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Latest news from Plastic Collective, where we talk about Plastic Recycling, Ocean Waste Plastic & tackling the current climate crisis. Also view events and get answers to common questions for those interested in becoming plastic neutral.
Plastic Collective registers its first African project under the Verra Plastic Waste Reduction Standard
Female workers at the Tema West recycle plant(Photo credit: Alliance To End Plastic Waste) Plastic Collective is proud to announce the registration of the ASASE Foundation’s community-based plastic collection and recycling project under the Verra’s Plastic Waste...
A Guide to Chemical Recycling
Image by deepakrit from PixabayAwareness as to the harmful effects of plastic on the environment is ever increasing. Along with this awareness comes initiatives to explore and develop new ways and techniques to process plastic waste to help create new materials for...
Guide to Plastic-Free July
Plastic Free July is a campaign and global movement that runs each year in July and was is run by the Plastic Free Foundation. the campaign itself has been running since 2011 and has been gaining popularity each subsequent year it runs. On the the main goals of the...
Trip to Northern Territory – Rubbish on the shore
In early May, the Plastic Collective Oz team (Louise and myself) were invited to ‘Rubbish on the Shore, a Think Tank on Country’, to contribute to discussions on ghost net and marine debris pollution in northern Australia. We undertook our journey to Northeast Arnhem...
UN Global Plastics Treaty – the hits and misses of INC4
Last week, Ottawa hosted thousands of negotiators and observers for the fourth meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) which is charged with negotiating by the end of this year a global, legally binding treaty to reduce plastic pollution....
Types of Plastic: Guide to Different Plastic Types
Plastics are an extremely useful and flexible material. Because of this we often use plastics in our daily lives without giving them a second thought. One of the things that is overlooked when it comes to plastic types (although general awareness is growing) is that...
How Fast Fashion is Bad for the Environment
Yves Saint Laurent was once quoted as saying, “fashions fade, style is eternal.” Sadly, with the arrival of the fast fashion movement, fashion these days does not have a chance to fade, it is almost immediately replaced with something new, as quickly as it arrives....
World Bank Plastic Waste Reduction-Linked Bond FAQ
World Bank Plastic Waste Reduction-Linked Bond QUESTIONS & ANSWERS How does the bond work? The Plastic Waste Reduction-Linked Bond is a USD 100 million 7-year principal protected bond issued by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“IBRD” or...
WORLD BANK / FEATURE STORY: Tackling the Plastics Pollution Crisis by Channeling Private Capital to Projects that Reduce Plastic Waste
WORLD BANK/ FEATURE STORY: Washington, D.C., January 24, 2024 Of the nearly 350 million tons of plastics that are produced annually, about 70 percent end up in managed landfills or are incinerated, about 10 percent is recycled and the remaining 20 percent simply...
WORLD BANK / PRESS RELEASE: World Bank’s New Outcome Bond Helps Communities Remove and Recycle Plastic Waste
WORLD BANK PRESS RELEASE: WASHINGTON, January 24, 2024The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD) today priced a seven-year $100 million, principal-protected Plastic Waste Reduction-Linked Bond. This innovative bond provides investors...
Plastic Collective attracts landmark fundraising to tackle plastic pollution
London, Washington DC, January 24, 2024Plastic Collective, a leading social enterprise focused on solving the plastic waste epidemic, is pleased to announce it will receive funding through an innovative and transformational sustainable development outcome bond, issued...
What is the Global Plastics Treaty?
The Plastic Pollution Crisis The plastic pollution crisis began in the late 20th century when plastic waste increased exponentially and scientists in the 1970s began to see its effects on the environment. Plastic was a material that was once thought of as being the...
Plastic Pollution Facts, Data and Statistics – Plastic Collective
Plastic has permeated every aspect of human life due to its durability, versatility, and affordability. However, the convenience of using plastic comes at a steep environmental cost. The reality of plastic pollution extends beyond littered beaches and overflowing...
Ghostnet & Marine Debris Artwork Market Place App
New ghost net & marine debris artwork digital marketplace set up to support indigenous women of Cape YorkWei’Num Aboriginal Art and Craft Corporation based in Northwest Cape York, have co-designed an Ocean Arts program called ‘Hunter Gatherers Mamas’ with Plastic...
