On 15 July FT Live hosted an event – “Revaluing Waste: The Future of Plastic as a Commodity” – in partnership with the World Plastics Council. With INC-5.2 delegates gathering shortly in Geneva for final negotiations on an agreement to end plastics pollution, the event provided an opportunity to address the challenges and enabling conditions required to accelerate the transition to a sustainable circular plastics system. It examined the intersecting roles of regulation, innovation, industry action, and global cooperation.
The event was moderated by Madeleine Speed, the FT’s Consumer Industries Reporter, and included a keynote address by Ambassador Maria Angelica Ikeda, Director for the Environment, Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event panellists were:
- David Clark, Chief Sustainability Officer, Amcor
- Carlos RV Silva Filho, Immediate Past President, International Solid Waste Organisation
- Elisabet Sandnes, Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Faerch
- Benny Mermans, Chairman, World Plastics Council; Vice President Sustainability, CPChem.
Bridging the divides
Participants recognised the diversity of positions that exist between different countries, regions and negotiating coalitions, but expressed confidence that an ambitious, implementable and equitable agreement could still be reached in Geneva.
A successful agreement was dependent upon focusing on what unites the negotiators – for example, building waste management capacity and a circular plastics system – whilst steering away from contentious issues that threaten the historic opportunity to reach an agreement to end plastic pollution.
Building waste management infrastructure and systems
The event highlighted that nearly 3 billion people do not have access to waste management systems, and that municipalities in low-income areas lack the scale, funding and expertise to implement modern waste collection, sorting, and recycling infrastructure.
It identified various measures and proposals to address this challenge including support for national waste management practices, sustainable finance mechanisms that match resources with local needs, a global cooperation platform to share and support technical assistance, capacity building, and investment in waste systems.
The importance of enabling the movement of used plastics from countries that don’t have the necessary recycling and waste management infrastructure to those countries that do was also discussed. This will increase the availability of plastic waste as a feedstock and generate revenue for investment in waste management infrastructure.
Circularity as a systemic lever
Circularity was highlighted as the fastest and most affordable lever for accelerating the transition to a more sustainable plastics system and ending plastic pollution.
The most effective way to accelerate this transition, while maintaining the utility that plastics offer society, is for the agreement to unlock the value of plastic waste. This is because the greater the economic value of plastic waste, the greater the incentive to not litter, landfill or incinerate, and to reuse and recycle instead.
This will create a massive additional incentive to increase investment in waste management infrastructure and innovation, and drive growth and employment. It also creates the potential to uplift the informal sector/waste pickers by enabling them to generate more income from plastic waste.
To unlock this potential a policy and regulatory framework is required that will increase the value of plastic waste as a circular feedstock by increasing demand for circular plastic raw materials.
Participants identified mandatory recycled content targets as a way to create value for plastics waste and demand signals for recycled plastics and stimulate private sector investments in collection, sortation and recycling. These targets should be developed at the country level and step up over time.
Designing for circularity, not disposability
Most current packaging, especially flexible packaging, is optimized for performance and cost, not end-of-life recyclability. Therefore, a key shift is needed in how products are designed. The starting point to make plastics more easily reused, recycled, repaired and durable, is to design them that way.
This involves selecting materials that are easily recyclable and compatible with recycling systems; simplification of design to reduce the complexity of disassembly and sorting processes; and using materials that can be easily separated and sorted during the recycling process.
Changing this requires alignment across the value chain – from designers and material suppliers to manufacturers, retailers, and recyclers – and an agreement that provides guidance on product design that draws on existing and emerging international design principles and standards.
Sustainable finance mechanisms
To scale infrastructure globally, the treaty must include sustainable financial mechanisms that mobilize public and private finance and prioritize low-income regions and ensure long-term support, including well designed EPR schemes to help fund collection and recycling efforts.
Any financial instruments must ensure that resources are directed where they are most needed in terms of low-income and vulnerable countries, and the solutions needed such as for innovation, improved collection and sorting, and waste and recycling infrastructure.
The virgin and recycled plastic price gap
A recurring topic was the economic disadvantage of recycled plastics compared to virgin materials. Several solutions were proposed to make recycled plastic more competitive with virgin alternatives including mandatory recycled content targets.
Voluntary versus regulatory approaches
Many large companies have made voluntary commitments to increase recyclability and recycled content in their packaging. However, voluntary action alone has proven insufficient. There is a growing consensus that regulatory measures have a role to play in creating predictable markets for recycled products and scaling up circular plastics systems.
Balancing upstream and downstream approaches
The event addressed whether the treaty negotiations should include a cap on the production of virgin plastics. Some governments and environmental groups argue that without limits on production, recycling and reuse efforts will struggle to cope with the volume of new plastics entering the market.
Opponents of production caps argue that such measures could have unintended consequences, including increased costs for consumers, restricted access to essential products, and substitution with materials that have worse environmental footprints. Instead of focusing on production limits, the panellists agree that a range of upstream and downstream measures are needed. These include redesigning products for reuse and recyclability, the development of reusable models and delivery systems, mandatory recycled content targets, , waste management infrastructure development, and sustainable finance mechanisms.
Technology neutral recycling
The event explored emerging recycling technologies, such as chemical (or advanced) recycling, which is essential for dealing with materials that mechanical recycling cannot process. A key point was that any recycling technology – mechanical or chemical – must be evaluated for environmental and social impacts, and policies should remain technology-neutral to encourage innovation without bias.
Plastic credits and market-based mechanisms
Plastic credit systems were discussed as a transitional tool to finance plastic recovery and recycling in underserved regions. Similar to carbon credits, plastic credits assign financial value to the collection and processing of waste. These can help fill funding gaps in areas where EPR schemes or other systems are not yet mature.
However, caution was urged. Credits should not become a substitute for systemic change. Instead, they should support infrastructure development and help establish long-term circular systems.
Harmonization and local flexibility
The agreement must recognise that countries face very different challenges and require different solutions. A one-size-fits-all global approach to policy and regulation cannot work, and the agreement should allow for flexibility to accommodate different national capacities and circumstances – such as geography, income level, infrastructure, and governance.
Whilst there was support for harmonized global standards to create consistency and scale, national action plans, tailored to each country’s unique circumstances and capabilities, should form the foundation of the agreement.
A call for collaborative action
The event confirmed that ending plastic pollution cannot be achieved by governments or businesses acting alone and emphasised the importance of collaboration. It highlighted the role of the plastics value chain in creating systemic change to end plastic pollution. Brand owners and manufacturers are the engine of circularity. They design the products, choose the materials, and help shape consumer expectations. This collaboration must be supported by an enabling policy and regulatory framework.
To watch the recording of the webinar, click here.