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Our impact
Our impact
By the end of March 2024, we'd diverted over 29,000 kg of single use plastic waste from landfill or private burning through our Wastebase services. We'd transacted over 20 tonnes of plastic waste through our Wastebase Deal service, with 45 waste pickers receiving income through these transactions.
With the help of our Data Partners, we'd recorded 359,832 single use plastic items in wastebase.org and connected each of these to 928 brands and 578 producers.
Our philosophy
Our philosophy
We believe that emerging digital technologies can support better, cheaper and more efficient plastic waste management. Our approach is based on these fundamental principles:
We are all responsible for plastic waste
We are all responsible for plastic waste
Solutions must be economically viable
Solutions must be economically viable
We must reduce the volume of land-based plastic that enters our oceans
We must reduce the volume of land-based plastic that enters our oceans
Solutions must be based on accurate, specific and structured data
Solutions must be based on accurate, specific and structured data
Solutions must be based on Extended Producer Responsibility. Producers should charge and Consumers should absorb the full cost of single-use plastic they make, buy or use. This includes the costs of managing waste in a way that minimizes harm to the environment.
Solutions will only be adopted within a market economy where there is clear value for all actors in the production, collection and recycling chain of plastic products. This must include those in marginal and informal sectors. In particular, solutions should offer:
price transparency, transaction security and demand stability to waste pickers and recyclers
improved quality and stability of supply to purchasers of recycled and repurposed plastic
visibility about the post-consumer waste journey to beverage brands, bottlers and distributors
Solutions must work within a waste treatment hierarchy that deals with waste as close to the point of production as possible, in line with the proximity principle, and is appropriate for each specific country. Once plastic enters the oceans, it is extremely costly to recover.
This should be available to all stakeholders, including:
Individuals in the global north: Data about the plastic produced in other countries by firms based in their own country, or where they directly or indirectly own shares
Consumers in the global south: Data about the volumes and origin of single-use plastic discarded in their country and in their local area
Regulators and policy makers: Data about the full economic and environmental impact of the single-use plastic produced or imported into their country
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