Plastic Collective’s to Pledge to Improve Welfare of Plastic Waste Collectors in Emerging Nations
For almost eight years Plastic Collective has been working with remote and vulnerable communities around the world to address the plastic waste crisis where plastic leakage into nature is most extreme and destructive. Siblings Louise, Stephen and Dianne Hardman...
The Plastic Impact on Climate Change
Climate change is a topic that is currently garnering a lot of attention in the media, especially with reports of unseasonal and extreme weather events that are taking place around the world. With this increased scrutiny there is a focus on the various contributing...
Social-Plus: A new Standard for improving waste picker conditions
The estimated 20 million waste pickers operating around the world [1] provide around 60 percent of the global collection volume for plastic recycled material [2]. However, waste pickers receive little to no recognition for their essential contribution to circular...
Plastic Collective’s Plastic Leadership Labels
Plastic Collective's Plastic Leadership Labels Plastic Collective offers the following plastic leadership labels to brands. The labels are awarded based on a brand’s achievements in the key circularity actions of collecting and recycling equivalent volumes of the...
What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is a vast area in the North Pacific Ocean where marine debris, primarily plastics, has accumulated due to ocean currents. What we have come to know as the great pacific garbage patch was first discovered by Captain Charles Moore...
Mitigation of Plastic Pollution – Climate Action on Plastic Waste, Mitigation Checklist
Mitigation of Plastic Pollution This blog is the second in our blog mini series focused on Plastic Collective’s Plastic Pathways for Corporates which help corporates address plastic pollution as part of taking action on climate change and achieving their...
Plastic Pollution Facts & Statistics
Plastic pollution is a problem has quickly become one of the most important environmental issues in recent years. It is a global problem that affects every corner of the planet, from the deepest ocean trenches to the most remote mountain ranges. The ubiquity of...
Net Zero vs. Carbon Neutral
In recent years, the phrases "net zero" and "carbon neutral" have become buzzwords in the climate change and sustainability discussion. Governments, businesses, and individuals are increasingly encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint and instead adopt green...
Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution & Marine Litter (GPML)
Recently (in April 2023) we proudly became an official member of the Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter (GPML), a multi-stakeholder partnership working together to find solutions to prevent marine litter and plastic pollution. This global...
How Effective Is Plastic Recycling?
Is Plastic Recycling Effective? Most of us have come to understand that plastic is bad for the environment and can have a negative impact on our health. This is why in many countries plastic recycling schemes have been implemented and many people, at an individual...
The Plastic Waste Problem and its Solutions
We’ve all come across plastic waste in some form or other. You can find it in our homes, in our streets, and in our oceans. Plastic pollution has become a global issue that needs to be addressed urgently. While there have been some inroads over the years in terms of...
Extended Producer Responsibility – How Can It Drive Global Circularity and Sustainability?
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is the concept that producers and importers should take responsibility for the products they put into a market across their entire lifecycle - the polluter pays principle. We are now seeing a ‘third wave’ in the development and...
How Can Businesses Reduce Plastic Use and Improve Their Plastic Footprint
Every day, thousands of tons of plastic are produced, used once, and then just thrown away. This plastic pollution is causing massive problems in the environment and is directly contributing to climate change. Businesses, in particular, are major contributors to the...
What Are Plastic Offsetting Schemes for Business
As a business it is almost inevitable that you will use a certain amount of plastic in either the products you supply or as a by-product of carrying out commerce. Many organizations have set themselves targets to improve the sustainability of the business operations,...
Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities
Image by Gerd Altmann from PixabaySustainable development has been on the agenda since the late 1980s and over that time much progress has been made in moving towards a world that is more sustainable. However, with population growth and issues surrounding climate...
How to Become a Net Zero or Zero Carbon Business
Today more than ever there is a lot of reasons why it is a good idea for a business to become a zero carbon. However, this does raise the question on how this is to be achieved and what are the steps that need to be taken. Here we will discuss the reasons why it is a...
What is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) & How do Plastic Credits Fit In?
What is EPR? Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is the concept that brands, plastic packaging producers and importers should take responsibility for the plastic they put into a market across its entire lifecycle. EPR policies are based on the “polluter pays”...
