Making collaboration count

摘要

The sustainability industry is no stranger to collaboration, and sustainable packaging is no exception. Finding solutions to sustainability challenges often requires stakeholder engagement across diverse organizations. How do we make the most out of these efforts, especially in the face of competing motivations? In December 2013, I participated in two meetings with similar goals: increase packaging recovery and reduce impact. At both meetings, the strategies for reaching these goals included improving recycling infrastructure, examining new recovery technologies and designing packaging to minimize life cycle impacts. Both events used moderators and informal tabletop discussions to gather information from participants working across the sustainability industry. The Southeast Recycling Development Council's (SERDC) Paper & Packaging Symposium kicked off conversations to improve packaging recovery in the southeast. SERDC unites 11 states in the southeast to increase recycling as an important part of the region's economy. The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery's (CalRecycle) packaging workshop gathered information as a foundation for the state's effort to reach 75 percent waste diversion by 2020, a new legislative requirement.