Introduction
01
There is an increasing urgency to end plastic pollution, and businesses face intensifying pressure to move to a circular economy for plastics.
Measurement, reporting and disclosure on plastics are key to assess business performance towards their plastics circularity and sustainability goals. Moreover, the upcoming UN Treaty on plastic pollution provides an excellent opportunity to align countries and corporates on the metrics and methodologies necessary to reach the targets that will be set to ultimately end plastic pollution.
The challenge
02
There is no globally accepted reporting and disclosure framework for plastics.
Although many guidelines, tools and reporting platforms exist, these are dispersed and use different definitions, metrics and methodologies. Often these metrics were developed for a few stakeholders of the value chain, preventing full transparency along the plastic life cycle which is essential to drive change. The lack of data, especially on the fate of plastic, remains a key barrier to reliable circularity metrics.
The business case
03
Companies need to take action to end plastic pollution and report on their impact to be rewarded by investors and consumers.
Availability of data is critical to identify the areas of their portfolio they should focus on. Additionally, by defining common metrics, the plastic value chain can set ambitious targets and foster shared leadership to implement plastic circularity solutions.
The solution
04
Within this workstream, we are building a coalition of companies that will shape the future of plastics by developing a plastic reporting and disclosure framework.
The coalition includes plastic producers, brand owners and recyclers in order to align the reporting needs of the whole plastic value chain. In the development of this framework, we will consider the set of metrics, methodologies and data sources that can help drive business action towards plastic circularity and sustainability.
