Target made some progress on its 2025 packaging sustainability goals to reduce virgin plastic use and to make its own-brand packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable — but it’s still far behind pace to meet those goals by the deadline, based on data in the retailer’s newly released sustainability report. Meanwhile, the company held steady in its progress toward a goal to increase postconsumer recycled material use.
Target has a commitment to reduce the volume of virgin plastic it uses in its own-brand packaging — only in the food, beverage, essentials and beauty categories — by 20% by 2025, against a 2020 adjusted baseline of 38,600 metric tons. The company currently still uses more virgin plastic than the 2020 baseline as opposed to reducing the level below baseline. The new report covers the fiscal year 2023 that ended Feb. 3, 2024.
The retailer recorded that it used 47,000 metric tons of virgin plastic in own-brand packaging in 2023, a nearly 22% increase over the 2020 baseline. Still, the new report says this is an 11% improvement over 2022, for which it shows a 33% increase in virgin plastic use over the baseline. However, the FY 2022 report, which was released last year, only showed an 8% increase in virgin plastic use in 2022 over the 2020 baseline.
When asked about the discrepancy in the 2022 data via email, a Target spokesperson referenced to sister publication Packaging Dive a footnote in the 2023 report that says the company revised its 2020 baseline for virgin plastic use to 38,600 metric tons after a recalculation to better capture and internally review data. The 2022 report had a nearly identical footnote attached to the 8% figure while detailing a then-revised 2020 baseline of 38,800 metric tons of virgin plastic used that year.
“Previously reported numbers included significant extrapolation to fill in data gaps. Through investments in gathering data directly from our vendors, and across more categories, we are able to report more comprehensively and with much less data extrapolation,” the new report says.
The new report, which covers the fiscal year 2023 that ended Feb. 3, 2024, notes that although the virgin plastic reduction commitment focuses on four specific categories, Target also identified some solutions for reduction in another category: home goods.
The spokesperson did not directly answer a question to Packaging Dive about whether the data showing the 22% virgin plastic use increase for 2023 means Target is likely to miss its 2025 goal to lower virgin plastic use by 20%.
The spokesperson pointed to text in the new ESG report describing Target’s work to meet its plastic reduction goals, such as transitioning to other materials or using more postconsumer recycled plastic. “Regulations, supply chain constraints, new owned brand categories, affordability trade-offs and increased sales compared to our baseline have slowed progress against our reduction goal,” the report says.
Target also saw some improvement in its goal to make all of its own-brand plastic packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. The company reached 32% in 2023, up from 22% in 2022 and 23% in 2021.
“We continued progress by redesigning for recyclability, reducing unnecessary plastic and eliminating problematic plastics across multiple categories. However, we faced challenges due to the limited U.S. infrastructure for flexible packaging recovery and the industry’s definition of ‘recyclable packaging,’” the report says.
Regarding the goal to use 20% PCR in own-brand packaging, Target charted 15% in 2023. That’s the same as 2022’s level, which was an increase over the 6% recorded for 2021, according to the previous year’s report. Examples include Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs and honey bottles sold under the Good & Gather and Market Pantry brands, which use packaging composed of 20% PCR.
Target tries to increase PCR use whenever possible, but industry-scale innovation is needed to make PCR more readily available, according to the report. “While advancements have been made in this area, technical, cost and availability limitations hindered mass change across our owned brand products,” it says.
Target has launched three internal pilots to advance reuse and refill opportunities, according to the new report. These pilots test reuse and refillable containers for Everspring liquid soap, reusable options for food and beverage containers and a trail mix refill dispensing system.
The reuse pilots support the retailer’s zero-waste goal, which aims for a minimum 90% diversion rate for operational waste. Target’s diversion rate reached 85% in 2023, up from 83% in 2022 and 80% in 2021.
