Context

An alliance of global companies from the plastics and consumer goods value chain has launched a new organisation- Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) - to advance solutions to eliminate plastic waste, especially in the ocean.

About

Alliance to End Plastic Waste

• It is a not-for-profit organization that includes companies that make, use, sell, process, collect, and recycle plastics. This includes chemical and plastic manufacturers, consumer goods companies, retailers, converters, and waste management companies, also known as the plastics value chain.
• The cross value chain AEPW, currently made up of nearly thirty member companies, has committed over $1.0 billion with the goal of investing $1.5 billion over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment.
• It will develop and bring to scale solutions that will minimize and manage plastic waste and promote solutions for used plastics by helping to enable a circular economy.
• The membership of alliance represents global companies and located throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Partnerships and programmes

• The Alliance has been working with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development as a founding strategic partner.
• The Alliance also announced an initial set of projects and collaborations that reflect a range of solutions to help end plastic waste. These include:
  • Partnering with cities to design integrated waste management systems in large urban areas where infrastructure is lacking, especially those along rivers which transport vast amounts of unmanaged plastic waste from land to the ocean. This work will include engaging local governments and stakeholders, and generate economically sustainable and replicable models that can be applied across multiple cities and regions.
  • Partnerships with cities located in high plastic leakage areas. The Alliance will also be looking to collaborate with other programs working with cities, such as Project STOP, which is working in Indonesia.
  • Funding to support the Incubator Network by Circulate Capital and Second Muse to develop and promote technologies, business models and entrepreneurs that prevent ocean plastic waste and improve waste management and recycling.
  • Developing an open source, science-based global information project to support waste management projects globally with reliable data collection, metrics, standards, and methodologies to help governments, companies, and investors focus on and accelerate actions to stop plastic waste from entering the environment.
  • Explore opportunities to partner with leading academic institutions and other organizations already involved in similar types of data collection.
  • Creating a capacity building collaboration with intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations to conduct joint workshops and trainings for government officials and community-based leaders to help them identify and pursue the most effective and locally-relevant solutions in the highest priority areas.
  • Supporting Renew Oceans to aid localized investment and engagement. The program is designed to capture plastic waste before it reaches the ocean from the ten major rivers shown to carry the vast majority of land-based waste to the ocean.
  • The initial work will support the Renew Ganga project, which has also received support from the National Geographic Society.

What are the key areas of collaboration?

• Infrastructure development to collect and manage waste and increase recycling;
• Innovation to advance and scale new technologies that make recycling and recovering plastics easier and create value from all post-use plastics;
• Education and engagement of governments, businesses, and communities to mobilize action; and,
• Clean up of concentrated areas of plastic waste already in the environment, particularly the major conduits of waste, like rivers, that carry land-based plastic waste to the sea.