By Melody Salerno and Catie Tobin, PhD

Introduction

Plastic pollution is an urgent global crisis that affects our health, our economy, and our planet. According to UNEP, 19-23 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean each year and pollutes our land and waterways. Research shows that plastic waste is so pervasive, it can take up to a thousand years to decompose.

Whereas the Aspen Institute is new to the plastic pollution conversation, Aspen has over 75 years of experience in the convening space, fostering constructive dialogue among thought leaders in government, civil society, and private sector at global-scale events. Aspen is well-positioned to explore ways to inspire new ideas on scientific and business innovations in potential plastics solutions. We are eager and ready to bring our convening expertise to one of the world’s biggest challenges.

What is EPPIC? What makes EPPIC unique?

The End Plastic Pollution International Collaborative (EPPIC) is a public-private partnership launched in September of 2023 at NY Climate Week, designed to transform the plastic lifecycle by maximizing science-based innovation and investment in solutions to plastic waste. With seed funding from the U.S. Department of State, EPPIC is spearheaded by four key partners, the Aspen Institute, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The Ocean Foundation (TOF), and Searious Business.

EPPIC aims for a whole-of-society approach by convening multi-sector stakeholders sharing common challenges and potential solutions in policy and innovation to address the plastic pollution crisis. EPPIC will engage with a wide range of experts including national and subnational governments, private sector, civil society, indigenous communities, academia, and others.

EPPIC emphasizes a just transition by targeting specific countries in Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa with the potential to expand beyond those regions. These regions were selected as the focus due to the disproportionate impacts of the downstream effects of plastic pollution, compared to the Global North.

The EPPIC partnership is uniquely positioned to accomplish these goals by bringing a wide range of expertise and the ability to build on existing networks of stakeholders to link global policy-making to local implementation.

Why are we prioritizing the upstream portion of the plastic lifecycle?

The purpose of EPPIC is to reduce plastic pollution globally by promoting circularity across the entire plastics lifecycle. Circularity is a vision for our future in which we strive towards a ‘closed loop’ system that eliminates the output of waste production, and reduces the demand on extracting new raw materials.

EPPIC will leverage public and private sector commitments across the production and design phases of the plastic lifecycle, encouraging upstream and midstream interventions for innovative solutions. These interventions will reduce the impact of plastic entering the waste stream and focus on repurposing products back into the system for reuse.

Why is it important for the Aspen Institute to join in on the conversation about plastic pollution?

Aspen’s role within EPPIC comes back to our expertise in convening. Aspen hosts impactful dialogues to bring together a diverse group of multi-sector stakeholders in the plastics space that wouldn’t otherwise have access to conversation among alternative industry experts. These events can focus on specific topics relevant to the EPPIC target countries, or involve a broader audience by engaging stakeholders to share common challenges and approaches to plastics pollution on an international scale. The outcomes of these discussions help inform the work of EPPIC, and bring new ideas to the forefront.

In April 2024, EPPIC hosted Beyond the Plastics Treaty: Putting Policy into Practice; a dialogue on the margins of the INC-4 negotiations for the UN Plastics Treaty in Ottawa, Canada. The dialogue fostered collaboration and knowledge sharing among multi-sector stakeholders across the full lifecycle of plastics. Speakers included members of the Host Consortium, the U.S. Department of State, and 2 U.S. Senators.

To inspire more solutions to this global crisis, the Aspen Institute is also excited to announce that it launched an innovation prize in March 2024. The forthcoming prize will highlight upstream design and production. This competition will drive advancements in technology and be an opportunity to disrupt current systems by diverting products from ending up in our waste streams. The Institute is in the process of identifying a partner to implement the prize, which will officially kickoff next year! 

Aspen is an asset to formulating this competition, as we will showcase the prize finalists at the forthcoming EPPIC Ideas: Plastics Forum, designed for sharing knowledge and innovative solutions for plastics circularity. The aim is to provide a space for innovators to attract investment to their region-specific countries to implement their projects and ideas. Aspen’s high-profile convenings will foster an environment to make connections to facilitate this implementation work of EPPIC.

Final Thoughts

The Aspen Institute and its EPPIC partners will empower national and regional actors to effectively address plastic pollution, develop policy toward supporting science-based solutions for plastic reduction, and encourage innovations for plastic circularity solutions.

By investing in innovation, collaboration with a wide range of sectors, and promoting creative solutions through the lens of sustainability, circularity, and social equity, the EPPIC partnership is a holistic approach to tackling plastics pollution that is designed for success.

If you are interested in learning how to get involved with EPPIC, email EPPIC@IUCN.org.