GreenCollar’s pilot plastic project, conducted in partnership with MAMS Group and the Australian Banana Growers Council, has successfully completed the Plastic Waste Reduction Standard third party audit process and has been issued verified Plastic Credits. The Standard, launched in February 2021 to help tackle global plastic waste, is part of the 3R Initiative co-created by Verra, the world’s leading secretariat of environmental standards. This is the second project to be registered worldwide.

GreenCollar’s CEO, James Schultz, said: “By participating in a verified market to remove plastic waste from the environment, we are laying strong foundations for a sustainable future and a robust circular economy. GreenCollar was fundamental in setting up the Carbon and Reef Credits markets domestically, and we’re very proud to now help pioneer the global plastic mitigation market which provides the foundation to incentivise business to remove plastic waste from their supply chain.”

For the project, which is an Australian first, GreenCollar has been working with waste management and recycling company, MAMS Group to collect plastic banana bunch bags from commercial banana growing farms on the Cassowary Coast area and surrounds. Banana bunch bags are thin, often single-use protective covers, used to shelter and protect ripening fruit. The first set of credits represents 32 metric tonnes of these HDPE and LDPE plastic bags collected from farms, rather than left in the environment.

A single plastic credit is awarded for every tonne of plastic that is recovered and removed from the environment or remanufactured into a product.

In Australia, 95 percent of all bananas are grown in far north Queensland. It is estimated that 1,500 tonnes of plastic waste is generated on these farms every year through the use of banana bunch bags. The cost of waste management in the region means many bags end up in the local environment and Great Barrier Reef.

GreenCollar General Manager, Anjali Nelson, said, “Plastic Credits help address this issue by incentivising and scaling up investment in waste collection and recycling infrastructure. In order to help close the loop on the use of these sorts of plastics in far north Queensland, GreenCollar has been actively working with recycling organisations with a view to establishing local recycling facilities.”

The project plans to work with local recycling organisations in the far north, which will not only reduce transport costs and emissions, but will help build a circular economy for plastics in the area.

Louise Lannen, Business Manager at MAMS Group, said: “As a family-run business that has been operating in this region for over 30 years, supporting local farmers is essential to what we do.  We’re proud to help establish a new market which will in turn drive improved recycling infrastructure in the far north.”

GreenCollar has also established pilot plastic waste recovery and recycling projects in Africa and the South Pacific, targeting regions that currently lack suitable recycling infrastructure. These projects are expected to begin the audit process in 2023. Verra approved the issuance of its first plastic credits to a project in Thailand in March.

Rosie Godwin, Research and Development Manager at Australian Banana Growers Council, said: “It is fantastic to be involved with this world-leading initiative that aligns so wholly with our values, by making a tangible and positive difference to the environment and our farmers. Environmental stewardship is an integral component of what we do and we’re proud to play our part in combating the global plastic crisis.”

Jacintha Sambo, Farm Manager at Dotti Farms Innisfail, said: “Plastic waste is an unavoidable consequence of current commercial Banana farming practice. Till now, the industry hasn’t had an avenue to sustainably remove this material. The plastic project with MAMS and GreenCollar is a no brainer. It makes business sense and has a positive impact on the environment.”

Without significant change, there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050, according to research produced by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Economic Forum. At the same time, by 2025, under the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, businesses that account for one fifth of all plastic packaging globally are projected to have reduced plastic production by almost 20 percent (or 8 million tonnes) from 2018 levels. However, the voluntary status of the Commitment, means the remaining four fifths of the world’s plastic packaging producers remain unaccountable for reduction.

“There are many exciting community-driven initiatives and technological innovations around the world looking to address the global plastic waste problem,” Anjali Nelson said.”  Verified Plastic credits can provide the financing needed to drive innovation at scale whilst supporting local economies.”

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What are Plastic Credits? 

A Plastic Credit is an auditable unit of plastic reduction: ie. a measurable amount of plastic either collected from the environment, or recycled into a new product.

Plastic Credits can be purchased by companies who have exhausted all other avenues for reducing their plastic use (for example, by switching to more sustainable packaging) to mitigate the final portion of their plastic footprint. Businesses looking to remove plastic waste from the environment at scale can also earn and sell Plastic Credits on the plastic offsets market.

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How are Plastic Credits measured? 

For businesses seeking to buy Plastic Credits, the volume of Credits purchased is based on the size of the company’s plastic footprint. These companies can achieve their plastic reduction targets by calculating their plastic footprint, reducing that footprint and purchasing a weight of Plastic Credits (measured in tonnes) equivalent to the weight of plastic they are unable to directly reduce.

While Plastic Credits are measured by weight, they are further distinguished into ‘collection’ and ‘recycling’ units based on the method of plastic waste removal.

Collection represents the environmental service of recovering one tonne of waste from the environment and directing it to an appropriate final destination such as secure landfill, mechanical or chemical recycling, or energy recovery. Recycling represents the environmental service of converting that tonne of plastic into a useful new product.

