Knowledge Areas

Learn more about how Plastic Reboot is reducing plastic pollution and advancing circular solutions by diving deeper into our focus areas and technical topics below.

To solve the plastic pollution crisis, we need circular solutions.

Plastic pollution is a global crisis that poses a serious threat to people, wildlife, and habitats. And yet, our society relies on plastic every day – such as keeping our food fresh, our packages lighter to ship, and our medical equipment hygienic and safe. To solve the plastic pollution crisis, Plastic Reboot is working to shift economic incentives towards safe, efficient, and circular systems – and eliminate non-essential products that cannot be made circular.

The resource-inefficient, linear plastic economy of take-make-dispose is the basis of the plastic pollution crisis. For people, circularity redefines economic growth around prosperity within planetary boundaries, supporting healthier, more resilient communities and reducing exposure to pollution and waste. Meanwhile for nature, circularity prioritizes using fewer raw materials and keeps products and materials in circulation, reducing extraction, leakage, and waste and easing pressure on wildlife, forests, oceans, and freshwater systems. The benefits of circular systems also extend to our climate - reducing emissions across product life cycles by doing more with less - and our economy - strengthening efficiency, supply security, and resilience and opening opportunities for innovative, value-added products and services.

Circular systems are therefore a cross-cutting and high-impact solution that should be implemented to advance the programmatic goal of reducing plastic pollution while maximizing co-benefits across Plastic Reboot.

Plastic Reboot primarily focuses on the upstream and midstream interventions to the plastic pollution crisis. Upstream measures will help eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic products and hazardous additives, shift to sustainable alternatives, and use recycled plastics as feedstock for plastic production. Midstream measures support innovation to extend the life of products where plastics are necessary, by creating reusable or recyclable products & by creating circular systems as well as reducing unnecessary consumption of single-use plastics.

Learn more about how Plastic Reboot advancing circular solutions by diving deeper into our focus areas and technical topics below.

Our Focus Areas

Elimination and Reduction

Reduction in the amount of problematic and unnecessary plastic used, including shift to reuse and reduction of very short-life items.

woman holding water bottle next to a train platform

Design for Circularity

Increase in plastic items designed for circularity, design for recyclability, elimination of problematic design elements, shift to alternatives, and shift to use of recycled and responsibly sourced biobased content.

Circulate in Practice

Implementation of policies and innovative business models which ensure materials circulate in practice, including extended producer responsibility (EPR), and incentives for circularity.

Our Technical Topics

Reuse & Refill

Executed by Perpetual, Plastic Reboot is bringing together practitioners, policymakers, and technical experts to accelerate the shift from single-use disposables to reuse systems.

Alternative Materials

Executed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), Plastic Reboot is supporting National Project teams in identifying and implementing credible alternatives to fossil-based plastics in food and beverage packaging.

Innovative Finance

Executed by the The Circulate Initiative, Plastic Reboot is empowering National Projects to unlock capital for circular plastics solutions and helping governments and stakeholders strengthen the financial conditions necessary to scale innovation, reduce risk, and attract private and blended capital.

Policy

Executed by WRAP, Plastic Reboot is supporting governments and policymakers in reducing plastic waste and promoting circularity through guidance on creating and strengthening policies.

Government Footprinting

Executed by GRID-Arendal, Plastic Reboot is helping countries measure and reduce their plastic footprint through harmonized, credible metrics. It supports national teams in aligning with global reporting expectations while tailoring tools to local realities.

Plastic Footprint Disclosure

Executed by CDP, Plastic Reboot is providing harmonized frameworks and implementation support for evaluating plastic footprint of the private sector, and guidelines for disclosure to investors.