This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.*
Back in June this year I joined the rest of the Avery Dennison Label and Graphic materials group on a junk boat trip around the waters of Hong Kong.
We were there to talk about sustainability, to see the challenge of plastic in the waters with our own eyes, and to plan and discuss further initiatives to help us progress towards our 2025 goals.
When we set our 2025 sustainability goals back in 2015 - we knew that they were ambitious - but we also knew that we, as a team, are always committed to achieving our goals. And we have made great progress over the last three years.
But there are still some areas that are really challenging and we know that alone, we can not achieve them. And one of those is waste.
In the first ten minutes of the boat trip we did not see very much - the waters were pretty clear - but as we kept moving the enormity of the challenge was evident. Plastic in all shapes and sizes was everywhere - in the water and on the shores. And the problem became even more real. Even if you cleaned it up - and our recent announcement that we are working with The Ocean Cleanup -shows that we are committed to doing so - the longer term solution is to reduce the waste at source and throughout the supply chain.
Last week Avery Dennison announced a new partnership with Plasticity, founded by the NGO Ocean Recovery Alliance, the global forum for practical, progressive thinkers who are excited about the future of plastic and the planet.
Our goal in this partnership is to work together to collaborate with other companies across multiple industries, to exchange our expertise in materials science and technology with their unique capabilities, with a common ambition to solve challenging plastic waste.
We know that we have expertise to share which is leading to great solutions - for example our recent collaboration with L’Oreal on recycling liner waste in Australia - but we also know that we have a lot to learn - and we are looking forward to exploring more with the team from Plasticity over the coming years.
