The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (the Alliance) released its 2020 Progress Report, detailing the organisation’s focus on addressing its vision and mission. The report outlines the aggressive timeline the Alliance and its members have pursued over the first 18 months of the organisation’s formation.
This includes building the mission, vision and organising structure of the global nonprofit, evolving its strategy to accelerate its pace, and most importantly, activating 14 Alliance-led projects on the frontlines of the plastic waste challenge.
The report also features 55 member-led projects, investing a total of US$400 million towards the building of solutions to end plastic waste in the environment.
“Today’s Progress Report outlines a globally-coordinated effort of collaboration and partnership among some 50 Alliance members and supporters. We have made great strides in 18 months: 14 projects across six countries, and the contribution of 55 projects from 22 members,” said Jacob Duer, President and CEO, Alliance to End Plastic Waste. “Covid-19 has not only adversely affected lives and businesses this year alone, but it has also threatened the world’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Our Progress Report is also a reminder to all stakeholders to keep focused on tackling the plastic waste challenge with urgency and impact.”
Examples of Alliance and member project milestones outlined in the Annual Progress Report across the four strategic pillars:
Project STOP (Stop Ocean Plastics) in Jembrana, Northwest Bali Indonesia, has created the regency’s first-ever solid waste management service with a full recycling system that will create new and permanent jobs. The Alliance and Project STOP will create a system that will aim to collect 20,000 tons of waste per year. This involves a radical transformation at every societal level – citizen, government and community.
Zero Waste Plastic Cities is a combined vision of the Alliance and Grameen Creative Labs, co-founded by Nobel Peace-Laureate Professor Mohammed Yunus, which goes beyond plastic waste leaking into the environment by also developing sustainable social businesses that improve the livelihoods of many in the cities of Puducherry, India and Tan An, Vietnam.
Over the last year, the End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform with Plug and Play has fostered start-ups that can impact the plastic value chain. The programme has seen more than 1,000 start-ups from Silicon Valley and Paris apply, while the third hub, Singapore, has seen widespread interest when it kicked off its accelerator programme this summer. For example, the Litterati app, winner of the Alliance and Plug and Play incubator program in the United States, is empowering individuals to identify, collect, and geo-tag the waste they pickup.
Members like TOMRA, a world-leading plastics recycling specialist and sustainability company, has committed their sponsorship of eXXpedition Round the World 2019-2021 to education and engagement. The project is an all-female sailing voyage researching microplastic pollution. Approximately 300 women are embarking on 30 voyages across four oceanic gyres.
Suez, as a world-leader in smart and sustainable resource management, and also a founding member of the Alliance, is bringing its technology know-how to address plastic waste leakage in Thailand by building a plastic recycling plant, the company’s first outside of Europe. This plant will convert 30,000 tons of locally collected polyethylene film waste into recycled materials.
David Taylor, Chairman President & CEO, The Procter & Gamble Company, and Chairperson, Alliance to End Plastic Waste, noted in his opening letter of the report: “Plastic waste is a serious challenge that requires swift action and strong leadership, and I am convinced that the only way to get there is through collective action, innovation and partnership. The Alliance is in a unique position. We can unlock circularity and economic value in post-consumer plastic by supporting a range of innovative measures along the value chain, involving individuals and the public and private sectors.”
The 2020 Progress Report also announced the Alliance’s 2025 Ambition. With a strategic focus on infrastructure development, innovation, clean up and education and engagement, the Alliance and its members will build investable models and partnerships within five years that will:
Demonstrate zero plastic waste in multiple cities and divert well over millions of tons of plastic waste through Alliance projects in more than 100 at-risk cities.
Support healthy livelihoods for over 100 million people by enabling local ownerships of waste management.
Unlock at least five times its investment and much more to accelerate actions and solutions to end plastic waste and build sustainable cities.
