Freedonia Analysts Discuss The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment as Stanley Black & Decker Becomes Latest Manufacturer to Combat Packaging Pollution

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Dec 11, 2018, 14:55 ET

CLEVELAND, Dec. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In November 2018, Stanley Black & Decker – a leading supplier of power tools, hand tools, and power lawn and garden equipment to the US market – announced that it joined 250 governments and other businesses in The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. This project, by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme, intends to eliminate waste and pollution caused by plastic packaging.

Stanley Black & Decker aims to make all of its packaging – not just the plastic packaging covered in the New Plastic Economy Global Commitment – reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.

Australia-based, leading packaging firm Amcor had already signed at the beginning of 2018 when it became the first global packaging company pledging to develop all its packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025. At the time, Ron Delia, Amcor's chief executive officer, said, "Our aspiration is to be the leading global packaging company… That means winning on behalf of the environment, customers, consumers, shareholders and our people at the same time, in ways that differentiate Amcor and generate growth."

Jennifer Mapes-Christ, Freedonia Group's manager of consumer and commercial research, noted, "The first job of packaging is to ensure that a product is delivered intact to the buyer. However, consumers are increasingly frustrated with the amount of packaging they encounter, particularly in light of more e-commerce activity and all the boxes, mailers, and protective wraps that entails."

Mapes-Christ continues, "A growing number of consumers think that companies should take a more active approach in protecting the environment, and increasingly, consumers prefer to buy from companies with at least some amount of green credentialing."

According to Cara Brosius, an industry analyst with the Freedonia Group, "E-commerce is the fastest growing retail channel for many types of products, including the power tools, power lawn and garden equipment, and hand tools available from Stanley Black & Decker, due to convenience of ordering and greater product availability online. By making this latest move, Stanley Black & Decker is satisfying customer concerns about the environment and helping differentiate the image of well-known brands such as Black + Decker, Craftsman, and STANLEY."

Furthermore, Mapes-Christ points out, "More and more, consumers are aware of the environmental effect of the amount of packaging used at the retail level, something that's particularly inescapable at this time of year when holiday shipping boxes pile up and garbage bins overflow with plastic packaging that recycling companies will not accept."

Brosius also notes that plastics are some of the least recycled materials. "Plastics make up less than 4% of materials that are recycled or composted from the municipal solid waste stream but about 13% of generated waste. Many curbside recycling programs do not accept certain plastic elements for collection, so simply making all plastic packaging recyclable in theory is not enough. Recycling infrastructure needs to improve and material recovery needs to be less costly for most recyclable materials to actually be recycled."

For additional analysis of the packaging industry, please see Freedonia Group's Packaging segment. Further information about Stanley Black & Decker and the global and US markets for hand-held tool and power equipment industries can be found in Freedonia's Consumer Goods segment.

About The Freedonia Group – The Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com, is a leading international industrial research company publishing more than 100 studies annually. Since 1985 we have provided research to customers ranging in size from global conglomerates to one-person consulting firms. More than 90% of the industrial companies in the Fortune 500 use Freedonia Group research to help with their strategic planning. Each study includes product and market analyses and forecasts, in-depth discussions of important industry trends, and market share information. Studies can be purchased at www.freedoniagroup.com and are also available on www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com.

In November 2018, Stanley Black & Decker – a leading supplier of power tools, hand tools, and power lawn and garden equipment to the US market – announced that it joined governments and other businesses in the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. This group intends to eliminate waste and pollution caused by plastic packaging.

Stanley Black & Decker aims to make all of its packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025, not just the plastic packaging covered in the New Plastic Economy Global Commitment. As a company driven by consumer trends, Stanley Black & Decker has noticed that many customers are concerned about the environment and the harmful effects of packaging that ends up in landfills or the ocean.

Many consumers think that companies should take a more active approach in protecting the environment. People are also concerned about the large amount of packaging used in e-commerce orders. However, many consumer products include non-recyclable packaging elements.

According to Cara Brosius, an industry analyst with the Freedonia Group, "E-commerce is the fastest growing retail channel for power tools, power lawn and garden equipment, and hand tools due to convenience of ordering and greater product availability online. By making this latest move, Stanley Black & Decker is satisfying customer concerns about the environment and helping the image of well-known brands such as Black + Decker, Craftsman, and STANLEY."

Brosius also notes that plastics are some of the least recycled materials. "Plastics make up less than 4% of materials that are recycled or composted from the municipal solid waste stream but about 13% of generated waste. Many curbside recycling programs do not accept certain types of plastic for collection, so simply making all plastic packaging recyclable in theory is not enough. Recycling infrastructure needs to improve and material recovery needs to be less costly for most recyclable materials to actually be recycled."

For More Information

Propelled by growing activity in construction and manufacturing, as well as in consumer home purchases, demand for power tools, hand tools, and power lawn and garden equipment is expected to continue growing. Increasing consumer spending will For more information on these industries, check out The Freedonia Group's industry studies Power Tools in the US, Power Lawn & Garden Equipment, and Hand Tools in the US, which offer:

historical data and forecasts
product demand by type, market, and distribution channel
consumer survey research
information on new products
analysis of factors affecting demand
a breakdown of industry players

About the Author

Cara Brosius holds a B.A. in economics. She is an industry analyst at The Freedonia Group, where she writes industry studies on US consumer & commercial goods.

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SOURCE The Freedonia Group