Five Years In, Verra’s Plastic Program Is More Relevant than Ever

When Verra launched its Plastic Program in 2021, the intent was to scale up finance for plastic waste collection and recycling activities by creating a trusted certification and crediting framework. Such a framework would ensure that certified plastic waste-reducing activities are additional and responsibly implemented, and that their impacts are credibly quantified, independently verified, and transparently reported. The purchase of plastic credits would provide businesses, as major manufacturers and users of plastic packaging, effective and credible opportunities to reduce their plastic footprint—beyond what is possible through direct supply chain interventions.

In the fight against climate change, the voluntary carbon market has proven to be an effective mechanism for the private sector to credibly demonstrate climate leadership by purchasing carbon credits. These credits are generated by projects that implement a range of climate mitigation activities on the ground. Verra’s Plastic Program builds on this proven approach and includes the same building blocks as the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program: rigorous requirements, science-based methodologies, independent third-party auditing, and a transparent registry.

Prior to its launch, 24 projects piloted the Plastic Program. Their feedback helped identify operational challenges and refine requirements, strengthening the program’s credibility and practicality from the outset.

The vision for the program was that it would (1) catalyze real-life, on-the-ground plastic waste collection and recycling initiatives, (2) support the private sector in its plastic stewardship strategies, (3) help pilot new approaches to and financing mechanisms for reducing plastic waste in the environment, and (4) be integrated into and support regulatory approaches to plastic waste collection and recycling.

Five years after its launch, Verra’s Plastic Program has made significant strides toward achieving its initial vision.

The program has had a significant impact on the ground. It has registered 36 projects in 20 countries and approved more than 500,000 credits that represent the same number of tonnes of plastic waste collected or recycled.

The program has facilitated finance across a range of plastic waste streams and in support of several interventions for plastic waste collection, sorting, and recycling, including the following:

• The establishment of new community-based collection initiatives
• The development of sorting and aggregation systems in underserved areas
• The remediation of legacy waste in terrestrial and marine ecosystems
• Investments in recycling infrastructure
• The expansion of existing collection and recycling operations.

These initiatives operate in varied contexts, across developed and developing economies, and in both rural and urban settings, demonstrating the global applicability and versatility of the program. The program has set high social safeguards, ensuring that informal waste workers have fair compensation, safe working conditions, and access to social protections while being safeguarded against child labor, forced labor, and any other exploitative practices.

With regard to supporting the private sector in its plastic stewardship strategies, the following four shifts are relevant for the plastic credit market:

1. Businesses are changing focus from voluntary targets toward compliance with evolving regulations, with plastic waste management becoming a legal and reporting obligation.
2. The general scrutiny of environmental claims is increasing, with stakeholders demanding clearer, verifiable reporting and traceable impacts.
3. Differences across measurement, reporting, and traceability frameworks, as well as inconsistent claims guidance, have created uncertainty for regulators and companies seeking alignment and credibility.
4. Companies are evolving their understanding of how plastic credits can credibly complement emerging EPR obligations and their plastic stewardship strategies, focusing on using plastic credits as a tool to address residual footprints while scaling both upstream (reduction) and downstream (mitigation) efforts.

A comprehensive and rigorous certification program can play a pivotal role in each of these changes by providing standardized impact accounting and a credible MRV framework. This not only strengthens corporate credibility but also supports alignment with EPR obligations. It also enhances regulatory confidence and enables plastic credits and certification programs to integrate and function within structured compliance pathways rather than outside them.

Beyond its on-the-ground impact, the Plastic Program has helped create system-wide mechanisms that make such real-life impact possible. For example, in early 2024, the World Bank, Citibank, and Plastic Collective announced an innovative plastic waste reduction-linked bond that would leverage Plastic Credits issued by Verra to provide returns to its investors. This demonstrates a novel pathway for financial instruments to support the scaling of plastic waste reduction activities.

Since the launch of Verra’s Plastic Program, the market and policy landscape surrounding it has evolved rapidly. EPR frameworks are expanding and maturing across jurisdictions, and negotiations for a global plastics treaty have raised expectations around accountability and measurable outcomes of plastic waste management initiatives.

These regulatory developments have created concrete opportunities for the integration of the Plastic Program’s MRV framework, which can fill an important infrastructure gap and be the key to strengthening and operationalizing policy and regulatory frameworks, specifically EPR implementation.

There is increasing recognition that plastic credit systems can support EPR frameworks, particularly in regions where waste management systems remain underdeveloped, and oversight and administration are under-resourced.

The specific role plastic credits can play in each EPR context depends on the particular maturation stage of an EPR framework. In early phases, the certification system underpinning plastic credits can mobilize immediate finance, build collection and recycling capacity, and establish performance baselines. In more advanced systems, they can strengthen traceability, bridge financing gaps, and support performance verification aligned with compliance requirements.

In either case, regulators are demanding credible data, high-integrity traceability, independent oversight, and enforceable social safeguards within their EPR frameworks. Verra’s Plastic Program provides a globally tested architecture that addresses these needs in the following ways:

• The program’s publicly available methodologies define clear eligibility criteria and quantification approaches.
• Independent third-party audits verify project outcomes.
• Publicly available project documents and issuance and tracking of credits on the Verra Registry ensure transparent accounting, full traceability, and protection against double issuance and double claiming.
• Social and environmental safeguard requirements ensure responsible sourcing, safe working conditions, benefit sharing, and positive environmental benefits in every project.

This infrastructure delivers credibility and accountability, which is required in well-designed EPR systems.

Verra published a discussion paper (PDF) presents six country case studies illustrating how plastic credit systems can support EPR implementation across different stages of policy maturity.

Amidst all these developments, Verra is engaging constructively across policy dialogues, peer initiatives, and industry platforms to strengthen interoperability of its Plastic Program with voluntary and regulatory initiatives. These efforts are laying the groundwork for plastic waste reduction certification programs to become more embedded within evolving compliance systems and broader circular economy architectures, supporting measurable, high-integrity plastic waste reduction as policy frameworks continue to mature. Verra is actively supporting policymakers and regulators, providing technical guidance, MRV tools, and evidence-based insights to strengthen EPR implementation.

Plastic pollution is a systems challenge. Plastic waste reduction certification programs like the Verra Plastic Program can interface with many aspects of the system by being an important, innovative financing mechanism for scaling up plastic waste collection and recycling, as well as a robust MRV framework for policy and regulatory schemes, including EPR frameworks.

For the program to achieve this impact, stakeholder engagement is vital. Below are possible ways to collaborate with Verra to advance this work.

Policymakers interested in learning how to leverage the Plastic Program to strengthen EPR systems can explore our relevant website resources and/or contact us directly at secretariat@verra.org for further information.

Businesses seeking to understand how to support their sustainability strategies through Plastic Credits can review our “Why Purchase Plastic Credits” webpage and explore certified projects on the Verra Registry.

Plastic waste collection and recycling projects interested in registering with Verra’s Plastic Program can learn how to get started by visiting the “Develop a Plastic Project” page.