The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased the production and use of single-use plastic products and stalled the introduction of regulations that would mandate corporate responsibility for waste collection and recycling in many regions of the world. With the current global plastic recycling rate as low as 14% and most of the remaining plastic waste accumulating in landfills or the natural environment, now, more than ever, we need to scale up plastic and packaging recovery and recycling activities.

To incentivize such activities, the 3R Initiative is developing a market-based approach to transparently and sustainably increase the value of plastic waste: the Plastic Waste Reduction Program (Plastic Program). By standardizing the way that recovered and recycled material is transparently accounted for, reported and independently verified, the Plastic Program will facilitate investments (including via transactable credits) in activities that make verifiable contributions to the circular economy. The Plastic Program is expected to launch in January of 2021.

Three principal documents of the Plastic Program — the Plastic Program Guide v0.1, Plastic Waste Reduction Standard v0.2, and the Plastic Program Definitions v0.1 — are now available for public consultation. Take advantage of the opportunity to shape the field of plastic waste recovery and recycling by providing your input by 23 August.

The more input we receive on these documents, the better we can ensure that the Plastic Program is practical for use by all types of plastic waste recovery and recycling activities and that it meets corporates’ needs. We invite anyone involved or interested in plastic waste recovery and recycling activities, as well as private and public entities interested in directing financial support to such activities, to review these Plastic Program documents.

Please provide your comments in Collaborase, a web-based tool that enables reviewers to leave comments concurrently and respond to each other’s comments.

You can also visit the Plastic Program consultation page for more information about the consultation and/or to submit comments via email.
To facilitate your comments, we are offering two webinars on 16 July that will provide an overview of the Plastic Program and explain how to comment via the Collaborase platform.

  • Sign up here for the webinar on 16 July 4:00 am EDT (UTC-4)
  • Sign up here for the webinar on 16 July 11:00 am EDT (UTC-4)

Recordings of the webinars will be uploaded on the Plastic Program consultation page.