine how consumer brands’ failure to significantly reduce their reliance on single-use plastic, combined with ongoing fossil fuel industry investments of billions of dollars in expanding plastic production capacity, risk creating a plastic boom that could triple production capacity by 2050. In addition to accelerating the plastic pollution crisis, this expansion poses a serious threat to our ability to stay within the 1.5 °C carbon budget.
Specifically, we examine:
- How FMCG companies are failing to transparently report the full climate impacts of their plastic packaging;
- Supply chain connections between nine major FMCG companies and the fossil fuel industry;
- The decades-long focus on recycling as a smokescreen to enable increased plastic production;
- Climate impacts and issues with “chemical recycling”; • Human health and environmental justice impacts of the petrochemical expansion;
- Key geographies where the expansion is happening; and
- The need for FMCGs to shift to package-free or reusable systems of delivery to stop enabling the fossil fuel industry expansion and to help meet climate goals.
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