OUR VISION STATEMENT

Our Objectives

  • A voice for innovation

    Ensure that technology & business model innovations across the entire plastics value chain are considered & prioritized in the Treaty.

  • A seat at the table

    Facilitate representation of innovators at Treaty negotiations & events to help bring their unique perspectives to policymakers

  • Build awareness

    Create awareness about the Global Plastics Treaty, as well as the state and progress of tangible solutions against plastic pollution

  • Data-driven policymaking

    Aggregate and systematize existing data on plastic pollution impacts currently held by individual innovators across the value chain in order to guide policy decision-making and enable treaty monitoring & evaluation.

  • Power of partnership

    Unify the innovation ecosystem that has so far been tackling the plastic problem within individual silos, and increase engagement between public and private entities to move the needle on plastic pollution.

  • Promote environmental justice

    Prioritize sustained economic & employment opportunities, especially with vulnerable communities, waste worker communities & promote the value of indigenous knowledge to accelerate innovative solutions against plastics.

Our key policy priorities

The fight against plastic waste is highly time sensitive, and a roadmap to reducing plastic leakage into nature by 80% by 2040 requires at least $30 billion of additional capital every year. The time value of plastic action is high, but access to traditional financing from government-originated sources is complex and often laden with bureaucratic procedures that bottleneck the necessary pace of change. The proper provisions to provide financial assistance via novel instruments (e.g. Global Plastic Pollution Innovation Fund) and/or ease complex structures around existing instruments (e.g. multilateral facilities, development banks) can help accelerate and maximize impact.

1. Improve access to rapid and flexible finance for innovators across the value chain

2. Recognize, safeguard, and promote the inclusion of existing innovations within national and global regulatory frameworks

Even before the dawn of the idea of a Global Plastics Treaty, mission-driven innovators around the world have been creating and scaling solutions that combat plastic waste. In the wake of regulatory requirements that will emerge from the UN Plastics Treaty, these innovators' essential contributions to moving the needle on plastic waste mustn't be displaced. The Innovation Alliance, therefore, expects that the inclusion and integration of existing innovations within the global and national plastic action plans are safeguarded through policy provisions and due recognition

3. Leverage data and insights from the innovation ecosystem towards informed policymaking and effective regulation enforcement

By virtue of their operations and presence across the world, startups, technology companies, and innovative solutions have already collected large amounts of highly valuable field data that can be leveraged to both guide the creation of new policies and help monitor compliance towards regulations at every level. This data spans the entire value chain from upstream (e.g.consumer behavioral data for reuse and refill) and midstream (e.g. brands’ plastic intensity/footprints) to downstream (e.g. waste management supply chain traceability) and legacy pollution (e.g. tracking of riverine plastic pollution emissions, traceability of plastic in oceanic gyres).

4. Prioritize and provide impetus to scalable and inclusive approaches that efficiently tackle different facets of the plastics problem

A tangible roadmap to ending plastic pollution has to start with the understanding that not all approaches and “do-good” efforts are equally effective in reducing waste and eliminating legacy pollution. Within a given part of the plastics value chain, some approaches can be dramatically more cost-effective, socially inclusive, and/or scalable than others. The Innovation Alliance, therefore, expects that the best solutions within their respective focus areas be identified, prioritized, and catalyzed by regulatory frameworks, in order to effectively allocate limited resources and maximize impact against a crisis that requires urgent alleviation.