Guide to the Effects of Plastic Pollution in the Ocean
It is hard to miss the news reports on television and in the press showing the effects of plastic waste and the amount of plastic debris in the ocean. From single-use plastic bags to fishing nets there is a vast quantity of plastics that end up in the sea. Most...
Benefits of Reducing Plastic Waste for Business
When plastic was first introduced it was thought of as a miracle and flexible material but as the world has come to realize this material comes at a cost to the environment and health. Businesses have relied on plastic not only as one of the raw materials in the...
Lower Gulf Indigenous Recycling Centre Kicks Off
In August 2022, Plastic Collective delivered the final stage of an Indigenous Recycling Centre in the Gulf of Carpentaria. In response to the largest die-back of mangroves witnessed in the Lower Gulf region in 2016, a project focusing on mangrove health and plastic...
Recycled PET Market – Supply & Demand Market Issues
The recycled PET market: many large buyers, but not enough collection We know that of the 460 million tonnes of plastic consumed globally each year, just 9 per cent is recycled (1). Roughly 50 percent of plastic waste generated globally ends up in landfill; 19...
Global Plastic Treaty – The Lowdown
The OECD’s latest report on plastic pollution is not exactly ‘beach read’ material. It projects that plastic leakage into the environment will double to 44 million tonnes a year by 2060, while the build-up of plastics in aquatic environments will more than triple,...
Cosmetic Industries Join For Planetary Health
The cosmetic industry is a thriving growth sector worth a staggering $511 billion in 2022, and growing at a rate of 4.75%. By 2025 it is expected to reach $785 billion. The cosmetic industry can be divided into four broad categories Cosmetics (or makeup) ...
How to Avoid Greenwashing for Business
Businesses examining ways they can improve their eco-credentials and sustainability efforts might have come across the phrase, ‘greenwashing’ or ‘green sheen’. Often this phrase is highlighted because of bad publicity. Brands may have wondered how they too can avoid...
ABC News Article : “Louise Hardman’s Shruder invention recycles plastic cleaned from ocean”
[ABC ARTICLE - By Halina Baczkowski Posted Fri 15 Jul 2022 at 6:43am, updated Mon 18 Jul 2022 at 10:48am] Louise Hardman is a water person, she loves anything to do with it, be it leisure, sport or work. It was her specialisation in marine turtles and birds while...
Plastic Pathway – Guidelines for Corporate Plastic Stewardship: Intro
Corporates and their customers are increasingly aware of the challenges that plastic pollution poses to our environment and of the need to collectively rethink our approach to plastic use and management as part of climate action. The question for corporates is then -...
Carbon Credits & Offsetting Explained
There are many important reasons why carbon emissions should be reduced. Such emissions from carbon dioxide and methane are heat-trapping gases (or greenhouse gases) and an excessive amount of these cause global warming and climate change. Greenhouse gases are a...
Plastic Credits: Safeguarding against “greenwashing” and false company eco-friendly / ESG claims
“Greenwashing”, or the exaggeration of claims by companies about their environmental, social and governance (ESG) achievements, is a growing problem in the ESG industry. Under pressure from consumers, shareholder and environmental groups, regulators are now looking...
Response to “Three problems’ with Verra’s first plastic waste reduction credits” by Madeleine Jenkins
I’d like to respond to Madeleine Jenkins' article “Three problems' with Verra's first plastic waste reduction credits”. I’m Steve Hardman, Director of Plastic Collective, which is a developer of plastic collection and recycling projects that advises businesses on...
How Does Plastic Pollution Affect Climate Change
From plastic straws to microbeads contained in body scrubs, it is fair to say that plastic use is widespread. Once hailed as a miracle material that revolutionized the manufacturing industry, time has shown that there are significant downsides to plastic use. From...
Plastic Collective Joins UN Sea of Solutions 2021
Plastic Collective’s Steve Hardman recently joined the United Nations Environment Programme’s Sea of Solutions annual plastic waste conference organized in conjunction with COBSEA, to talk about Sustainable Financing for a Waste-free Future. This session showcased...
