An introduction to the materials ecosystem

By definition, waste is unwanted, requires disposal and is not always valued. However, when science and economics find a way to take this unwanted material, break it down into its basic building blocks and turn those building blocks into something useful again, plastic waste is transformed and takes on value.

A materials ecosystem is developing around plastic and renewable waste to deliver its total value. The materials ecosystem adds value to plastic waste through recycling technologies and circular solutions.

By repeatedly converting plastic waste into new products, less waste ends up in landfills, incinerators or as environmental leaks.

The materials ecosystem is a web of interrelated technologies, processes and people that transform plastic waste and renewable waste — such as used cooking oil and plant waste — into useful materials. The ecosystem includes consumers and stakeholders in waste management, recycling, design, manufacturing, retail, brand ownership and public policy.

The materials ecosystem addresses our society's challenges today: consumers’ evolving concern for their environmental footprint and the subsequent surge in demand for products and packaging with key sustainability benefits.

This concern is reflected in global policy frameworks that are changing how plastics are made, used and reused There is genuine economic value in waste.

The materials ecosystem enables markets for plastic waste to generate positive environmental and financial returns.

This interconnected system not only helps reduce plastic waste but also creates a new value chain for innovations in science and new jobs, new value for existing jobs and new collaborations.

Creating an ecosystem is a transformation of the way plastic waste is handled.  All countries do not move at the same pace in any transformation. Each country develops at its own speed, depending on its unique circumstances. However, there is an opportunity to leap-frog what we have collectively learned, creating infrastructure and policies that move us forward in the same direction.

It takes every stakeholder working together to make change happen, including new technologies to transform waste into new products; recycling infrastructure that delivers on the ecosystem’s ability to collect, clean and sort waste; policy that enables systems to scale and succeed; brands and manufacturers designing for circularity; and consumers having the confidence that their efforts to return used plastic to the system will pay off.