Alliance to End Plastic Waste cites ‘significant progress’ in 2023

The Singapore-based Alliance to End Plastic Waste, in an annual report to its stakeholders, says it has helped divert nearly 120,000 metric tons of discarded plastic away from the environment and added value to another 8,000 metric tons of plastic, largely through recycling, since its creation in 2019.

That summary from Alliance President and CEO Jacob Duer also refers to 2023 as “a year of significant progress supported by the continued evolution of the Alliance’s approach to ending plastic waste.”

Letters from Duer and Jim Fitterling, CEO of Dow and board chair of the Alliance, start out the 35-page report. In his remarks, Fitterling says the Alliance“has established itself as an incubator and laboratory for innovative solutions to address plastic pollution.

Since being established in 2019, the Alliance has supported more than 80 projects across the world, with 52 projects active globally as of the end of 2023, with 21 of them in Southeast or South Asia and another 12 in sub-Saharan Africa.

“When selecting projects, we look for opportunities to fill crucial gaps in research, waste management or recycling that will give a boost in their local or regional context,” the Alliance says.

“The Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s unique operating model gives us the flexibility to experiment and develop untested ideas. That is crucial to advancing solutions that enable plastic circularity and reduce unmanaged waste because we can de-risk promising ideas that can then be scaled and replicated. The projects we support are carefully chosen with that in mind.”

In Durban, South Africa, the Alliance says a project it is funding there has collected more than 17,500 metric tons of discarded plastic and has been able to mechanically recycle more than 15,800 metric tons of that total.

Similar projects have collected smaller totals—with room to grow, according to the Alliance—in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Nairobi, Kenya; Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and five cities in India.

Several Alliance-funded projects in those cities and others have focused on improving work conditions and compensation for “waste pickers” or informal collectors of material who often provide the necessary first steps of collection and diversion in the wider plastic recycling process.

“In South Africa, informal waste pickers—known locally as reclaimers—largely remain invisible, despite being critical contributors to waste management,” the Alliance writes of one such circumstance. In that nation, the Alliance says it supports its project partner, African Reclaimers Organisation, to improve the recognition of reclaimers and educate the community about the work they do.

In projects portrayed in the annual report, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are mentioned as types of plastic that have been collected and recycled.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste describes itself as a community of pioneering CEOs dedicated to building a circular economy for plastic that has convened some 70 companies from across the plastics value chain, including brand owners, resin producers, converters, waste managers, recyclers and technology providers.

The organization’s annual report can be downloaded here.