Many predicaments in life can seem insurmountable, until human creativity and non-conventional approaches are applied.
In Bijapur, India, citizens can trade in four plastic bottles for one cup of tea. In Rome, Ecuador, Istanbul and Indonesia, one can get bus tickets and free transport for trading in plastic bottles. A casual apparel chain in Tokyo has announced a partnership with a top factory to produce clothing made from recycled plastic bottles next year.
The predicament of plastic waste in the environment has led communities and countries around the world to look for practical, creative and easily-applicable avenues to manage plastic waste, starting with PET plastic bottles. According to McKinsey, plastic waste will grow to approximately 460 million tons per year by 2030 if the demand for plastics continues to grow by its current trajectory.
Global consortiums and alliances are alive to this fact, and, in response, have started taking concerted steps towards progressively creating value for plastic waste, thereby reducing pollution, and kick-starting a circular economy.
A circular economy aims to keep the earth’s scarce material resources in a continuous loop of use and re-use by eliminating ‘waste’ and creating new product cycles. To date, over 400 signatories including global manufacturing companies such as L’Oreal, Unilever and Nestle have signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment mooted in October 2018 by the UN Environment and Ellen McArthur Foundation.
