A coalition including General Mills, Mars, PepsiCo and other major brands will focus on states with EPR programs for packaging, starting with California. | Noppuns/Shutterstock
Several global brand owners have joined forces to create the US Flexible Film Initiative (USFFI), a nonprofit membership organization helping to advance scalable solutions to recycle flexible plastic packaging.
The initiative will begin in California with plans to expand to states adopting extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs for packaging, the group said in a press release. The founding members of USFFI are General Mills, Mars, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, Hill’s Pet Nutrition and PepsiCo.
USFFI members will commit to multi-year supply contracts with MRFs, flexible plastic processors and recyclers, to help accelerate recycling of these challenging packaging materials. To start this process, the brand owners involved will issue requests for information to recyclers, processors and MRFs wishing to be considered for operational funding to help support flexible packaging recycling.
Flexible packaging presents a particular challenge in the recycling industry, as it typically consists of multiple types of plastics, making the materials difficult to recycle, and as such often are not accepted in municipal recycling programs.
Earlier this year, USFFI founding members worked with consultancy Resource Recycling Systems to launch the coalition and begin implementing its work, which was informed by a 2024 collaboration with industry associations to identify gaps in recovering flexible packaging, according to a press release.
“Flexible packaging recycling has begun to scale in other countries; now it’s our turn,” said Rachael Lawrence, senior director of sustainability at PepsiCo Foods North America, in a statement. “We’re drawing on global funding models to accelerate real solutions here in the US.”
“By directly funding MRFs and recyclers through USFFI, we aim to prove that flexible packaging can be recycled at scale and become a meaningful part of a circular economy,” said Feliks Bezati, global circular packaging director at Mars, in a statement.
The initiative also is open to expanding its membership to other brands and retailers seeking to accelerate progress via close industry collaboration, investment capital, equipment grants, municipal recycling programs and consumer education.
“Through USFFI and its work with other key partners, we aim to help create a more robust infrastructure that will advance our shared goal to implement end-to-end recycling solutions for flexible packaging,” said Tiffany Gildehaus, senior manager of environmental sustainability at Nestlé Purina.