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Delterra teams up with Mars, Amcor and P&G for plastics pledge

New partnership aims to tackle plastic pollution by transforming waste management and recycling systems in Indonesia, Argentina and Brazil.

A rainbow of plastic waste on a beach.

Image via Shutterstock/Johannes Albert

Environmental NGO Delterra has announced it has joined forces with global businesses Amcor, Mars and Procter and Gamble (P&G) to commit $6 million over the next five years to tackle plastic pollution in the Global South and develop solutions for a circular plastics economy.

The new partners announced this week that they had come together with a shared understanding that "the challenge of plastic pollution cannot be solved without a systematic and holistic approach to roll out scalable and sustainable programs to boost the transition to a circular economy."

The new partnership revealed it will focus on boosting recycling capacity in countries in the Global South, including Indonesia, Argentina and Brazil, and has the overall aim of providing easy access to waste management systems to 10 million people.

As such, the coalition will work on a range of upstream solutions such as implementing Delterra's global rollout of its digital tool Plastic IQ, which helps companies to understand and improve their plastic footprint. Downstream proposals include working to capture recyclable and compostable materials and return them to productive use using Delterra's Rethinking Recycling program.

The partners added that they would also explore material traceability solutions.

The partners added that they would also explore material traceability solutions on to better understand the source and quality of recyclable materials, which they said would help to provide transparency along the recycling value chain.

"Solving plastic pollution, and indeed the broader waste crisis, requires a rethinking of the way we produce and manage waste," said Dr. Shannon Bouton, president and chief executive of Delterra. "This includes a rapid expansion of waste collection and sortation and reliable recycling markets, alongside a deeper redesign of how we consume."

Allison Lin, global vice president of packaging sustainability at Mars, reiterated the importance of to demonstrating how successful waste management and recycling systems could be created in areas which currently lack the infrastructure needed to tackle plastic pollution.

"Scale will enable these systems to be self-sustained and ultimately, protect people and planet while at the same time creating value for local communities," she added.

The news of the partnership comes as global parties prepare to meet in Paris on May 29 for the Global Plastics Treaty.

The partners said that they are actively calling on like-minded organizations to join them on their mission to tackle plastic pollution.

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