One of the great traits of American culture is its allowance for failure.  Many have claimed in fact that failure is a prerequisite to success, or that it’s better to try and fail than to never try at all.  These statements have never proven more true of Americans than since early 2020 when millions of them unexpectedly found themselves out of work nearly overnight and in response decided to become entrepreneurs.  Data on business formations from the U.S. Census Bureau show that monthly business formations since the start of the pandemic are up around 50% compared to 2019 formation levels.  

Simultaneous with this surge in new business formations has been the growth of E-Commerce.  According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, COVID induced not only a surge in E-Commerce growth but a surge in new online businesses. "In the first six months of 2021 around 2.8m new firms were born, 60% more than in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019. Many are small enterprises created by people stuck at home during lockdowns. A third of the new applications were in retail, in particular the online variety". (The Economist, Is America Inc getting less dynamic, less global and more monopolistic?, Sept. 18^th, 2021).  

Surging new business formations since the start of the pandemic have bolstered the growth of E-Commerce and by extension the need for packaging solutions.

This swelling of new online businesses will only bolster already vigorous E-Commerce growth which in the year ending May 2021 grew 40%.  All of this will require new packaging solutions from the industry while at the same time meeting more stringent single-use plastics restrictions.  One of the most promising solutions to assuaging the inherent struggle associated with increased packaging demand and reduced plastic pollution is coming from firms seeking to increased the recycled plastic content of new packaging products.  

The evolving technology for such solutions has been well covered over the years thanks to publications including Gardner’s own Plastics Technology Magazine.  However, the real challenge moving forward may not as much technological as it is cultural.  Major consumers of plastic packaging including beverage entities such as PepsiCo. and Coca-Cola have established goals to increase the use of recycled plastic in their bottling and packaging operations. Many firms have followed suit with their own recycled plastic goals.  Yet, if every plastic consumer were to attempt to achieve their goal today, their demand would quickly overwhelm the available supply. For this reason, finding ways to drive up the collection of used plastic will be essential for meeting both the evolving demand for packaging solutions and to meet environmental standards.