German association for plastic packaging IK (Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen) and its French counterpart Elipso have welcomed a recently announced “alliance to end plastic waste” as an important step in fighting marine litter.
The alliance, founded by companies along the plastics value chain, was formed earlier this month, with the commitment to invest $1.5bn (€1.3bn) in addressing the issue of plastic waste over the next five years. The alliance specifically targets Asia and Africa to tackle the root of the post-consumer plastic litter problem.
In their joint press release 22 Jan, the two European associations said the measures taken in Europe – including the Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive – were “of rather limited effectiveness”, adding that they saw “much more potential” in the global initiative launched mid-January.
“The planned cooperation beyond the cross-value chain and the financial resources are methods that promise success. The value of plastics must go hand in hand with the value of plastic waste. This will be possible by developing the necessary infrastructure and intensive public education”, said IK-general manager Juergen Bruder.
Also commenting, Emmanuel Guichard, general manager of Elipso said the European plastics packaging industry was “ready to support” the alliance as a partner.
The new alliance seeks to aid in designing systems in “large urban areas where infrastructure is lacking, especially along rivers which transport vast amounts of unmanaged plastic waste from land to ocean.” The most problematic rivers contributing to the ocean plastic problem are located in Asia.
The goal of the collaboration is to create repeatable programmes and solutions that can be applied in multiple locations, especially in areas with “high plastic leakage,” the alliance said.
Founding members of the alliance include BASF, Berry Global, Braskem, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC, Clariant, Covestro, Dow, DSM, ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics Corp. USA, Henkel, LyondellBasell, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Mitsui Chemicals, Nova Chemicals, OxyChem, Procter & Gamble, Reliance Industries, Saudi Basic Industries Corp., Sasol, Suez, Shell, SCG Chemicals, Sumitomo Chemical, Total and Veolia.