5. How can businesses be part of plastic recovery?

There are lots of ways that a brand in North America or Europe can address the global plastic waste crisis… but by supporting a project elsewhere in the world? Can financing a project actually lead to quantifiable reductions in plastic pollution?

Well… the short answer is, yes. Here’s a brief introduction to how rePurpose Global connects finance from brands to verifiable action where it’s most needed, and how this leads to plastic recovery, socio-economic improvements, and environmental benefits.

Brands that partner with rePurpose Global on Verified Plastic Recovery are voluntarily giving money - that could otherwise have been profit - to fight plastic pollution and support social initiatives. Whether this is tied to sales, revenue, or the number of likes in a social media campaign, the funding is used to bridge gaps in waste value chains.

For example, some of rePurpose Global’s projects provide the financial incentives for the collection of low-value plastics: plastics that would otherwise have been left uncollected. Others pay for the sorting and transportation of plastic types to allow them to be recycled, when otherwise this would have been unprofitable and the waste just dumped or burned.

By funding these activities, brands have a direct environmental impact. It is possible to measure how much plastic has been collected and recovered thanks to the brand’s contribution – i.e. how much plastic pollution has been avoided.

Though Verified Plastic Recovery (VPR) is largely about environmental impact, as you might have read in the last article, there’s a strong social component to this work. Brands funding VPR are cleaning up communities, and are also responsible for supporting job opportunities, safer working conditions, and uplifting opportunities for marginalized workers. The different ways that brands can partner with rePurpose Global to fund VPR are set out in the next articles.