PLASTIC CIRCULAR ECONOMY

OVERCOMING THE MARKET FAILURES

Trish Hyde Managing Director

Founder + CEO

Director
 Plastic +
Environment

Basics
Plastic Essential – Plastic Pollution Harmful

Rivers carrying plastic

to the ocean are in Asia
Why: Generation > Recovery

Generation Growth

The Chasm
Recovery Growth

Source: Waste Atlas

Why: High Levels Unsound Disposal

Macao

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Brunei, Burundi,

Cameroon, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Jamaica,
Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Moldovia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines,
Sri Lanka, Suriname, Syria, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela
10 Rivers + 5 Gyres = Plastic Pollution
Rivers:
Niger – Nile – Indus – Ganges – Mekong – Pearl – Yangtze – Yellow – Hai He - Amur

North Atlantic - South Atlantic – Indian Ocean – North Pacific – South Pacific
Gyres
Recyclable (Brand) Vs Recyclable (Waste Mgt)
• is collected for recycling
• has market value / legislatively mandated program
• is sorted and aggregated into defined streams for recycling
• must be able to be processed and reclaimed or recycled with a
commercial recycling process and it must become a raw
material that is used in the production of a new product.

• Under this definition, innovative materials must demonstrate:

• they can be collected and sorted in sufficient quantities, and
• they are compatible with the existing industrial recycling
processes or will be in scale to justify new recycling processes.

Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and Plastics Recycling Europe (PRE)

The Circular Economy
Plastic Circular Economy
=
USD $320 Billion
The Circular Economy

Reuse Make

Collect
It’s a Flawed Vicious Circle!
Research + Formulation
• 2016 – 2017: interviewed >150
companies across the value chain - to
develop Australia’s Packaging
Sustainability Vision and Strategy.

• 2017: Plasticity Sydney 200 delegates

and 25 speakers from across the
region and value chain - the epiphany

• 2018: tested and validated hypotheses

with >80 companies globally – to
develop The Plastic Circle.
12
The Circular Economy: Theory + Practice

1 Not always designed

Limited 2nd-life
market for recovery
demand to drive design
3
and recovery.

(<90% of plastic waste

gets a 2nd-life)

Limited recovery facilities

2 to collect for 2nd-life market needs

(only a fraction of plastic waste is collected)

© The Plastics Circle 2018

Addressing Market Failures: The Virtuous Circle

B
A Design uses recovered
2nd-life
market demand content creating more
drives design and 2nd-life markets
recovery efforts

C Recovery is a market enabler

driving best practice design
and feeding 2nd-life markets

© The Plastics Circle 2018

 nd
2 -life Market Demand
Brand Commitments
Global Brands
• Asda Coca-Cola Cranswick Danone Marks & Spencer (M&S)
Nestlé Novamont PepsiCo Proctor & Gamble (P&G)
Sainsbury’s Tesco Unilever Waitrose.
Bespoke Brands
• Dresden Eyewear

Solid Waste Management Take-out

How can these markets be fostered for sustainability?
How will you collect and sort for quality, colour and type of plastic?
What feedback mechanisms do you need to influence material flows?
 Design –
with Recovered +
for Recovery
Dresden eyewear

Solid Waste Management Take-out

What new business models are needed to collect and sort for
bespoke high value markets?
What policy measures are needed to drive this change?
Solid Waste Management
The Enabler
Market Segmentation

Opportunity Challenge
• There is a market for recovered • Current labour practices in
plastic + it’s growing some countries

• Mass recovery models need tech • Infrastructure for the last mile
enhancements to deliver
• Investors / competitor inertia
• Asia, with ample labour wanting
income and low infrastructure, can
pick from the best – high value, low
volume decentralised / high volume,
maximised yield centralised
• Rio+20 Earth Summit, Hong Kong, New
York, Portugal, Shanghai, London, Dallas,
Los Angeles, Sydney - Kuala Lumpur 25 Oct

• Focusing on Design, Innovation, Materials and

Recycling, for a world without the Plastic
Waste Footprint
 Thank You
Questions?

www.ThePlasticsCircle.com www.Plasticity.Global