OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) has joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaborative, solutions-driven initiative rooted in four ambitious goals intended to drive significant systems change by unifying diverse cross-sector approaches, setting a national strategy and creating scalable solutions to create a path forward toward a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025. The first North American Pact of its kind, the U.S. Pact is a collaboration led by The Recycling Partnership, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

As part of the U.S. Pact, activators like Clorox recognize that significant, systemwide change is imperative to realize a circular economy for plastics. As such, the U.S. Pact will convene more than 60 brands, retailers, NGOs, and government agencies across the plastics value chain to bring one voice to U.S. packaging through coordinated initiatives and innovative solutions for rethinking products, packaging, and business models.

"Clorox's participation in the U.S. Plastics Pact is a testament to our strong commitment to plastic and waste reduction – a critical part of our IGNITE strategy's environmental, social and governance goals," said Ed Huber, chief sustainability officer of The Clorox Company. "We look forward to working in collaboration with other like-minded organizations that have signed on to this partnership to help accelerate our collective vision to drive systematic change across the plastics value chain."

As a founding activator of the U.S. Plastics Pact, Clorox has agreed to collectively work toward these four ambitious goals:

1. Define a list of packaging to be designated as unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to address by 2025.
2. By 2025, all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
3. By 2025, undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging.
4. By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.

While the U.S. Pact is complementary to and follows the ambitious precedents set by the existing global network of Plastic Pacts, it will be tailored to meet the unique needs and challenges of the U.S. market. The Pact will reflect national priorities and realities, while still propelling the nation closer to other developed nations in its management of plastic waste.

"Together through the U.S. Plastics Pact, we will ignite system change to accelerate progress toward a circular economy," says Sarah Dearman, vice president of circular ventures for The Recycling Partnership. "The U.S. Pact will accelerate systemwide change by inspiring and supporting upstream innovation through a coordinated national strategy, creating a unified framework and enabling members to accelerate progress toward our ambitious 2025 sustainability goals. Members' full participation will be vital to reaching our shared goals."

Achieving this vision will require new levels of accountability from all facets of the plastics supply chain. The U.S. Pact emphasizes measurable change and as such, Clorox is committed to transparent, annual reporting, guided by WWF's ReSource: Plastic Footprint Tracker, which will be used to document annual progress against our four goals. The first task of the founding members of the U.S. Plastics Pact will be to establish a "roadmap" in Q1 2021 to identify key milestones and national solutions to achieving the U.S. targets and realize a circular economy in which plastic never becomes waste.

"The Pact has been established to deliver a step change toward a circular economy, enabling companies and governments in the U.S. to collectively meet impactful goals by 2025 that can't be achieved alone," said Jodi Russell, vice president, Research and Development -- Cleaning innovation, packaging and sustainability for The Clorox Company. "Activators are all marching toward the same industry goals, consistent with Ellen MacArthur Foundation's vision of a circular economy for plastic, which we incorporated into our IGNITE strategy ESG goals."

In 2019 Clorox announced that it had become a signatory of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. Joining the U.S. Plastics Pact will support a multi-stakeholder approach toward a common vision of a circular economy for plastics, as outlined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy and in line with the company's IGNITE ESG goals to reduce plastic and other waste.

Clorox has also pledged to continue the following initiatives as part of its signatory status in the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment:

• No polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in packaging.
• Pilot new business models and solutions which enable consumers to refill and reuse primary packaging, such as participation in TerraCycle's Loop pilot program. 

The Clorox Company

The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) is a leading multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products with about 8,800 employees worldwide and fiscal year 2020 sales of $6.7 billion. Clorox markets some of the most trusted and recognized consumer brand names, including its namesake bleach and cleaning products; Pine-Sol^® cleaners; Liquid-Plumr^® clog removers; Poett^® home care products; Fresh Step^® cat litter; Glad^® bags and wraps; Kingsford^® charcoal; Hidden Valley^® dressings and sauces; Brita^® water-filtration products; Burt's Bees^® natural personal care products; and RenewLife^®, Rainbow Light^®, Natural Vitality Calm™, NeoCell^® and Stop Aging Now® vitamins, minerals and supplements. The company also markets industry-leading products and technologies for professional customers, including those sold under the CloroxPro™ and Clorox Healthcare^® brand names. More than 80% of the company's sales are generated from brands that hold the No. 1 or No. 2 market share positions in their categories.

Clorox is a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. The company has been broadly recognized for its corporate responsibility efforts, named to the 2020 Axios Harris Poll 100 reputation rankings, Barron's 2020 100 Most Sustainable Companies list, and the Human Rights Campaign's 2020 Corporate Equality Index, among others. In support of its communities, The Clorox Company and its foundations contributed more than $25 million in combined cash grants, product donations and cause marketing in fiscal year 2020. For more information, visit TheCloroxCompany.com, including the Good Growth blog, and follow the company on Twitter at @CloroxCo.

About The Recycling Partnership

The Recycling Partnership is a national nonprofit organization that leverages corporate partner funding to transform recycling for good in states, cities, and communities nationwide. As the leading organization in the country that engages the full recycling supply chain from the corporations that manufacture products and packaging to local governments charged with recycling to industry end markets, haulers, material recovery facilities, and converters, The Recycling Partnership positively impacts recycling at every step in the process. Since 2014, the nonprofit change agent diverted 230 million pounds of new recyclables from landfills, saved 465 million gallons of water, avoided more than 250,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases, and drove significant reductions in targeted contamination rates. Learn more at www.recyclingpartnership.org.

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SOURCE The Clorox Company