THE PROBLEM

It has become increasingly evident that plastic waste pollution is a crisis which is both affecting human and environmental health, on land and in the sea. Plastic is a material made to last forever and therefore, does not biodegrade. When disposed of improperly, it stays in the environment for hundreds of years or more, polluting our surroundings, our water ways and eventually our oceans. This pollution largely originates from rapidly urbanizing areas throughout the developing world. We cannot fight plastic pollution without working in collaboration with cities. Therefore, we have identified the urgent need for solutions of scale to tackle this problem.

THE SOLUTION

FINILOOP aims to create green jobs and local circular economies by optimizing sorting and collection of household waste, reduce usage of plastic and improve recycling. FINILOOP stands for Financial Inclusion and Improved Livelihoods Out of Plastics.

FINILOOP partners with cities to reduce, redesign and improve management of plastics. By stimulating the usage of less plastic, looking for alternatives and keeping plastic longer in the loop, FINILOOP directly contributes to the circular economy.

Here’s how it works:

To improve and scale plastic waste management systems in Asia and Africa, FINILOOP uses the WASTE Business DIAMOND approach. The result of this diamond approach is that (local) government, households, entrepreneurs, financiers and others have organized themselves in such a way that they are able to sustain a local plastic recycling value chain and can ensure that citizens can live in a clean and healthy environment. There are many types of plastics and complex value chains need addressing through knowledge management and expertise.

They do so by:

1. Raising awareness about plastic waste, its health effects and source separation at household level
2. Empower waste pickers (women and youth) to create jobs
3. Professionalizing the plastic recycling sector and introducing innovations
4. Integrating local financial resources and developing new finance products
5. Setting up collaboration with governments and development partners to make scale happen

As a result, they improve the quality of solid waste services and quality of recycled plastic, whilst boosting plastic recycling rates. FINILOOP focuses on building local capacities in facilitating plastic recycling loans to improve recycling infrastructure, plastic recycling business development, and waste segregation at source.

FINILOOP India is a partnership between the FINISH Society and Polyplex. FINISH Society (Financial Inclusion Improves Sanitation and Health), is a multi-award-winning initiative, established in 2010 with the aim of promoting sustainable and equitable development of the sanitation sector in India. They do this by generating awareness along with economic incentives and thereby, improving lives of poor, rural and urban households.

Polyplex being a key player in Global Packaging Industry, intends to support sustainable business practices and have high interest in recycling of the post-consumer plastic waste. Polyplex is also supporting a startup accelerator program CleanEdge – a 4-month non-residential accelerator program for startups working in Environment Sustainability, Waste Management & Renewables. 

CASE STUDY EXAMPLES

The first FINILOOP project started in 2018 in Udaipur, India with the establishment of a separate source waste collection system, a zero waste center and market development for recyclables. Impact made after 1 year of FINILOOP in Udaipur, India: 

• 70 green jobs created

• 1,000 MT of plastic waste saved from the environment

• 1 zero waste center established

• Money and job creation - WASTE Socio-economic conditions of 70 waste pickers improved in India

• 1 innovative plastic recycling technology introduced

See case studies here: https://www.waste.nl/2020/04/08/the-future-of-plastic-zero-plastic-or-plastic-smart/