{"id":74827,"date":"2022-02-03T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadialogue.net\/?p=74827"},"modified":"2022-02-15T10:46:17","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T10:46:17","slug":"can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Can \u2018plastic credits\u2019 help solve the waste crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ranong is Thailand\u2019s least-populated province, yet it battles a steady stream of plastic waste. Like many coastal parts of the country, Ranong\u2019s turquoise waters are at the receiving end of some of the approximately 50,000 tons<\/a> of plastic pollution that enters Thailand\u2019s seas annually. This figure includes a portion of the several hundred thousand tons<\/a> of plastic that are imported into the country from the rest of the world each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But since 2019, a team of Ranong residents have been intercepting plastic pollution on its path from land to sea. With the support of a social enterprise called Second Life Thailand,<\/a> they gather 120 tons of plastic annually, which is mostly recycled into plastic chips to make new products. Then, for every ton removed from the environment, Second Life generates a \u201cplastic credit\u201d, which it sells on to purchasing companies who wish to offset their own waste footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Thai-based project is now one of dozens of global waste collection and recycling efforts that sell plastic credits. Echoing the principles of carbon emissions trading<\/a>, these credits give companies an opportunity to indirectly tackle their own plastic pollution by funding initiatives that clear plastic pollution from the environment, recycle it, or do both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This emerging marketplace now includes dozens of global companies which can purchase from about 32 credit schemes<\/a>, each incorporating several plastic collection projects worldwide like the one in Thailand. Proponents say this credit mechanism could clear millions of tons of plastic pollution and curtail its hazardous impact on the environment. On the other hand, some are concerned plastic credits could encourage greenwashing and distract from the systemic solutions the industry requires to truly solve the crisis of plastic waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new standard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To their proponents, plastic credits can help address the industry\u2019s most intractable problems. Removing pollution from the environment ton-by-ton gives companies a way to account for the share of plastic they say they must produce because there aren\u2019t alternatives to the material yet. They also help companies take responsibility for the share of plastic they generate that, beyond their control, leaks into the environment. Meanwhile, by charging companies for credits, in principle, these schemes steer more funding into systems that capture and recycle waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another possible benefit is that plastic credits could speed up action on pollution. In many countries, governments are establishing extended producer responsibility<\/a> (EPR) schemes that require packaging producers to pay for the collection, sorting and recycling of pollution downstream. There\u2019s widespread agreement that these are needed, but financing and enforcing EPR regulation can take decades to roll out. Meanwhile, private-sector-driven plastic credits offer companies a route to immediately extract and recycle waste through existing projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Woman<\/div>
Volunteers collect data on which brands produce the most stray waste at a beach clean-up in Manila Bay, Philippines. Proponents of plastic credits schemes say it helps companies to take responsibility for plastic that, beyond their control, leaks into the environment. (Image \u00a9 Wason Wanichakorn \/ Greenpeace)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yet this swiftly evolving credits marketplace is new and still unwieldy, with no overarching mechanism in place for plastic credit projects. \u201cIt has the potential to become a new financial instrument that is completely unregulated. It\u2019s very immature now; it\u2019s very volatile,\u201d says Ina Ballik, senior manager at Yunus Environment Hub, a global social business network that is part of the consortium ValuCred, which was established to help streamline plastic credit systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, awareness of the need for some controls began growing in 2019 when industry and NGO stakeholders came together to launch<\/a> the 3R Initiative<\/a>. This was established to draw up standards for how businesses should use plastic credits and how projects should sell them. The initiative\u2019s biggest output so far is the Plastic Waste Reduction Standard<\/a>, launched in February 2021 and now managed by international environmental standard-setting Verra<\/a>, which first made