News & positions

POSITIONS 10 May 2016

AIM's position on the Circular Economy


Brands support the circular economy. It makes both environmental and economic sense to manage resources carefully and, where feasible, to re-inject recovered materials into the economy. AIM member companies are integrating circular thinking into their business strategies through responsible raw material sourcing, efficient production processes and product design, inspiring more sustainable consumer behaviour (“Nudging for good”), promoting redistribution, and participation in Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for efficient waste management and recycling.

Brands innovate and design for a circular economy. Constant innovation to anticipate and respond to consumer and societal trends, including in product and packaging design, is what keeps a brand relevant. Incentives to integrate circularity into product and packaging design will help. Conversely, prescriptive requirements would stifle the very innovation flexibility needed to drive circularity and resource efficiency. A successful circular economy requires value-chain thinking in terms of life-cycle stages. EU policy measures aimed at product and packaging design solely in terms of recyclability at the life-cycle’s end would limit innovation for optimal solutions and could result in lock-in technologies. Similar individual measures by EU Member States would in addition erode the Single Market.

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