Emerald Packaging CEO highlights challenges in plastics sustainability efforts
Kevin Kelly is CEO of Emerald Packaging, a leading flexible packaging supplier to the produce industry, and a strong voice in the plastics industry. He has written extensively in Plastics News about topics of critical importance, including sustainability. Kelly will be a keynote speaker on Tuesday, March 11, at Plastics News Executive Forum in La Jolla, Calif. Register here or find more information.
How has Emerald Packaging responded to the need for sustainability in the past?
We’ve worked with new materials since 2002, when we used PLA film to make spinach packaging for Walmart, the first compostable retail produce bag in the industry. Since then, we’ve rolled out commercial packages using a mix of potato starch and polyethylene, cellulose and, more recently, post-consumer recycled resin (PCR). As a company we’ve also worked on our own processes, including cutting waste energy and waste.
What has been your main frustration with how sustainability efforts are proceeding in a national level?
Such a mangled mess. Too many different state-by-state EPR laws, requiring different reporting at separate times. The paperwork alone may push industry consolidation, as smaller companies may not have the personal or wherewithal to file individual reports to so many different states and localities. We need a national program. Good luck. On top of that, the industry and its customers blew through their 2025 commitments on packaging reduction and repackaged them as 2030 commitments. Nothing breeds cynicism like false marketing.
Can the plastics and packaging industries move the needle on sustainability?
Yes, if industry has a serious conversation with customers about cost sharing. None of the wonderful innovations in various film technologies and recycling will ever end up in mass production unless someone foots the bill. Everyone in the chain of custody, from suppliers to grocer/retailers to customers, has to throw in pennies so that the market sends a signal that, yes, it makes sense to invest in new tech and build out the necessary facilities. Right now the question of cost sharing causes folks to duck under the table, saying “not me.” If there isn’t agreement and we don’t get moving, bans will follow.
February 20, 2025 at 02:55PM
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Joseph Pryweller