7. rePurpose Global: Driving change

If you’ve been following this pathway you’ll see that rePurpose Global helps businesses both to measure and analyze their impact, and take action on plastic pollution by funding waste recovery – as well as helping brands to spread the word about the importance of action.

But - largely behind the scenes - we do much more than this to accelerate more effective solutions to the global plastic waste crisis.

We are advocating for inclusive and effective global plastic waste policies at Global Plastics Treaty discussions. In particular we are working to overcome the traditional lack of representation from solutionists in policymaking by forming - along with The Ocean Cleanup - the Innovation Alliance for a Global Plastics Treaty (IAGPT).

There is a huge challenge in waste management, in that infrastructure is lacking and there are often not the financial incentives to clean-up and recover waste. In fact, over $5 trillion of investment is needed to reduce plastic waste pollution in nature to sustainable levels. So, we are also working to attract new and more effective investment into the sector. Along with sustainability research consultancy Earth Action and others, we have developed the modality of Outcomes-Based Finance for Waste Prevention (OBWP). By incentivizing measurable outcomes (rather than quantity of inputs), OBWP shows huge potential to help prevent and clean-up waste.

That’s not all. We offer a range of engaging programs to help future the education of our mission, are key players in the development of standards, and push the industry to take more effective and urgent action. We:

• run immersive ‘Plastic Reality Projects’ with the goal of bringing the realities of the plastic waste crisis into focus for sustainability and business leaders through real life on the ground experiences
• actively share our mission widely at events and webinars
• make our impact methodologies publicly available
• proudly engage in various industry forums including the Plastic Footprint Network, PREVENT Waste Alliance; Sustainable Packaging Coalition; and the US Plastic Pact