Earth911 talks with Sarah Dearman, vice president of circular ventures a The Recycling Partnership, about the future of plastic, plastic recycling and the non-profit's new PlasticIQ initiative that provides tools for business to assess and optimize its packaging choices. We discuss the need to simplify our plastic system to make recycling easier and how to make it easy for people to recycle packaging and products made of plastic. The Recycling Partnership is one of the most dynamic and important non-profits working to introduce a circular economy in the United States. Established in 2014, it works with communities and business to create solutions for, among other things, recycling plastic and plastic films, as well as developing local recycling and consumer education programs to increase recovery rates.

In May, The Recycling Partnership announced a free open-source digital tool, Plastic IQ, designed to help companies that use plastic packaging to develop waste-reduction strategies and put them into practice. It also helps to quantify the carbon emissions created by the use of plastic packaging, which is desperately needed to allow consumers to understand the consequences of their shopping choices. Walmart, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Nestle and other major consumer packaged goods companies are getting ready to use Plastic IQ.

To learn more about The Recycling Partnership and PlasticIQ, visit https://recyclingpartnership.org/.