Ellen MacArthur Foundation awarded £500,000 funding for plastics economy initiative

A funding prize of £500,000 has been awarded to support a new environmental initiative that aims to achieve a global standard for producing sustainable plastics.

‘New Plastics Economy – Mobilisation’ is a joint project between the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, which secured £500,000 in funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

The vision behind ‘New Plastics Economy – Mobilisation’ is to develop a Global Plastics Protocol that will become an industry standard for producing sustainable plastics across Great Britain and internationally.

“The New Plastics Economy report gives an extensive overview of today's plastics economy and its challenges, but perhaps more importantly provides the vision for a new system in which plastics never become waste,” explained Dame Ellen MacArthur, Founder, Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

“We are delighted that, thanks to the Dream Fund, we are able to count on the support of players of People's Postcode Lottery, which will enable us to bring together the capabilities we need to turn this vision into a reality.”

The initiative between the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Plymouth Marine Laboratory comes from the wider study, entitled The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics, published last week. Within it, it demonstrates the size of the plastics waste challenge facing society, including the estimation that by 2050, without significant action, our oceans will contain more plastic than fish, by weight.

The New Plastics Economy initiative will now drive progress on this path forward, with a new approach aimed at turning the plastics waste from a problem into an opportunity.