For brands ready to make a positive impact on the global plastic pollution crisis, starting with short-term quick wins is the way to go. At Plastic Collective, we’ll guide you through the 3 R’s quick wins: Report, Recover, and Recycle. These short-term actions help you take immediate steps toward using plastic better while also setting the foundation for long-term actions to achieve sustainable plastic use. We then help you communicate this positive impact to your customers because this is increasingly important to them. 64 percent of consumers rate sustainability as a top three purchase consideration, and 54 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for green products. Here’s how you can get started:
1. Reporting Your Plastic Use
The starting point of your journey to using plastic better is to first know how much plastic you use. This is called your Plastic Footprint and it’s important because it informs the options you have to use plastic better. Introducing a simple Plastic Footprint estimation approach is a ‘quick win’ action and is a necessary first step towards setting clear plastic reduction goals and then tracking progress against them. For some, estimating your Plastic Footprint may seem difficult and daunting. Don’t worry, Plastic Collective can help you – we have a bespoke Plastic Footprint Estimator tool that we can make available to get you started.
Once you have your Plastic Footprint estimate, it’s best practice to start sharing it with key stakeholders. You might start by sharing internally to support company decision-making and then progress to sharing more widely (e.g. on the company website or in sustainability reports). This helps your company assess progress over time, and demonstrates commitment to transparency.
✅ Estimate your Plastic Footprint.
✅ Share your Plastic Footprint with stakeholders
📌 Quick Win: Spend 5 minutes completing our Plastic Impact Plan generator, it’s free to complete and we’ll send your personalised plan straight to your inbox.
2. Recovering Your Plastic Footprint through Partnerships
Plastic pollution cannot be eliminated overnight, but you can take action today by helping to collect plastic waste that is at risk of leaking into land and ocean ecosystems.
It’s generally not easy for companies to collect the plastic they’ve put into markets once consumers are finished with it. You could mobilise your company through recovery initiatives like beach clean ups and in-store returns schemes. But to have an immediate impact, you should consider partnering with verified waste management projects conducting plastic recovery activity in locations hit hardest by the plastic pollution crisis. This is another ‘quick win’.
Plastic Collective has a portfolio of independently-verified projects that are available for immediate partnership to recover amounts of plastic equivalent to your company’s Plastic Footprint.
✅Choose a plastic collection project – Partner with our projects like SEArcular by Greencore in Indonesia, or ASASE Foundation in Ghana to fund their plastic collection activity.
✅ Decide how much plastic your company wants to collect – Offset an amount of plastic based on either your Plastic Footprint or on your sales volumes.
✅ Start showcasing your impact – We’ll provide you with a communication toolkit that contains everything you need to convey your impact to your customers, including a live dashboard and Certified Impact Badges to use in your marketing and labelling.
📌 Quick Win: Not sure which project best suits your brand? Browse our active project page to find out more.
3. Recycling Your Plastic Footprint through Partnerships
Collecting plastic equivalent to your Plastic Footprint is only half the story. Once the plastic waste has been collected, the next step is to ensure that it is recycled so it can then be used in future products or packaging. If there is no recycling step in supply chains, any plastic you’ve recovered in step 2 above will end up being landfilled, incinerated or (worst case) dumped.
Again, it’s generally not easy for companies to recover and then recycle the plastic they’ve put into markets – unless you’re a plastic manufacturer this will not be your core business activity. To have an immediate positive impact, you should consider partnering with verified waste management projects conducting plastic recycling activity in locations hit hardest by the plastic pollution crisis. This is another ‘quick win’.
Plastic Collective has a portfolio of independently-verified projects that are available for immediate partnership to recycle amounts of plastic equivalent to your company’s Plastic Footprint.
✅ Choose a plastic recycling project – Partner with our projects to fund their plastic recycling activity.
✅ Decide how much plastic your company wants to recycle – Offset an amount of plastic based on either your Plastic Footprint or on your sales volumes.
✅ Start showcasing your impact – We’ll provide you with a communication toolkit that contains everything you need to convey your impact to your customers, including a live dashboard and Certified Impact Badges to use in your marketing and labelling.
📌 Quick Win: Not sure which project best suits your company? Browse our active project page to find out more.
Ready to Take Action? Let’s Make it Happen!
Small changes add up to big impact – and your customers care about sustainability. If you’re passionate about preventing plastic from entering land and ocean ecosystems and about using plastic better, now is the time to act.
🔹 Get started with a free Plastic Impact Plan
🔹 Find the right project to offset your plastic footprint
🔹 Showcase your commitment with our communications toolkit
[Book a Call With Our Team Today] (We’re here to help you use plastic better: easily and affordably.
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