L’Oréal USA announced a new partnership with the U.S. Plastics Pact, a new initiative of over 60 organisations that aims to reduce plastic waste. To join the Pact, L’Oréal committed to deliver the following four targets:

1. Define a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025.
2. By 2025, all plastic packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
3. By 2025, undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging.
4. By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.

The German Cabinet agreed to end the sale of single-use plastic items by July 3, 2021, bringing it in line with a European Union directive intended to reduce the amount of plastic waste. The move means the sale of single-use cutlery, plates, stirring sticks and balloon holders, as well as polystyrene cups and boxes, will be banned by then.

Around 180 countries agreed to amend the Basel Convention at a meeting on 10th May 2019. The amendment means that plastic waste is now included within the legally-binding framework which will make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated, whilst also ensuring that it’s management is safer for human health and the environment.

Other far-reaching decisions included the elimination of two toxic chemical groups, which together total about 4,000 chemicals, listed into Annex A of the Stockholm Convention, namely Dicofol and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and its salts and PFOA-related compounds.