The U.S. government June 6 launched a $21 million program with consumer goods maker Unilever plc to combat plastic pollution in developing countries, and said it hopes to scale up the program with more private sector funding.
The new Circle Alliance, organized by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is the second effort recently started by Washington to try to expand the role of public-private partnerships in reducing plastics waste and pollution.
It joins a $15 million State Department program, the End Plastic Pollution International Collaborative (EPPIC), launched in 2023 as a vehicle for countries, companies and civil society groups to "change the design and use of plastic products."
The Circle Alliance kicked off at a Washington ceremony attended by USAID Administrator Samantha Power and Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who have both been active on ocean plastics legislation.
Power said the Catalyzing Inclusive, Resilient, and Circular Local Economies alliance has two broad goals: supporting informal sector workers collecting recyclables in developing countries and creating incentives for companies to use less single-use plastic.
"Many companies are of the view that producing a high volume of single-use plastic is simply the most cost-effective way to do business right now," Power said, adding that USAID, Unilever and the third Circle partner, consulting firm EY, see extended producer responsibility policies as a way to shift plastic waste disposal costs on to companies using packaging.
"This incentivizes companies to use less plastic and to make the plastics they do use recyclable," she said. "Unilever and EY bring the business expertise we need to design, apply and scale these [EPR] policies effectively."
She said the Circle Alliance will start in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
At a separate Washington event June 4, a State Department diplomat active in the plastics treaty talks said the government sees its new EPPIC partnership moving more quickly than the treaty negotiations might allow.
"It's difficult to negotiate a global agreement to get everybody to agree," said John Thompson, deputy assistant secretary for environment in the State Department's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
"I think this idea of a partnership is more dynamic, it's a more open space, and there are certain things we can do that accomplish things more quickly by just trying to move it through a public-private partnership," Thompson told an audience at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce sustainability forum.
Environmental groups have questioned whether EPPIC would raise enough money to make a difference.
When EPPIC launched, Greenpeace called the $15 million funding "a raindrop falling into the ocean compared to the cost of plastic to our health" and urged governments in the plastics treaty to limit plastics production.