its name as a greenhouse gas crediting programme in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the foreseeable future, companies are still going to be using plastic, and plastic will still escape the system<\/blockquote>Sinclair Vincent, director of sustainable development innovations and markets at Verra<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Verra\u2019s Plastic Standard is the first to officially define a plastic credit as one ton of plastic waste removed or recycled. The organisation works with independent auditing companies that check plastic credit projects on the ground to ensure they comply with the standard\u2019s requirements. Chief among these is that plastic being collected or recycled on behalf of credit-buying companies has to be additional to what\u2019s usually removed, explains Sinclair Vincent, director of sustainable development innovations and markets at Verra. That\u2019s crucial for ensuring that investment in plastic credit schemes measurably reduces pollution. Then, with information from those audits, Verra conducts a review. If a project meets the standard, Verra issues credits, representing its stamp of approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, Verra has listed four plastic credit projects<\/a>, which is the first stage of the registration and verification process: \u201cAnother two dozen are looking to enter the system within the next 12 months. Of those projects, a good number are in Asia,\u201d Vincent says. Second Life in Thailand is one of the companies now seeking approval with Verra for their plastic credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such standards could become necessary to govern a marketplace that seems bound to grow: \u201cFor the foreseeable future, [companies] are still going to be using plastic, and plastic will still escape the system and end up in the environment,\u201d Vincent says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The risks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Others observing this growing momentum are starting to weigh up the risks. Plastic credits are designed to tackle the symptoms of the plastic crisis, not the cause, which is the ongoing production of virgin, single-use plastic. There\u2019s currently no formal safeguard to stop companies producing more and more plastic and plastic waste. So there is a contradiction at the heart of the schemes: companies can keep producing more plastic while also benefitting from the green image associated with credit schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 3R Initiative\u2019s Corporate Plastic Stewardship Guidelines<\/a>, which it drafted alongside the Plastic Waste Reduction Standard, have tried to tackle this, stipulating that companies should only use plastic credits after first reducing and reusing plastic waste. \u201cIt all goes back to making sure that companies are taking action inside their value chains rather than only using plastic credits to balance things out,\u201d Vincent says. But currently these are just guidelines and adopting them is voluntary: the onus is on projects to comply with Verra\u2019s standards, while participating companies still have some wiggle room in how they use the schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some have approached this problem by attempting to offset their entire plastic footprint by themselves \u2013 like Nestl\u00e9, the world\u2019s largest food and beverage company. The company is transparent about the scale of its plastic contribution, disclosing that in 2020 it used 269 billion pieces of plastic<\/a> in its product packaging. Along with Danone and Tetra Pak, in 2019 Nestl\u00e9 backed the 3R Initiative, but it does not currently purchase plastic credits. Instead, it works more directly to process plastic before it becomes pollution: the company partners with projects in several countries to gather and recycle equivalent amounts of plastic to the quantity its operations produce in each country. Its biggest success so far has been in the Philippines<\/a>. \u201cWe achieved plastic neutrality in August 2020,\u201d says Georgios Galanos, Nestl\u00e9\u2019s global head of packaging sustainability. \u201cWhich means that Nestl\u00e9 Philippines collected and co-processed the equivalent amount of plastic as contained in the products sold.\u201d As of April 2020, this meant 18,000 tonnes of plastic, according to Nestl\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/div>