Oyster Farmers Tackle Waste in Nambucca River
On Tuesday 22nd February, local oyster farmers will descend onto the foreshore of the Nambucca River on Gumbaynggirr Country for the mass industry led clean-up event “Tide to Tip”. This is the third year of the event, which is organised by OceanWatch Australia, that...
What Does Plastic Net Zero Mean?
Keeping up with the ever-growing green glossaryAs a CSR professional or a responsible consumer, it’s difficult and even frustrating to keep up with the green glossary of sustainability jargon. In the plastic space, it is no different. We are bombarded by terms like:...
History of Plastic Pollution: Solving the Pollution Problem
History of Plastic Pollution How we're Solving the Problem Humans have been polluting our earth since the beginning of the 19th century, however, it wasn't until the late 1960’s when we released we actually had a problem. Plastic Collective and other world non...
History of Plastic Production
History of Plastic Production: How Long has Plastic Pollution been a Problem? Scientists studying plankton first noticed plastic pollution in the ocean in the early 1930’s. This was regarded as the first recorded incident of plastic pollution. The scientists were...
Australia’s first Indigenous-run marine plastic recycling enterprise
A whale preservation charity will fund Australia’s first Indigenous-run marine plastic recycling enterprise, transforming waste plastic into objects of desire. Gowings Whale Trust, the NFP environmental organisation started by Gowings, is financing the MiiMi...
The Plastic Collective System – Designing a Framework to Recycle Fugitive Plastic
What is the Plastic Collective System?Louise is a strong believer in resource not waste. We refer to something that cannot be recycled as waste - dirty nappies for example. Plastic however, has this incredible ability where it can be cleaned, reused and recycled...
Certified Standard Logos for Biodegradable & Compostable Plastics
The Home Compostable verification logo helps consumers clearly identify and differentiate packaging materials as home compostable and biodegradable. Since the demands for environmentally friendly packaging increases, companies are ambitiously developing new packaging...
What’s the Link Between Plastic and Climate Change?
Image sourced from GreenBizThe perils of plastic are well known to businesses and their consumers. Yet, often at times the link between plastic pollution and carbon emissions is overlooked. Tackling these challenges requires a holistic understanding of their...
Plastic Collective’s Digital Solution: Using Data to Ensure Transparency and Impact
Image sourced from Plastic Collective.We take a deeper look with Aly Khalifa into how Plastic Collective’s recycling software is integrated into its wider system to support communities with their plastic waste management.Software origin – a need for good dataSo, what...
How is plastic pollution affecting Indonesia communities
We talked to founder and CEO Louise Hardman about Plastic Collective’s latest community project in Java, Indonesia. Like many places across the globe, discarded plastics are putting extreme stress on the natural environment, local communities and surrounding wildlife....
Environmental Standard Setter Verra Names Plastic Collective to Plastic Program Advisory Group
Image sourced from Verra.Plastic Collective’s Steve Hardman was recently invited to join Verra’s Plastic Program Advisory Group (PPAG). He, alongside eighteen other cross-sector stakeholders, will guide the development of the Plastic Waste Reduction Program. The...
India Plastics Pact Launches with Plastic Collective as a Founding Member
Image sourced from India Plastics Pact.THE INDIA PLASTICS PACT & ITS 2030 TARGETS September 3, 2021 marks the official launch of India Plastics Pact - collaboratively developed by WWF India and the Confederation of Indian Industry. Plastic Collective is...
How are Marine Megafauna Impacted by Plastic Pollution?
Photograph by Jordi Chias sourced from National Geographic. “Marine litter has become a pervasive pollution problem affecting all of the world's seas. It is widely documented that marine litter, in particular plastic, has negative impacts on marine wildlife, primarily...
New Technology to Identify Plastics is Helping to Recycle Ghost Nets
Imagine shooting infrared beams at a material to work out what type of plastic material it is made from - that is what a ‘Spectro-photo-scope’ does for plastic! This Near Infrared Device (NIR) is also called BASF trinamix. One of the problems with recycling discarded...
Surfing towards Sustainability: Diving into WAW’s Ocean Plastic Supply Chain
Dreaming Big: Australia’s first Ocean Plastic Supply Chain Before WAW became a household name in the Australian surf industry, Rikki Gilbey was just another person dreaming big. What was driving him? Giving a new generation of bodysurfers a way to get barreled, while...
