There is no “right or wrong” number when calculating plastic baseline. The objective is to measure it in the first place. It is difficult to enter circular economy and hard to know what to circulate, what to recover, use as recycled content or manage waste streams, in the absence of baseline metrics.
The Plastic Disclosure Project (PDP) is a multi- stakeholder, investor-supported global initiative to encourage the world’s businesses and institutions to measure their annual plastic use or waste aggregation within their operations. PDP is much like that of carbon and water reporting, but with a focus on plastic.
The methodology was launched in 2010 at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) by Ocean Recovery Alliance, and has since been endorsed by both UN Environment (UNEP) and the World Bank for different programs. FSE is partnering with PDP in assisting companies, institutions and municipalities to understand the baseline of current use, recovery, recycling and use of recycled content, so that they are better equipped to make significant gains on plastic pollution reduction, resource recovery and reuse of materials.