The number of Plastic Credits issued is based on how much plastic has been collected or recycled above the amount that would have been collected or recycled had the project not taken place. (Which is to say, Verra only counts how much plastic has been reduced or removed above what’s known as the “baseline rate”. Businesses can’t claim credit for reduction that would have happened anyway).

What is the new Plastic Waste Reduction Standard?

The Plastic Waste Reduction Standard is the market mechanism established to incentivise this offsetting and increase plastic collection and recycling globally. (It also sets out the rules and requirements a project needs to follow in order to be certified.)

Plastic Credits form a new ‘currency’ for what is well-known as the 3R Initiative. The 3Rs represent the goals of the enterprise – to Reduce, Recover and Recycle plastics worldwide through a crediting scheme and regulated corporate targets.

Developed by Verra and fellow non-profit BVRio – with the backing of major food packaging companies including Danone, Tetra Pak and Nestle – the Standard enables companies to measure their waste recovery efforts and monitor their plastic footprint through a streamlined, quantifiable and widely-recognised global standard. It’s a welcome initiative that provides a framework to validate, credit and finance waste recycling and recovery projects that tackle this pervasive environmental problem head-on.

Click here to learn more about GreenCollar’s part in this ground-breaking new initiative or click here to register interest in purchasing these Australian-first credits.

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In the 65 years between 1950 and 2015, global plastic production snowballed from 2 million tonnes annually to a whopping 381 million tonnes a year. And yet by the end of this period, only 45% of this plastic waste was being incinerated or recycled. Meaning more than half was discarded, ending up as pollution in the environment and the world’s oceans. In the past few years, we’ve reached a global crisis point for plastic pollution – with new incentives urgently needed to scale-up waste collection and recycling efforts.

This makes the launch of the new Plastic Credits program so exciting. Newly approved by US not-for-profit Verra, the program provides a financial incentive for participants to verifiably manage and reduce their plastic waste, paying them one Plastic Credit for every tonne of plastic recovered from the environment or recycled into an end product.

The new market aims to scale up the transition to a circular economy. It does this by incentivising investment in waste collection and recycling infrastructure as part of the Plastic Waste Reduction Standard, which was introduced in early 2021.

How the Plastic Waste Reduction Standard works

The Plastic Waste Reduction Standard certifies Plastic Credits and sells them on to companies seeking to address their plastics usage. Companies can participate by auditing, monitoring and reducing their plastic footprint before offsetting what they are unable to immediately reduce by purchasing tangible Plastic Credits from projects that meet the Plastic Waste Reduction Standard.

For example, a beverage company might offset the environmental impact of the plastic bottles in its existing supply chain by purchasing the equivalent volume of Plastic Credits (while also pursuing a broader strategy to reduce or remove plastics in its future operations).

Importantly, businesses and individuals can earn credits at two stages of the plastic lifecycle – in the waste collection phase, where material is diverted or removed from the environment, or at the end of the recycling phase, where waste is reprocessed into a new product.

The benefits for landholders and communities who take on the reduction projects themselves extend beyond the monetary value of Plastic Credits. Associated employment opportunities, for instance, can materialise from efforts to implement safer ways to collect waste from the environment. Improved land health is another benefit: fewer plastics in the environment means healthier soil and waterways, which can lead to greater on-farm productivity.

GreenCollar’s three pioneering plastic recovery projects

As Australia’s principal environmental markets project developer and investor, GreenCollar is developing on-ground projects that tackle global plastic recovery and recycling efforts in meaningful and tangible ways. Our three pilot projects, initiated under the global Plastic Waste Reduction Standard, provide a market-based instrument for removing plastic waste from the environment, laying strong foundations for a sustainable future and a robust circular economy.

Our innovative two-phase banana cover reduction project – the first of its kind on Australian soil and only the second in the world – is already underway. The project encourages farms to collect and recycle used plastic banana bunch covers from farms in Far North Queensland. These plastic covers are estimated to generate an astonishing 500 tonnes of plastic waste each year. This innovative method of plastic reduction will provide a solution to help Australian farmers while delivering positive tangible outcomes for the environment.

In Africa, our Ghana Plastic Waste Recovery Project is designed to tackle plastic pollution on a bigger scale. Ghana generates around 1 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, with 89% of this ending up as pollution in the environment. The project works with partners on the ground to accelerate the recovery and recycling of plastic waste, benefiting landholders and local communities by providing safer employment opportunities and improved land management.

Our Vanuatu Plastic Waste Collection and Recycling Project in the Asia Pacific region targets a part of the world underserviced by the waste industry. Transporting waste to safe end-points is a challenge the Pacific Island nation has been struggling with for a long time. The project works with partners to provide the sustainable financing needed to collect plastic waste from the environment and find a positive end-of-life scenario for all the plastics collected.

Together, these three pioneering projects demonstrate GreenCollar’s ongoing commitment to developing innovative market-based methods to reduce plastic waste worldwide. The environmental, social and economic benefits can’t be understated.

Businesses and individuals interested in learning more about plastic credits can visit this page. 

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