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I feel this is a very nice piece of news on the recycling of plastics to start the new year with. It was taken from a Resource Recycling newsletter.
“Companies from throughout the plastics value chain have committed more than $1 billion to reduce plastic waste by improving waste management systems and cleaning up existing pollution.”
These companies formed "The Alliance to End Plastic Waste.” This alliance will focus its resources on developing waste collection infrastructure, innovating in recycling and product design, educating consumers about waste and cleaning up plastic in the environment.
Included in its 30+ membership are resin and chemical producers, consumer goods companies, waste management providers plus others. Some of the more recognizable names are: Berry Global, Chevron, Dow, ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Suez, Total and Veolia.
The members have committed at least $1 billion initially with a goal of investing at least $1.5 billion over the next five years. Besides the dedicated funding, a primary key of the alliance is its collaborative approach.
As a spokesperson for it explained, “If we did it by ourselves, we couldn’t possibly have the impact that we can now have through this alliance and be able to prioritize where the impact can be the greatest.”
For me, this is a little like the team effort, many of us fans, see in a championship team.
An example of this will be in research. Knowing all the members have budgets for research, another spokesperson explained, “We can do that independently as 30 independent companies or we could do it collectively and really focus the effort and accelerate the effort and all use it around the world.”
“Unprecedented,” is the word the CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development used to describe this new effort. He was explaining it is unprecedented in size, in scope, in positions of the members and the geographic spread.
A senior executive vice president at a waste management and utilities company added that the alliance is not just about making "lofty commitments before going back to business as usual.” Instead, the focus will be on real projects and harnessing the skills each company brings to the table, in engineering, material design, resource optimization and waste management.
Some of the alliance’s starting efforts will be on five Southeast Asian countries, where some 60 percent of marine plastic waste is estimated to originate.
In its initial effort, the alliance will concentrate on four key areas: The first will be infrastructure development, primarily building up waste management systems. The idea is to collect the waste at its source.
The second is to foster innovation in recycling and reuse, part of which is to develop plastic packaging which is more easily recyclable.
Education and engagement with the public is the third key area.
“We’ve got to educate consumers about the impact of how plastic waste is collected and so on, and governments on how collection systems can be instituted,”a member said.
The last initial key effort of the alliance will be to clean up the plastic waste currently existing in the environment.
The goal is to move on all four fronts at the same time. And the good news is the work has already begun. Let’s pray it not only continues, but grows.
Till next week, do have an enjoyable and safe one.
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Ollie is a local citizen concerned with the environment and helping others. A retired Air Force fighter and instructor pilot, he is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and received his degrees at Texas State University where he worked on staff before totally retiring. For questions or comments, he invites you to call him at 512-353-7432 or e-mail [email protected].
