Plastic works wonders?

Yes, undoubtedly plastic is one of the most fascinating yet wondrous inventions ever. Plastic is a composition of numerous ranges of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymer as a key ingredient. It is possible to mold, extrude or press the plastic into desired shape and product. We can find plastic from bottles to plates, food wraps to containers, furnishers to kitchen cabinets, etc. Somehow plastic is used far and wide all over but due to mishandling, overproduction, and consumption of plastic, it has become a most severe threat to Earth. Plastic footprints are witnessed everywhere in oceans and in the atmosphere too.

But lastly, we have realized that Earth is our only home and to save it is our responsibility. Most of the actions are already also tremendous and effective strategies are also applied in different sectors just to minimize plastic footprints. One of the strategies is Plastic Credit Approach.

What is Plastic Credit Approach?

Plastic Credit is a "transferable unit representing a specific quantity of plastic that has been collected and possibly recycled from the environment." - defined by WWF.

In the Plastic Credit approach, there are two key participants.

  • Companies or organizations who can purchase “credits”- which pay for the equivalent amount for collected plastic. 
  • Projects or people that collect plastic from the environment and sell the collected plastic to the respective companies who use plastic in their products and for recycling.

Now, the question is how does it work? But first, let us talk about a new term "Plastic Neutrality" that means the company has offset its "Plastic Footprint." In simple words

“REMOVE AS MUCH PLASTIC WASTE AS YOU CREATE”

Here is some steps that show how this whole process is done:

  •  The company first calculates its plastic footprint.
  • Then funds in plastic action i.e., plastic credit for their plastic footprints.
  • The plastic credit is given to a project.
  • The project is bound to collect or recycle the designated volume of plastic equivalent to the company’s plastic footprint.

And that is how the company can claim that they are now “Plastic Neutral”.

Plastic trading companies?

List of some corporations and organizations that trade in Plastic:

  • Plastic Bank
  • Plastic Collective
  • rePurpose Globe
  • Plastic Credit Exchange

These companies also, provide Plastic Neutral Certificates to the project that are aimed to collect the plastic from environment.

Can we rely on Plastic Credit Strategy?

You are thinking this is a great approach to save planet from nasty plastic but unfortunately, is not that much sustainable as it looks because across international borders trade in plastic remains predominantly unregulated and most of the plastic producers are not able to give feedback on their products to accountable upstream stakeholders after the point of sale. The credit rate also depends on crude oil.

Plastic Neutral, this term sounds fancier but aren’t able to guarantee that each and every plastic generated by Plastic Neutralized Company is picked or recycled leaving no traces of microplastic on lands or oceans. Plastic credit is surely a prodigious strategy; however, it is not long-term and does not have any universal laws to implement.

About the Author: Farheen Tariq is a Software Engineer and highly concerned about climate change and the earth's devastation from plastic. She has started a group on Facebook "Earth Savers" putting all her efforts to spread awareness and to build a community that works for the betterment of Earth.