Policy and the plastics crisis.
As the public conversation on plastic pollution accelerates, policymakers around the world are responding with local, regional, and international legislation addressing plastic waste and product sustainability. This evolving policy landscape puts wind in our sails.
More than 1,238 laws regulating plastics have been passed to date, and many more are on the way—including the UN Plastic Treaty, which saw 175 nations agree to develop a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution by 2024.
Unfortunately, plastics are so entrenched in the material economy that designers and brands have few viable alternatives as they look to adapt to this shifting policy landscape. Our work is to fill that gap. We’re developing and scaling natural performance materials, so that designers, brands, and end consumers have categorically new and better choices.
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A few salient examples of this legislation:
The European Union passed the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in January 2023. The CSRD will mandate extensive sustainability reporting, including on environmental and social impacts, from certain companies operating in the EU.
The European Commission also proposed Extended Producer Liability (EPR) for textiles for all EU member states.
EPR schemes would hold producers accountable for the full life cycle of the products they make—especially end-of-life.
The proposal will promote R&D for circular innovations. This is R&D that NFW has already brought to market.
Closer to home, in 2023 New York reintroduced its 2022 Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, which, if passed, will hold fashion retailers and manufacturers responsible for their social and environmental impacts. It will require transparency in supply chains and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) disclosures for companies conducting business in New York.
Finally, California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control recently adopted a rule requiring tire manufacturers that sell tires in California to evaluate safer alternatives to 6PPD, a chemical that helps reduce tire cracking but also has a negative impact on fish, having been linked to salmon deaths. One of our recent scientific breakthroughs could someday eliminate the need for 6PPD and provide a nontoxic alternative for tire manufacturers.
These regulations (both proposed and passed) make our work even more timely and necessary. Our material platform offers solutions to plastic pollution, circularity, and sustainability, directly addressing many of the issues that have prompted legislation.