SPI to take over lead role in fighting plastic bag bans from ACC
Canadian Plastics
Economy Plastics Industry Economic Changes/ForecastThere's a shift underway in how the plastics industry will battle efforts to ban or tax plastic bags.
There’s a shift underway in how the plastics industry will battle efforts to ban or tax plastic bags.
The plastics division of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) is transferring the responsibility for defending the industry against bag bans to the industry’s main plastics association, the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc (SPI).
According to the two associations, the transfer – which becomes effective January 1, 2012 – comes as a response to increasingly localized efforts to ban or tax plastic bags in the U.S.; the SPI, it is believed, can better leverage its national grassroots network to ward off these movements.
As part of the shift in responsibility between the two associations, the ACC’s Progressive Bag Affiliates unit – which has played a lead role in fighting plastic bag bans – will shift to the SPI on Jan. 1, with the group being renamed the American Progressive Bag Alliance.
At the same time, the ACC will introduce a new Flexible Film Recycling Group comprised of resin suppliers, converters, brand owners and other value chain partners who use and/or recover flexible film packaging.
The ACC and SPI have worked together informally for years; formal cooperation between the two associations was realized this past July when – along with the Canadian Plastics Industry Association – they formed the North American Plastics Alliance to an effort to unify the plastics industry’s response to various challenges.