The North American Plastics Alliance (NAPA), a group comprised of North America’s four leading plastics industry associations, recently celebrated its four-year anniversary. The Alliance was formed in 2011 when the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA), and SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association joined forces to more effectively coordinate the organizations’ shared priorities of promoting the plastics industry, advocating on its behalf, and moving the entire industry forward through product stewardship programs and other efforts designed to facilitate plastics recycling and energy recovery.

In March 2015, the Alliance welcomed its newest member, the Asociación Nacional de Industrias del Plástico, AC (ANIPAC), bringing the Alliance’s membership to four and increasing its ability to advocate on behalf of plastics throughout the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) region.

“During the past four years, NAPA has established a strong track record of collaborating to tackle some of the plastics industry’s most pressing issues through the combined efforts of our organizations. We have become more efficient and effective in delivering value to our members, and in raising the profile and reputation of the entire plastics industry,” says William R. Carteaux, SPI president and CEO. “NAPA’s continued success is proof that the issues our industry faces will not be solved alone, and that the plastics industry has the greatest impact when it speaks with one resounding voice.”

“NAPA’s greatest successes have been in working together on shared advocacy challenges, developing solutions to improve recycling and recovery of used plastics, and in keeping plastic out of our oceans,” says Steve Russell, vice president of the Plastics Division of the ACC. “Together our organizations have been able to leverage our respective skills and resources to achieve more than would have been possible working alone.”

“Not only do plastics manufacturers located throughout North America face many of the same challenges, but the organizations that represent these companies, like CPIA, SPI, ANIPAC, and ACC, face their own issues every day in providing value to their members,” says Carol Hochu, president and CEO of the CPIA. “Through NAPA we’ve been able to strengthen each of our organizations, resulting in better service, better products and better value to every plastics company that is taking advantage of the outstanding offerings put forth by membership in a NAPA-aligned trade association.”

The CEO of NAPA’s newest member, Martha G. Alva of ANIPAC, says, “As of March 2015, ANIPAC is formally part of NAPA. This venture will be of great value as the Mexican association will be able to exchange experience and knowledge with its equivalents in Canada and the USA. The new channel of communication will allow the development of joint solutions to common issues and the design of better strategies to strengthen the plastic industry in North America.”

NAPA concentrates its efforts in four specific areas:

• outreach: to promote better understanding of plastics’ economic, social, and environmental contributions;
• advocacy: to encourage public policy that supports the growth of the plastics industry and to defend against specific product attacks by proving factual information while fostering innovation;
• energy recovery and recycling: to facilitate increased recycling and recovery of plastics’ stored energy content; and
• pellet containment: to extend wide-scale adoption of Operations Clean Sweep throughout North America and beyond.