Creating Economies of Scale for Plastics Recycling

Alarming levels of plastic are produced every day, much of which makes its way into the environment and our ocean. Of the seven billion metric tons of plastic waste generated globally to date, less than 10 percent has been recycled. For the world to succeed in stopping plastic waste from flowing into our oceans and damaging the environment, much higher volumes need to be collected and recycled at the source: on land. Waste aggregation—the ability to collect or “aggregate” post-consumer plastics or other recyclable material into large enough volumes to make recycling economically practical—is foundational to a circular economy. Clean Cities, Blue Ocean—the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) flagship program to address ocean plastic pollution under the Save our Seas Initiative—works in over 25 cities across ten countries to build the capacity of and partnerships between government, the private sector, and local organizations that enable the collection and processing of greater volumes of plastic.