Materials
communities that might not have had access to these solutions before.”
Pandemic impact
The Covid-19 pandemic has altered the alchemy of processes, and necessitated a very different approach to how the organisation conducts itself. “The biggest problem has been the move to remote working, and being able to still connect with our projects across the world. It is not ideal, but we have made it work. We have been quite effective in working remotely with our project partners. For the most part, our projects are advancing, with only a couple facing any significant delay; even then, we are able to manage it. “We have quite a strict process to work with our project partners to develop something that is achieving the goals that we and they have. While, ideally, this can be achieved on the ground, this is one of the areas impacted by Covid-19 – though we are managing remotely.” If the alliance’s global aspect has been shaken by the pandemic, the breadth of its objectives has not been dampened. “The focus is on targets to achieve,” Kolesch assures. “Removing plastic waste from the environment, preventing it getting there in the first place, engaging with communities and stakeholders, and more. We aim to have projects that fulfil these objectives across those five themes mentioned earlier. “We have recognised from the beginning of the alliance that the challenge of addressing plastic waste isn’t one of lack of waste management systems. A lot of our funding is going into projects on infrastructure that can put in place those waste management systems. Today, we have more than 20 projects that are running at various stages, and we typically have quite a few more that are coming through and adding to the total. It’s a constant stream.”
The continued deployment of projects is integral to sharpening the organisation’s methods of enacting change and spreading the message. “Our cities’ initiatives are looking at advanced recovery and recycling projects,” Kolesch says. “The first one this year was the advanced recycling for chemical recycling project proposals, and we are about to launch some RFPs [request for proposals] for creating value for recyclates.
“Another exciting angle and direction is what we call PRISM [Plastics Recovery Insight and Steering Model], which is our recovery insight model. This is a robust tool we have developed that effectively brings together all data that is out there for municipal solid waste generation, plastic waste generation, plastics consumption, as well as existing legislation such as EPR [extended producer responsibility, which holds producers accountable for the plastic waste they put
Packaging & Converting Intelligence /
www.pci-mag.com
into the market]. We are hoping to put together a detailed overview of what the world of plastic waste looks like. With this information, we feel we can learn where best to focus our resources.”
Although this may be a perilous moment in human
history, it is, according to Kolesch, also an exciting one. “It is a fascinating space to be in.” There are hopes that with programmes like PRISM, information can fill in the gaps of effective projects. “We can identify where we need to focus more, and get an accurate picture of the size and the shape of the problem in the different areas we are looking at.”
“There’s always an opportunity to do better. And I think that’s what we’ve identified. It’s about getting on and moving up the waste management hierarchy, and it’s driven us to look at very interesting projects in very different parts of the world.”
And the focus is on the globe as well, with the organisation expanding its outreach and understanding. “There’s been a lot of learning, I would say, in the first 18 months to two years of the alliance,” Kolesch concedes. “What we have found is that, in every community that you’re in, there’s always a chance to do better, and there’s always this possibility to move up the hierarchy. There’s potentially a lot of plastic waste that goes to incineration, where the full value of that plastic waste is not extracted, because it could be turned back through chemical recycling into a monomer. “There’s always an opportunity to do better. And I think that’s what we’ve identified. It’s about getting on and moving up the waste management hierarchy, and it’s driven us to look at very interesting projects in very different parts of the world.” ●
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Rubbish washed ashore on an urban beach. Plastic bottles have become symbolic of oceanic waste.
Larina Marina/
Shutterstock.com
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