Pack Green Launches Initiative to Decrease Plastic Waste

WASHINGTON --Today, the Pack Green Coalition, an initiative to replace unnecessary single-use plastic from supply chains, formally launched. Pack Green’s mission will focus on renewable and more sustainable alternatives, including paper and other bio-based solutions, with an emphasis on protective packaging and other short-term uses, such as food service items.

“Consumers are more sensitive than ever to the impact of their purchasing choices on the environment, and the launch of Pack Green is a crucial step to meet consumers’ desire for a more sustainable option to plastics,” said James Asali, Pack Green’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Pack Green will bring together like-minded organizations, companies, and individuals to raise awareness with consumers, retailers, brands, and policymakers on the opportunities to reduce plastic waste and to advocate for the use of renewable materials wherever feasible. Pack Green will work to bring solutions to the single-use plastics crisis, serve as a research hub to study data on packaging and short life-cycle materials, and engage federal, state, and local policymakers.

“Last year in the US alone, consumers received more than 20 billion packages,” said Asali. “Many of those packages contained unnecessary single-use plastic products—air pillows, bubble wrap, or Styrofoam—that can be easily replaced by renewable paper packaging. Whether it’s packaging, food service, or countless other single-use applications, there are solutions that exist today to reduce single-use plastic waste.”

Pack Green currently counts Ranpak Holdings Corp., a global leader of environmentally sustainable, paper-based packaging solutions for e-commerce and industrial supply chains, as a founding member, alongside a distinguished Board of Advisors with deep experience in environmental stewardship and renewable packaging:

“Pack Green is launching at a critical moment,” said David Murgio, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ranpak. “Goods are being shipped at unprecedented volumes. Stakeholders from the private sector and non-profits are all setting goals for improvement. Governments are looking at new regulations and ESG standards. We think Pack Green can be an important part of the solution.”

About Pack Green

Founded in 2022, the Pack Green Coalition (“Pack Green”) is dedicated to replacing unnecessary plastic from the packaging—including protective and food service—supply chains with paper and other more sustainable and environmentally-friendly alternatives. Pack Green will perform three primary functions: 1) Increase public awareness of the existence of the plastics crisis and demonstrate that paper and other bio-based substrates represent sustainable, reliable, and cost-effective solutions in the context of delivery packaging; 2) Serve as a research hub to study and collect data on packaging and food service material, recycling, and consumer attitudes; 3) Engage with government officials—federal, state, and local—to advance the argument that unnecessary plastic should be removed from commerce and that paper is the premier sustainable solution in packaging. Pack Green will also drive policies that are in the best interests of not only the paper, bio-based packaging, and forestry industries, but of the planet’s health as well. Additional information about Pack Green can be found on its website: https://www.packgreen.org. Follow PackGreen on Twitter at @PG_Coalition.