Alliance to End Plastic Waste's First Year: 3 Signs of Real-World Progress

This 2025 progress report explains how the Alliance brought Strategy 2030, its long-term strategy for advancing plastic circularity, into its first-year projects, and tracks progress through reduction, valorisation, funding, and organizational participation

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (an international alliance focused on plastic waste management and circular use) says that 138,162 metric tons of mismanaged plastic were reduced in 2025 and that 165,317 metric tons of plastic were valorised

The circular economy (an approach that keeps materials in use, recovery, and reuse systems for as long as possible) is the direction of this strategy. The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA, the U.S. flexible packaging association), in its Alliance to End Plastic Waste 2025 Progress Report Summary, places these results in the context of Strategy in Action

I would treat it as an account of collective action, not as an environmental certificate for any single brand's packaging

Brands should read the two figures separately: reduction means plastic has moved out of a mismanaged state, while valorisation means plastic has entered a processing route that creates value as a material or for another use

Plastic valorisation is the process of directing waste into a treatment route that can create value as a material or for another use. Mismanaged plastic is waste that has not entered an appropriate collection and treatment process

Do not collapse them into one number

The Alliance also published cumulative results since its founding: 378,147 metric tons reduced and 418,529 metric tons valorised. These cumulative figures show the scale of the Alliance's work, but they cannot be used to endorse any single SKU (single stock-keeping unit)

・Material specifications need to match supplier documentation. Do not look only at words such as 'paper box' or 'recyclable' on the front of the package

・After use, ask exactly where the packaging is collected, sorted, and processed, and whether the necessary conditions exist in the regions where the brand sells it

・Keep public claims within what the documents can prove. Do not present the Alliance's total as your own result

The 559 organizations matter to brands because plastic circularity requires funding, project delivery, and user behavior to line up. A change in packaging material by itself says little about whether the whole system is connected

In 2025, the Alliance brought 559 organizations together to finance, develop, and carry out projects. Since 2019, third parties and impact investors have committed a total of US$641 million. Education and behavior-change initiatives have reached more than 1.5 million people since the Alliance was founded

・Funding commitments: US$641 million is the amount of external commitments attracted by the Alliance. It cannot be counted directly as a brand's plastic-reduction budget

・Project collaboration: 559 organizations took part in financing, development, and execution. Brands should ask which part of the process they are actually joining

・Behavior change: Related initiatives have reached more than 1.5 million people. Instructions for disposing of packaging should be part of the brand's communications too

When I look at brand ESG (environmental, social, and governance) communications, the easiest place to lose credibility is showing only that the material changed and saying nothing about what happens after use. The source does not list which projects each of the 559 organizations is responsible for, so brands should not fill in details that the report does not contain

The most practical approach is to break sustainability into three checks that can be verified before sending a job to print. These are Mai Strategy's three prepress checks for brands

Start with the documents

・1. Materials check: Put the substrate, lamination, adhesives, inks, and post-press finishing into the proofing and purchasing documents. Ask suppliers for specifications or statements that can be checked

・2. Route check: Confirm which collection, sorting, or treatment route the packaging enters after use, and check whether the wording applies to the regions where the brand actually sells it

・3. Claims check: Keep 'plastic reduction,' 'recyclable,' and 'circular' as separate claims. When documentation is insufficient, narrow the copy. Do not transfer the Alliance's 2025 total to your own SKU

These three checks give the design brief (design requirements document), proof approval, purchasing, and copywriting one shared evidence base. Brands that need mid- to high-end, fully customized commercial printing can bring their materials, finishing, and claims documents to MINDS to discuss workable specifications

Sustainability messaging around packaging holds up only when a brand can verify its materials, post-use route, and public claims one by one. The Alliance's 2025 education and behavior-change work also reminds us that packaging still has a journey after it leaves the shelf

The report says related initiatives have reached more than 1.5 million people since the Alliance was founded. The takeaway for brands is practical: when consumers see 'recyclable,' they still need to know where it is collected, how to sort it, and what conditions apply

If those details are unclear, the brand promise takes a hit the moment the package is discarded. I suggest choosing one packaging SKU the company produces often and completing three things:

・1. Put the materials, finishing, and post-use treatment into the design brief

・2. Keep supplier documents, versions, and applicable regions in the purchasing record

・3. Have design, printing, legal, and customer service use the same claims wording

If the company wants to turn these decisions into a brand brief, purchasing specifications, and internal Q&A, it can bring the requirements to the Mai Strategy Knowledge Academy consulting team for discussion. The report's first-year figures carry weight, but a brand still has to check its own packaging one item at a time

・In 2025, the Alliance reduced 138,162 metric tons of mismanaged plastic and valorised 165,317 metric tons

・Reduction and valorisation are two different outcomes. They cannot be treated directly as a recycling rate or recycled-content percentage

・The US$641 million in funding commitments and 559 organizations show that plastic circularity requires cooperation across organizations

・A brand's sustainability claims must rest on materials, post-use routes, and documentary evidence

・Packaging communications cannot stop at material choice. They also need to explain clearly what consumers should do after use

On the manufacturing side, printers can turn material, finishing, and recovery conditions into fields in quotations and proofing forms. On the design side, ask about the post-use route at the brief stage instead of waiting until the final artwork to add sustainability copy. AI is best introduced first to compare specification documents and claims wording, with a person still checking the suppliers' original documents at the end. SaaS (Software as a Service) teams can turn materials, regions, recovery conditions, and document versions into traceable fields. As a next step, choose one packaging SKU the company produces often, complete a blank version of the three-check form, and then decide whether to expand it

・Alliance to End Plastic Waste Releases Its 2025 Progress Report: What It Did in Its First Year