Plastic Credits Can Play a Role in Mitigating Climate Change

A cow grazes amid burning garbage in an open dump in Goa, India. Photo credit: Andreas Lehner, Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0

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Virtually every company is grappling with their carbon footprint. A recent KPMG CEO survey found that two thirds remain committed to their climate strategies - but many are not confident they’ll reach their targets.

By taking steps to quantify the carbon emissions embedded in the plastics in their products and packaging, companies can tailor a plastic responsibility strategy that also helps advance their carbon footprint reduction goals. 

That plan should include both upstream reduction and downstream recovery. Funding plastic recovery and diversion projects through audited, verified plastic credits can help reduce the carbon impact of virgin plastic production and end-of-life processing too.

In this recent post, we talked about how plastic pollution and climate change are two interconnected crises. Greenhouse gas emissions from primary production of plastic, if left unchecked, could account for 25% to 31% of the global carbon budget by 2050. According to a 2024 study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Climate Impact of Primate Plastic Production, 2.24 gigatonnes CO2-equivalent was emitted in 2019 by the production of 460 metric tons of plastic globally. This translates into an average of nearly five tons of CO2-e per ton of plastic. 

If we zoom in on the carbon impact of plastic production by specific plastic type, we can get a lot more granular.  The ratio of CO2-e per metric ton of virgin plastic ranges from a factor of 3.9 for LDPE up to 6.0 for PET. This is before considering the climate impacts of disposal. 

For every ton of plastic companies divert from nature through plastic credits, they could prevent the emissions of 1 to 2 tons of CO2-e, depending on the plastic type, location and default end of use fate. 

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Measurable impact, delivered today

In its recent report on plastic credits, the World Bank notes that the standards and methodologies used for plastic crediting can provide a framework for traceable results-based accounting that can enhance monitoring and evaluation of plastic pollution initiatives and increase the accountability and transparency of impact reporting.

Each credit pays for the direct cleanup and processing of one metric ton of plastic waste that can be physically weighed and measured. It’s a little different from carbon credits -  as outlined in this post, here. While it may take years to see the impact delivered by carbon credits, the plastic credits sold by PCX Markets provide tangible, measurable and immediate impact.

The entire process of collection and processing is independently audited before a plastic credit certificate sold on PCX Markets is issued to the buyer, and the impact is recorded on our public registry.   

Plastic credits offer companies a framework to help address carbon impact, too. 

There are several tools that calculate the carbon impact of plastic recovery - collecting plastic from rivers, oceans, or unmanaged landfills that will otherwise be openly incinerated or degrade in the environment - as well as the impact of recycling, which reduces the need for virgin plastic production. The Circulate Initiative, a global non-profit organisation working to solve the plastic pollution challenge, has published an open-source Plastic Lifecycle Assessment Calculator that tracks GHG emissions reductions, energy and water savings of waste management and recycling solutions that prevent plastic pollution in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Companies can use tools like this to measure how much CO2-e would be reduced by diverting a specific volume and type of plastic into recycling - then use verified credits to achieve that volume. 

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Plastic recovery is carbon responsibility 

Supporting collection and recycling projects in developing markets hardest hit by the plastic pollution crisis has a ‘multiplier effect’ on carbon reduction.

Recycling 20 metric tons of polypropylene (PP) that would have otherwise wound up in an open landfill in Indonesia, for example, results in a 17-ton reduction in CO2-e atmospheric emissions, on average, according to the Plastic Lifecycle Assessment Calculator. This includes both the initial environmental impact of diverting the waste from its original end of life fate, and impact of recycling the plastic waste including savings from avoided virgin plastic production. If you divert the exact same amount of PP from a site that utilises open burning as an end-of-life outcome and recycle it instead, the environmental savings go up to 68 tons of CO2-e. In this example, the diversion from open burning drives a larger carbon impact.

When comparing different geographies, the average CO2-e emissions reduction from recovery and recycling varies because of the current local mix of disposal practices for end-of-life plastic which may include open dumping, incineration, or landfilling. Using the 20-ton polypropylene example, recovery and recycling in each country - which can be funded with plastic credits - can result in an emissions reduction ranging from 19 tons in India, 34 tons in the Philippines, and 44 tons in Indonesia.

The takeaway: improved plastic waste management and recycling can mitigate the impact of climate change.

Because the level of impact varies by country and processing types, it’s important to be diligent in your analysis and attach science-based, region-specific analysts to any carbon claims associated with funding the collection and diversion of plastic waste to recycling. 

By supporting projects that contribute to recovering and recycling plastic in emerging markets hard hit by the plastic crisis, companies can make an immediate, audited impact on plastic pollution, help fund infrastructure in markets that need it the most -  and make a measurable impact on climate change, too.