Walmart does not expect to meet its 2025 plastic packaging reduction and recyclability targets, the retailer revealed in an update published Feb. 28. This follows Walmart saying at the end of 2024 it would miss 2025 and 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
“While we have made significant progress towards our ambitious 2025 goals for recycled content, virgin plastic reduction, and packaging recyclability, we expect to fall short of achieving these goals by 2025,” the company wrote.
Walmart shared data from calendar year 2023 in its post.
Walmart is increasing PCR use and packaging circularity, but also growing virgin plastic use
Company-reported progress on 2025 targets, as of calendar year 2023
Walmart also said that 82% of its global private-brand plastic packaging is designed for recycling.
Walmart largely attributed increases in the weight of virgin plastic used to growth in product categories like food. It says it reduced its overall plastic packaging intensity, when measuring weight of plastic per net sales dollar. According to Walmart’s reporting to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, virgin weight totaled nearly 1.07 million metric tons in 2023.
“While we continue to work towards reducing waste, progress depends on many factors outside our control, including emergence and scalability of innovative more-recyclable materials, public policy for materials management systems, infrastructure development (especially to support recyclable and compostable materials), and societal behavior change,” Walmart wrote.
Regarding PCR use, where growth has been slow, Walmart bemoaned challenges with limited supply of high-quality PCR as well as price volatility. It also said that certain laws and regulations restrict PCR use in certain categories of packaging, such as pharmaceuticals.
Walmart says it will keep reporting on those packaging targets. “We will continue to report progress on our ongoing efforts, as these initiatives help Walmart reduce materials cost and waste, conserve resources, enhance efficiencies, and reduce emissions.”
2025 was a year commonly chosen by businesses for packaging sustainability targets. Other brands and retailers have also shared updates the past year, with multiple major companies recently doubting the feasibility of 2025 targets or opting to drop or change them.
Walmart also participates in the U.S. Plastics Pact, which last year largely pushed collective 2025 goals to 2030. Those shared goals include reducing virgin plastic use by 30%; eliminating “problematic and unnecessary” materials; recycling half of all plastic packaging; averaging 30% PCR or responsibly sourced biobased content across all plastic packaging; making all plastic packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable; and more.
2023 was also the year Walmart announced it would replace nearly all plastic mailers with paper mailers and rightsize its cardboard boxes to reduce waste in its e-commerce business. That same year, Walmart began selling BPI-certified compostable single-use cutlery under its Great Value store brand.
In its report, Walmart also highlighted management of secondary packaging, which represents nearly three- quarters of its operational waste stream. Actions include utilizing reusable containers and recycling film and cardboard at scale.