Circular Economy

We believe that the packaging industry must move beyond the make/use/dispose behaviors of the past and actively work toward, and advocate for, a circular economy.

Circular Economy Contributions

Partnering for a more sustainable future

We’re working to understand the current landscape within the packaging sector related to circular principles, and we are integrating these principles into our innovation processes.

Collaboration is essential to achieving a more circular economy, so we work with partners, suppliers and customers who share our vision for a more circular economy.

Aptar has joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy 100 (CE100) Network. Through the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, we’ve signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment to address plastic waste and pollution at its source.

We believe we can improve upon what we understand and what we measure, and we have therefore collaborated on several projects in the circular economy space:

Lead a recyclability work group with Ellen MacArthur’s CE100 Network
Piloted Circulytics, a tool from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that helps companies assess their circularity
Worked in partnership with WBCSD to develop Circular Transition Indicators (CTI), a quantitative framework that provides additional insights into circular performance while creating a common language to use with internal stakeholders and key decision makers in organizations and sectors of all sizes
Piloted a Social Organizational Life Cycle Assessment (SO-LCA) tool with the United Nations Environment Programme
Worked to develop Water Circularity Metric with WBCSD

What we are learning is informing our own targets and initiatives.

Regulating Chemicals

Chemical Phase-out

Aptar is taking a proactive approach to phasing out chemicals of concern from our products, using 2020 as a baseline year. Phasing out these materials will help us operate in the best interest of consumers and the environment while mitigating supply chain risks and staying ahead of regulations.

In 2023, while complying with applicable regulations, Aptar began an intensive effort to accelerate the phase-out of PFAS (Per– and Polyfluoroalkyl) substances. Due to their wide-ranging use in both products and production processes, eliminating these substances is a significant challenge for the entire industry. Aptar has a global cross-segment task force dedicated to steering a compliance and consumer exposure risk-based approach to the phase-out of PFAS.

This taskforce evaluated various regulations and came up with a definition of intention and unintentional usage to be as follows: intentional PFAS is substance that serves an intended function in the product/component while intentional is related to degradation, impurities, contamination or in some cases processing agent.

The approach includes three simultaneous efforts:
• Identifying all intentional and unintentional uses of PFAS in the materials we buy, and the processes used to produce them
• Identifying or developing suitable replacements or reformulations for affected materials
• Identifying all potential use of PFAS material as processing aids or maintenance agent in our manufacturing sites

For more information on this topic and our progress, please see our most recent Corporate Sustainability Report and PFAS Program Information.