The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (the Alliance) has announced a new partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to address global ocean plastic pollution by implementing local solutions across rapidly urbanizing cities in Asia. The agreement will bring together the Alliance's more than 40 leading global member companies and the strengths of USAID's new flagship program for ocean plastics pollution, "Clean Cities, Blue Ocean."
"The work we will undertake with USAID advances the Alliance's commitment to work through partnerships to develop, incubate and deploy projects in local cities and communities that support the goal to end plastic waste in the environment," said Jacob Duer, President and CEO, Alliance to End Plastic Waste. "Partnerships, such as this one, allow us to prove and accelerate solutions that will unlock capital investments, which are necessary to tackle the plastic waste challenge."
To stem the tide of the more than eight million metric tons of plastic that enter the ocean each year, local solutions are imperative. The Alliance will work through USAID's ‘Clean Cities, Blue Ocean' program to identify and collaboratively implement local solutions to reduce and prevent land-based plastic waste from entering waterways and the ocean, with a focus on urbanizing cities in Asia.
The partnership will include work to:
Bring together technical expertise, global investment and locally-led solutions to build markets and incentives for recycling and reuse markets;
Identify and help deploy innovative, regionally-appropriate technologies, infrastructure and business models that can reduce and alleviate the waste management and recycling crises that many cities and communities are facing;
Engage, educate, and promote behavior change among individuals, local businesses and multinational corporations for more sustainable practices; and
Support the development and implementation of effective policies and regulations.
In addition, the partnership will work to identify opportunities to improve the livelihoods, health and safety of formal and informal sector workers and other underrepresented members of the community that are at the heart of urban waste management and sanitation.
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