Lloyd’s Register helps create a new standard to tackle plastic waste

Food safety auditing company Lloyd’s Register has joined the 3R Initiative to helps its members develop a new Project Standard, designed to tackle plastic waste.

The 3R (Reduce, Recover, Recycle) Initiative was founded in 2019 by sustainable standard owner Verra and environmental organisation BVRio and has since been joined by several global food, beverage, and packaging companies, including Nestlé, Danone, Veolia, and TetraPak.

The initiative aims to bring together food businesses, industry experts, and NGO’s, who have all committed to work together to develop, test, and implement three solutions designed to recover, reduce, and recycle plastic waste more effectively.

One of these solutions is the Project Standard which will work by establishing a framework to measure the true impact of the recovery and recycling of waste activities while educating adopters on the implementation of appropriate environmental and social safeguards.

Stuart Kelly, Global Head of Commercial Customised Assurance at Lloyd’s Register, said: “Lloyd’s Register has a clear mission to make the world a safer place and we’ve got to work together to tackle a problem of this magnitude.”

“However, we also need to consider to impact any activities could have on the way people live and work locally. Consumers are quick to offer what look like ‘simple’ solutions to plastic waste, but could actually have a detrimental effect on local communities if implemented.”

“The 3R Initiative is committed to developing viable solutions which not only tackle the issue of plastic waste itself, but also recognise the need to protect people and their livelihoods as much as possible.”

“Our knowledge of global standards and technical expertise in ensuring accreditation and verification rules are met in full will help support this initiative. This will ensure the needs of all stakeholders are met, with positive outcomes of a reduced plastic burden on the planet.”