Non-profit disclosure authority CDP has said it plans to expand its industry reporting to plastics, following investor pressure to provide greater amounts of data in the space.
CDP said it will start collecting data from 7,000 companies, primarily in so-called high-impact sectors such as apparel, chemicals, food and beverage and packaging.
Companies will be urged to disclose or share information on the production and use of the 'most problematic' plastics, the CDP explained, including plastic polymers, durable plastics, and plastic packaging.
The new database will be made available from September this year.
Last year, large firms including Amazon, ExxonMobil and McDonalds faced shareholder resolutions asking for more disclosures on efforts to reduce plastic waste.
For this AGM season, As You Sow has also filed a resolution at Amazon asking for information related to the company’s plastics pollution. According to the resolution, Amazon is “falling behind peers”.
Meanwhile, last December, 55 financial institutions, including CDP signatories Cardano ACTIAM, Boston Common Asset Management, Triodos Investment Management and Robeco, formed a Plastic Solutions Investor Alliance to engage publicly traded companies on the threat posed by plastic pollution.
Cate Lamb, global director for water security at CDP, said: “Companies must develop a robust understanding of how they contribute to the plastic pollution crisis and formulate equitable and just transition plans to address this. As mandatory environmental disclosure gathers momentum, we encourage governments to include plastics in their mandatory disclosure regimes.”
Research from Pew showed recently that plastic waste is entering the ocean at a rate of about 11 million metric tons a year, where it is harming marine life and damaging habitats.
