Dow has announced plans to develop new global initiatives and solutions aimed at preventing and remediating plastic waste in the environment.
The move will see Dow join several other global brands to become a founding investor in Circular Capital, an impact-focused investment management firm whose primary mission is to incubate and finance companies and infrastructure that prevent waste in oceans.
Diego Donoso, business president of Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, said the latest announcement adds to a growing list of recent commitments and activities Dow is leading in plastics sustainability.
“This is another important collaboration for Dow and reflective of our commitment to working alongside partners that share our desire to drive solutions to this critical issue,” Mr Donoso said.
“Circulate Capital’s work is important because it empowers local people in the regions most impacted by lack of waste management infrastructure to develop actionable and scalable solutions within their communities. There are many people with both the ideas and the resolve to tackle this waste challenge and Dow is proud to help provide the capital to transform those ideas into solutions.”
Additionally, the company will donate a further $1 million to Ocean Conservancy over the next two years to support waste collection and recycling solutions in Southeast Asian countries which have been identified as contributing disproportionately to ocean plastic pollution mainly because they lack the critical waste infrastructure to manage the problem.
Mike Witt, Dow’s corporate director of Plastics Circular Economy, said partnering with organisations such as Ocean Conservancy are essential to Dow’s commitment to advancing end-of-life solutions for plastic.
“Reducing the amount of plastic required to create products and improving the recyclability of plastics – while maintaining the benefits people need from plastics – are important parts of the solution that we support through research and collaboration,” he concluded.