A coffee sachet trapped in coral in Verde Island Passage, a marine biodiversity hotspot in the Philippines. Nestl\u00e9 achieved \u201cplastic neutrality\u201d in the country in 2020, collecting and processing as much plastic as it produced. (Image: \u00a9 Noel Guevara \/ Greenpeace)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The company calls this strategy \u201cone ton in, one ton out\u201d and says it will use it to achieve plastic neutrality in 12 other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. That\u2019s combined with Nestl\u00e9\u2019s commitment to reduce the use of virgin plastics in its products by a third by 2025, Galanos says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if more companies took this full-offset approach, the principle of one-in, one-out, which also underpins plastic credit schemes, oversimplifies the complexity of plastic waste, experts believe. Plastic might create dire environmental and social impacts in one country that can\u2019t be accounted for by gathering it from a different place. Meanwhile, offsetting the production of certain single-use plastics, which are almost impossible to recycle, by gathering reusable plastic bottles, isn\u2019t an equal trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as a company uses or sells plastic, it cannot be plastic neutral<\/blockquote>Kori Goldberg, a plastic waste specialist at WWF<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, organisations like the WWF worry that despite these complexities, some companies are overstating the environmental benefits of plastic credits \u2013 a slippery slope to greenwashing. That\u2019s illustrated by claims of \u201cplastic neutrality\u201d or \u201coffsetting\u201d that typically accompany these schemes and may mislead consumers. These may imply that a company\u2019s impact is erased, yet removing plastic waste doesn\u2019t account for the emissions involved in making it from oil and gas, for example. \u201cAs long as a company uses or sells plastic, it cannot be plastic neutral,\u201d says Kori Goldberg, a plastic waste specialist at WWF and co-author of a recent WWF position statement<\/a> on plastic credits. She adds: \u201cThis is especially dangerous when companies prioritise this marketing tactic over more impactful plastic waste mitigation activities\u201d \u2013 like reducing the production and use of virgin plastic. Vincent adds that Verra is against this terminology, too. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen what these types of terms can do in the carbon space. It allows for greenwashing claims to seep in and cause uncertainty in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meanwhile, plastic credits are dogged by another challenge: deciding the appropriate price per ton. A central selling point of credit schemes is that they can push investment into waste management infrastructure. But some are sceptical about how they will do that without formal mechanisms to build the cost of that infrastructure into the price of the credit itself. For example, a project might exist in a city where there\u2019s the capacity to gather waste but no infrastructure to safely dispose of or recycle it, Ballik of ValuCred explains. Without credits that reflect the cost of building a waste management system, these schemes will be limited in what they can achieve. \u201cThis is an end-of-pipe solution because we will keep on sponsoring beach clean-ups but never actually invest in the infrastructure that prevents plastic going into the environment,\u201d Ballik says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question of how to price plastic credits has a social element, too. In many countries \u2013 especially in Asia \u2013 waste management often depends on the services of millions of informal waste pickers<\/a> who trade waste for cash in lieu of a wage. This informal economy provides an essential service: a 2019 report found that in nine Southeast Asian cities, informal waste pickers are responsible for 97% of plastic bottle recycling<\/a>. Ballik fears that if plastic credit schemes don\u2019t factor in the costs of fairly supporting these essential workers, they risk entrenching this inequity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/div>
In Thailand, waste management depends on the labour of millions of informal waste pickers. Some experts are adamant plastic credit prices must factor in the essential service they provide to the recycling industry. (Image: Luke Duggleby<\/a> \/ China Dialogue)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A place for credits?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Against this backdrop of pros and cons, the question remains whether plastic credit schemes can play a meaningful role in reducing pollution, or whether they\u2019re too riddled with risk. The reality is that humanity generates several hundred million tons of plastic waste<\/a> each year, and plastic credits are among a very limited number of tools we have to curtail that. \u201c[Plastic credits] have a legitimate value. We have to bridge the years from today until fully fledged EPR systems will be rolled out,\u201d Ballik says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to play this critical intermediary role, we will need to design them better. The first step is making them reflect the true infrastructural and social cost of managing waste. For the past year, ValuCred has researched<\/a> this: \u201cWe\u2019re trying to build, from the bottom up, the price it would actually be if you pay for the people, the infrastructure, the bins, the collection, the recycling, the planning, the overheads, the risks,\u201d Ballik says. In August 2022, they