The Innovation Alliance for a Global Plastics Treaty

Response to the UN's Zero Draft of the Global Plastics Treaty

The Innovation Alliance for a Global Plastics Treaty (IAGPT), convened by rePurpose Global and The Ocean Cleanup, consisting of over 100 member organizations globally, is committed to advancing the role of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship in the UN Global Plastics Treaty with the aim of accelerating systems change across the entire plastic pollution lifecycle from source to sea.

The IAGPT brings together innovators, ecosystem enablers, technology solution providers, members of the scientific community, and waste management organizations with the shared goal of advancing innovative solutions to combat global plastic pollution, aiming for zero plastic pollution by 2040. Our members work on solutions spanning the entire plastic action value chain, including refill/reuse models for waste reduction, waste management service providers, technology solutions for waste, alternative materials as well as waterway cleanup solutions.

Despite the emergence of numerous innovative solutions that have shown potential in reducing plastic waste, there remains a disconnect between these innovations and global policy making. Previous international environmental agreements often overlooked the insights and needs of these innovators, leading to missed opportunities for impactful regulatory frameworks. The IAGPT seeks to bridge this gap, ensuring that the Global Plastics Treaty is not just promising in theory but also effective in practice. By integrating innovators into the decision-making process, the alliance aims to drive collective progress and accelerate systems change across the entire plastic pollution lifecycle, from source to sea.

I. Commendation on the Zero Draft's Emphasis on Innovation

The IAGPT welcomes the Zero Draft for highlighting:

• The importance of scientific and technical innovation

• Potential allocation of funds for specific purposes, including addressing low-value and legacy plastic waste

• Encouragement for the facilitation of innovation, investment, and access to essential technologies

• Emphasis on technology and information transfer, research, and technical innovation

• Emphasis on replication and scaling of sustainable solutions
  
  

II. Recommendations for the Global Plastics Treaty

Our fight against plastic pollution is multifaceted, and while the Zero Draft has made significant strides, we recommend the inclusion of four key areas to ensure a holistic approach, specifically to enable scalable and replicable innovations across diverse country contexts.  These four recommendations make up IAGPT’s Vision Statement. 

1. Enhancing Financial Access for Innovators

Financial constraints significantly hinder the rapid deployment and scaling of innovative solutions, particularly in emerging markets/ high-risk country contexts with limited access to financing. Improving access to flexible financing and establishing clear funding mechanisms for innovation enables innovators to scale solutions and address plastic pollution. IAGPT recommends:

• Exploring financial mechanisms to scale and replicate innovative solutions, such as

• Ending fossil fuel subsidies for petrochemicals and taxing virgin plastic production and use, redirecting those funds to galvanize uptake of refill/reuse solutions and alternatives to virgin plastic and implement efficient plastic waste management systems

• Developing and implementing extended producer responsibility mechanisms

• Facilitating flexible financing opportunities by simplifying funding procedures, enabling smaller ticket sizes for funding, and allowing for nimble funding allocation

• Promoting financing mechanisms that incentivize verified avoidance, removal, and recovery of plastic waste, thereby linking funds with  measurable impacts against plastic pollution within the Treaty. This can help systematically advance plastic pollution prevention infrastructure in SIDS, LDCs, and other low and middle-income countries.

• Refocusing the goals of funds to prioritize impact over financial returns

2. Recognition, Safeguarding, and Integration of Existing Innovations
Innovators worldwide have been at the forefront of combating plastic waste. As the UN moves towards proposing  a regulatory framework, it is crucial that these existing solutions are not only recognized but also integrated and safeguarded within global and national action plans and  evolving corporate frameworks.  The IAGPT recommends the following approaches:

• Recognizing and integrating a wide array of existing innovations that promote reduction of plastic production and redesign of single-use materials for recovery, including non-plastic substitutes; refillable/reusable materials and systems; collection and recycling including low-value plastics; and plastic waste cleanup operations on land and in waterways

• Promoting the Technology Neutrality Principle to ensure the Treaty does not favor or discriminate against any technology, but rather, sets goals and standards that allows innovative approaches to achieve the desired impact of tackling plastic pollution

• Ensuring the inclusion of marginalized voices and informal workers, who are integral within the global plastic waste management chain

3. Leverage Data from the Innovation Ecosystem

The innovation ecosystem houses a comprehensive repository of data that can guide pragmatic policy development and implementation.  By harnessing this data, informed decisions can be grounded in real-world insights and experiences.  The IAGPT emphasizes the importance of:

• Ensuring that the practical insights from innovators’ operations are solicited and considered in the policy development process

• Utilizing data from technology solutions and innovations on the ground to guide policy creation and monitor compliance, for example by publishing a handbook of existing technologies and their real world quantitative and qualitative impacts

• Exploring the possibility of setting up a Plastic Pollution Research and Data Integration Center in collaboration with innovators

4. Prioritize Scalable and Inclusive Approaches

The complexity of plastic pollution demands targeted, scalable, and inclusive solutions. Recognizing that not all efforts yield equal results, the IAGPT advocates for:

• Identifying and prioritizing the best environmentally efficient, cost-effective, socially inclusive, and scalable strategies for tackling specific elements of the plastic pollution problem

• Bolstering promising solutions within regulatory frameworks to not only safeguard and incorporate these technologies into national and global action plans but also amplify their effectiveness against plastic pollution

In addition to the aforementioned recommendations, the IAGPT calls for further clarity and specification on:

• Defining targets, such as establishing binding targets and timelines for Member States to reduce the production and consumption of avoidable plastic products, promote minimum recycled content mandates for packaging, implement producer responsibility schemes, and mandate material footprinting accountability protocols

• Precise definitions impacting the innovation sector, including but not limited to “plastics”, "problematic plastic products", “legacy oceanic plastic pollution”, “riverine plastic emissions”, “non-plastic alternatives”, and "bioplastics" to avoid loopholes and ensure streamlined understanding of these terminologies across the board

• Mechanisms to build awareness of the comprehensive financial implications of plastic production and waste management to address green premiums linked to circular solutions. The goal is to help  internalize negative externalities and create a level playing field between virgin materials, alternatives, and circular solutions by factoring in true costs and environmental impacts.

• Meaningful accountability, monitoring & evaluation (M&E), and financing structures at national, regional, and global levels to systematically develop plastic pollution prevention infrastructure

III. Closing Remarks

The IAGPT looks forward to the next INC-5 meeting in Busan, which will be an opportunity to further align on global policy action goals to end plastic pollution, including the role of innovation.  The IAGPT  remains committed to work with governments and stakeholders and further share knowledge, data, and experience of innovators to support the negotiation process of the UN Global Plastics Treaty.