PCX Markets drives circular economy with plastic credit system

PCX Markets has launched the PCX Circular Plastic solution to support brands fund the PCX collection and recycling of plastic waste through audited plastic credits. The service can also provide recycled resin from “verified” PCX recycling partners to PCX clients.

“Companies that purchase PCX Circular Plastic can be sure the post-consumer recycled content they’re buying comes from recycling projects that have been audited according to rigorous, third-party plastic crediting standards,” says PCX.

“It’s all transparent — the details of our credit sales, which are bundled with the recycled feedstock, are recorded in our public registry. The entire process can be tracked, traced, and verified.”

The company highlights that, currently, only 9% of the global plastic waste is recycled, 19% is incinerated, and 72% landfilled, dumped, or openly burned, “with detrimental effects on our ecosystems and human populations.”

Global recyclate demand

The UN estimates that an investment of US$1.64 trillion is needed to appropriately tackle plastic pollution by 2040. “The biggest need is in the Global South, which lacks waste management infrastructure and bears the brunt of the plastic crisis,” adds PCX. 

The company points out that, despite this need, emerging markets received only 6% of plastic circularity investments between 2018 and 2023, according to a report by The Circulate Initiative.

Verified plastic credits, such as those offered by the PCX Circular Plastic service, can help close the funding gap, according to PCX Markets. It connects brands that want to fund downstream cleanup with project partners that need additional funding. 

PCX provides businesses with a “proven, audited, and scalable” solution by bundling plastic credits with recycled resin produced by the same project partners. This way, PCX Circular Plastic aims to meet upstream virgin plastic reduction targets and downstream recovery goals.