From the SEE® Impact Report: Association Partnerships Strengthen the Packaging Industry
Originally published in the SEE® Impact Report 2022
From its start more than 60 years ago, SEE® (formerly Sealed Air) has valued the expertise, education, and advocacy that industry associations and organizations have provided. Through the decades, as SEE has grown from the inventor of BUBBLE WRAP® brand cushioning to a global solutions provider, the packaging industry has become complex and is tackling more issues than ever before. Many of these complexities and challenges are being supported by external groups whose voices and actions amplify SEE’s needs. As these associations help us, we help them by collaborating and serving in leadership roles that help shape the future of the packaging industry. SEE relies on its partnerships with many associations across the globe. We highlight our relationship with three of those groups here: American Institute for Packaging and the Environment, American Chemistry Council, and Australian Packaging Covenant Organization.
American Institute for Packaging and the Environment
The American Institute for Packaging and the Environment (AMERIPEN) represents the North American packaging value chain by providing public policymakers with fact-based, material-neutral, scientific information. As a founding member of AMERIPEN, SEE has played an instrumental role in developing the charter and guiding the direction of the trade organization. Through board-level participation and committee involvement, we have made numerous contributions to AMERIPEN’S initiatives. In 2022, SEE worked with AMERIPEN to provide input at the state level on Extended Producer Responsibility from a material neutral perspective and reinforce the important role of packaging in preventing nonpackaging waste across value chains.
American Chemistry Council
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is the collective voice of the chemical manufacturing sector and its value chain with a mission to advance the industry’s goals and objectives at global, national, state, and local levels. As a plastics converter, SEE is a value chain member of the ACC’s Plastics Division and currently holds a leadership position with a SEE representative serving as Vice Chair of the Plastics Division Value Chain Committee. In 2022, SEE worked with the ACC to continue to expand both national and state-level strategies to accelerate the collection and recovery of plastic packaging waste through chemical recycling. In addition, two of SEE’s leaders were featured in the ACC’s America’s Change MakersSM campaign for their innovative work to change the way plastic is made, used, and remade.
Australian Packaging Covenant Organization
The Australian Packaging Covenant Organization (APCO) works with government and businesses to reduce the environmental impact of packaging in Australia. It is a co-regulatory trade association leading the development of a circular economy for packaging in Australia. SEE representatives have consistently participated in APCO work groups over the past decade, contributing expertise that has shaped the direction of the organization and promoted best practices. In 2022, SEE continued efforts to advocate and promote the Australasian Recycling Label Program for recyclable packaging, which APCO developed. SEE also shared global best practices on recycling test methodologies through training programs for the APCO team, with a goal to design, recover, and reuse plastic packaging through circular business models.
In addition to AMERIPEN, ACC, and APCO, SEE partners with an array of associations worldwide to help solve critical packaging challenges, reduce plastic waste, and enable circularity. Some of those organizations are:
Sustainable Packaging Coalition
Brazilian Packaging Association
All India Plastics Manufacturers' Association
Australian Institute of Packaging
A Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging
