Global non-profit organization, Alliance to End Plastic Waste (Alliance), and early-stage startup accelerator, Plug and Play, have announced an expansion of their End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform partnership with three new hubs across Shanghai, São Paulo, and Johannesburg.

The Alliance and Plug and Play first launched the platform in Silicon Valley, Paris, and Singapore hubs in October 2019. Since then, the program has attracted over 2,000 startups with 32 of them placed on accelerator programs. More than US$ 3 million in capital has been invested and deployed into the startups with over 50 commercial pilots between the startups and Alliance member companies.

Some successful case studies include Circularise, a startup from the Paris hub that has already partnered with Covestro, an Alliance member company, and Domo Chemicals. Circularise’s blockchain technology offers an open source protocol and decentralized platform to bring transparency to global supply chains and empower businesses to move towards a circular economy.

The Alliance and Plug and Play has announced an expansion of their End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform partnership with three new hubs including Shanghai.

This technology also enables brands, suppliers and manufacturers to choose sustainable and circular materials and present information about products and their supply chains transparently without risking privacy.

Another success story is Oceanworks. Oceanworks is collaborating with Avient Corporation, another one of the Alliance’s member companies, through the launch of several new post-consumer recycled and post-industrial recycled portfolios under the reSound brand name.

Avient developed a PCR grade based on Oceanworks recycled ocean plastics. These grades are formulated for consumer applications and can be then used in personal care products, lawn and garden tools, outdoor goods, office supplies, footwear, and houseware durables.

Dow has also successfully partnered with Continuus Materials, Byfusion, and Empower through the End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform. Dow’s primary goal in this partnership was to drive systematic change in plastic pollution and recycling by finding ways to stop the waste and close the loop. Through this effort, they plan to divert over 1 million tons of plastic waste to be collected, reused, and recycled.

Another example is Litterati, a start-up from the Silicon Valley hub. Litterati is an app that empowers individuals to make a significant, measurable impact on the environment. The Alliance and its member companies launched World Cleanup Day 2020 with Litterati.

The ALL_TOGETHER GLOBAL CLEANUP campaign was created to clean the world, one piece of litter at a time. And it achieved that ambition with more than 770,000 litter pickups and more than 75 participating countries.

Since then, the relationship with Litterati has expanded. In the future, the Litterati app will be further enhanced with the addition of education elements, machine-learning technology to characterize litter, and gamification to engage users. 

Nicholas Kolesch, VP of Projects for the Alliance said: “We have been inspired by the startups from the first three hubs. To hear from even more locally-relevant ideas and thinking, we will need to expand our partnership to more locations, and I am delighted that we have landed on Shanghai, São Paulo, and Johannesburg.”

“We have had an amazing success rate with the first three hubs. Plug and Play is confident that we will be able to bring together a group of inspiring startups with plastic waste solutions for the future of the planet,” stated Matthew Claxton, Global Director of Plug and Play’s Sustainability Program.