Plastic pollution is one of the most visible signs that the linear economy is failing. Fossil-based, mostly single-use, and rarely recovered, plastic packaging clogs oceans, enters food chains, and accumulates faster than any recycling system can handle. The case for action is not contested and the circular economy is widely recognised as a crucial part of the solution. Ten years of work by the Foundation has helped build that consensus. Now the focus is on overcoming the systemic barriers keeping circular solutions from implementation at scale.
The track record is real. Through the Global Commitment, companies representing 20% of global plastic packaging have, between 2018 and 2024, avoided 14 million tonnes of virgin plastic use, tripled their recycled content, and eliminated 775,000 tonnes of problematic packaging. Global Commitment signatories reduced their virgin plastic use by 6% over that period while the rest of the market increased theirs by 13%. That gap shows what working behind a shared, accountable direction actually produces. Over 1,200 businesses, organisations, and governments now support that vision, and 300+ businesses have joined the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty.
But plastic pollution is still getting worse. Virgin extraction continues to grow. Collection and recycling infrastructure remains far below what the system needs. The most ambitious companies are hitting barriers they cannot overcome alone.
Three systemic barriers stand between the current state and a circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. for plastic packaging. The first is scaling reusereuseThe repeated use of a product or component for its intended purpose without significant modification.: reuse models have been demonstrated, but the economics, logistics, and policy conditions to bring them to scale don't yet exist. The second is flexible plastic waste, particularly small-format packaging, which is among the hardest material streams to collect and process. In 2026, the Foundation published findings on the role paper-based alternatives can play in tackling this, and called for businesses to accelerate innovation in that direction. The third is collection and recycling infrastructure: the gap between what exists and what a circular system requires is substantial, and no single company can justify building it alone.
The Foundation's 2030 Plastics Agenda for Business sets out how companies can move beyond their individual footprints to change market conditions collectively: through individual action, collaborative action, and collective advocacy for the policies that change the rules.
The Brazil infrastructure project shows what that looks like in practice. Working with Clean Rivers, an affiliate of Erth Zayed Philanthropies, the Foundation is bringing together funders, government, and industry to build effective collection and recycling infrastructure in a pioneer Brazilian city, with a just transition for waste pickers built in. The project will directly reach around 1.5 million people, and is designed from the outset as a model for national and regional replication. By combining corporate and philanthropic capital to subsidise early-stage costs, the aim is to unlock co-financing from development finance institutions, mobilising investment at a scale no single funder could achieve in isolation.
Plastic pollution has a clear solution that is not yet competitive at scale. Closing that gap is what the Foundation's plastics work is designed to do: through evidence, through a business network committed to a shared direction, and through the policy advocacy that reshapes the rules for the whole market.
If you are a funder, investor, or business ready to go beyond individual action and help shift the system, now is the moment to act.
Find out more about our work and how to get involved
The work ahead: Our strategy for scaling the circular economy