will publish their result: the Standards Process Model for plastic credits, which they hope will guide schemes, in part, on how to price these tokens appropriately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ideally, credit schemes should also gradually ratchet up these costs over time so that, instead of being a cheap and easy offset for companies that want to maintain business-as-usual, they deter companies from producing plastic and encourage them to seek alternatives. Even so, a question hangs over how effective these schemes can really be at their current scales, and considering that they\u2019re voluntary. Ballik believes the only way the \u201cpolluter pays\u201d principle will truly become entrenched is if it is governed by treaties or conventions that compel companies to take full responsibility for their waste. That means going beyond just gathering and recycling plastic from the environment, to tackling plastic production and pollution along the entire supply chain. \u201cIt needs to be mandatory if you really want to instil this,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ballik also believes we\u2019re now at a critical inflection point where plastic credits could quickly evolve into something that does more harm than good. We should take the opportunity now to forge them into tools that can support real progress towards environmental and social change. \u201cThey\u2019ve not yet made a mark. But before they get there, let\u2019s do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts are both optimistic and wary about the emerging plastic waste economy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3513,"featured_media":74837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[760],"tags":[515,578,20000341],"hashtags":[],"country":[50040715,20029326],"class_list":["post-74827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pollution","tag-circular-economy","tag-plastics","tag-water-pollution","country-philippines","country-thailand"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCan \u2018plastic credits\u2019 help solve the waste crisis? | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Experts are both optimistic and wary about the emerging plastic credit economy, with some calling it greenwashing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can \u2018plastic credits\u2019 help solve the waste crisis?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Experts are both optimistic and wary about the emerging plastic waste economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dialogue Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-03T07:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-15T10:46:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_Plastic-trash-collection-Chiang-Mai_Wason-Wanichakorn_GP1SUNMT-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Coroneo-Seaman Joe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Coroneo-Seaman Joe\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/061542e510c21e3efd71b48e74a79c77\"},\"headline\":\"Can \u2018plastic credits\u2019 help solve the waste crisis?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-03T07:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-15T10:46:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/\"},\"wordCount\":2277,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_Plastic-trash-collection-Chiang-Mai_Wason-Wanichakorn_GP1SUNMT-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Circular economy\",\"Plastics\",\"Water pollution\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Pollution\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/can-plastic-credits-help-solve-the-waste-crisis\/\",\"name\":\"Can \u2018plastic credits\u2019 help solve the waste crisis? 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Greenpeace Thailand conducts plastic brand audit activity in Chiang Mai province. The activity aims to call for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) which would hold corporates and manufacturers accountable for their products after they have become waste, including their plastic packaging. The brand audit is a part of Break Free From Plastic movement and is organised in many countries to incorporate data on corporate plastic pollution found in communities across the world. \u0e2d\u0e32\u0e2a\u0e32\u0e2a\u0e21\u0e31\u0e04\u0e23\u0e01\u0e23\u0e35\u0e19\u0e1e\u0e35\u0e0b\u0e16\u0e48\u0e32\u0e22\u0e20\u0e32\u0e1e\u0e23\u0e48\u0e27\u0e21\u0e01\u0e31\u0e1a\u0e02\u0e22\u0e30\u0e17\u0e35\u0e48\u0e40\u0e01\u0e47\u0e1a\u0e44\u0e14\u0e49\u0e08\u0e32\u0e01\u0e1a\u0e23\u0e34\u0e40\u0e27\u0e13\u0e14\u0e2d\u0e22\u0e2a\u0e38\u0e40\u0e17\u0e1e \u0e08\u0e31\u0e07\u0e2b\u0e27\u0e31\u0e14\u0e40\u0e0a\u0e35\u0e22\u0e07\u0e43\u0e2b\u0e21\u0e48 \u0e27\u0e31\u0e19\u0e19\u0e35\u0e49 \u0e01\u0e23\u0e35\u0e19\u0e1e\u0e35\u0e0b\u0e08\u0e31\u0e14\u0e01\u0e34\u0e08\u0e01\u0e23\u0e23\u0e21\u0e40\u0e01\u0e47\u0e1a\u0e02\u0e22\u0e30\u0e41\u0e25\u0e30\u0e2a\u0e33\u0e23\u0e27\u0e08\u0e41\u0e1a\u0e23\u0e19\u0e14\u0e4c 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