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A global effort to reduce plastic waste has been created, called The 3R Initiative, with founding members including Tetra Pak, Nestlé, and Danone. They work alongside Verra, an organisation committed to reducing emissions and increasing the viability of waste reduction.
The 3R Initiative includes a component called the 3R Corporate Standard, designed to hold corporations accountable for plastic waste by independently assessing them against a set of guidelines. The assessed companies can then use this standard to celebrate internal successes in terms of waste. This could lead to a bigger sense of willingness from bigger corporations to reduce wasted attributed to plastic packaging.
Mario Abreu, global vice president for Sustainability at Tetra Pak, said: “It’s exciting to be part of creating a much needed scheme to increase plastic recovery and boost recycling rates globally. This innovative 3R mechanism – Reduce, Recover, Recycle – is the brain child of experts coming together, rolling up their sleeves and taking on the challenge of improving collection.
“Developing and funding solutions to mitigate potential leakage into the environment is one of its core aims close to my heart, and supports our Tetra Pak objective of zero cartons to landfill.
A crediting system has also been introduced, the 3R Crediting Mechanism, which allows for the trading of credits in return for plastic recovery and recycling activities. Companies can buy credits to go towards their own recycling initiatives.
This will have social impacts, too: in Brazil, for instance, the crediting system will enable disadvantaged waste pickers to generate additional income and improve their work conditions through the sale of plastic waste recovery credits. In Southeast Asia, 3R credits will go towards new investments in waste collection and recycling infrastructure to seek out the source of plastic pollution, and cut it off.
David Antonioli, chief executive officer of Verra, commented: “Trusted and independently managed standards will be key to establishing credible market mechanisms to tackle plastic waste at scale. The 3R Initiative will deliver these standards through a robust multi-stakeholder process involving respected companies, NGOs and governments, and extensive public consultations.”
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