Global Partners for Plastics Circularity
Plastics SA is an active member of the Global Partners for Plastics Circularity, a multinational collaboration of associations and companies that make, use and recycle plastics.
We advocate a global agreement to help accelerate a sustainable, circular economy for plastics. These modern plastic materials are used around the world to create essential and often life-saving products, many of which are critical to a lower carbon, more sustainable future.
Designing products and packaging for circularity increases the value of used plastic. This incentivizes collection of more used plastics by recyclers and the informal sector. Companies around the globe are (re)designing products for circularity — see examples at plasticscircularity.org/our-progress.
What is a Circular Economy?
A circular economy means LESS WASTE.
There are multiple steps that can accelerate our drive toward a circular economy.
- Choose materials with a lighter environmental footprint (often lightweight, efficient plastics)
- Rethink how products/packaging are made, designed and used
- Design products/packaging that can be used for a long time, reused and/or easily recycled
- Capture materials at the end of their useful life to keep them out of our environment
- Use mechanical and chemical recycling to remake these materials into new products/packaging, which helps conserve natural resources and supports alternative feedstocks to fossil resources.
- And when possible, repeat this over and over.