Which industry stakeholders did the Ellen MacArthur Foundation include in its

outreach and solution development activities, and what is driving their interest in
participating (i.e., what is at stake for them)?
A pioneer project within the pre-competitive collaboration was the project nicknamed “Holy
Grail”. The project was led by Proctor & Gamble and its goal was to investigate the
potential for chemical tracing and digital watermarks. The intended outcome was to make
improvements to post consumption sorting of plastic packaging and increase recycling rates.

The industry stakeholders that were included in the “Holy Grail” project grew with time. It
eventually included stakeholders from the whole value chain. Participation into the group
was driven by the business advantages that the idea could deliver on. The technology
offered the ability to improve sorting of plastics with higher precision and granularity,
reducing the capex required to upgrade recycling facilities with improved detection
technology, and utilizing the machine-readable codes to open new applications in
manufacturing for faster checkout in retail applications (New Plastics Economy, 2022).

In addition to the economic benefit, there are improvements to the sustainability of the
business. The pre-competitive collaboration approach can be compared to the shared
value perspective to sustainability. Similar to the shared value perspective, economic
benefit to the businesses and collaborating with one another, drives increased valued in the
environment and society. Resulting in a more sustainable way of doing business