The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Clean Rivers, a UAE-based foundation connected to Erth Zayed Philanthropies, announced a new partnership during New York Climate Week. Starting with initiatives in Brazil, the partnership will concentrate on filling in the gaps in waste management infrastructure around the world.
The initiative seeks to address the underlying causes of plastic pollution while simultaneously fortifying waste collection and recycling systems. The project aims to minimize waste generation at its source by encouraging reduced plastic use, product redesign, and reuse models. At the same time, it is thought to be crucial to create stronger recycling and collection systems in order to stop leftover materials from contaminating rivers, coastlines, and seas.
Currently, dumping or open burning are the only options available to an estimated two billion people worldwide who lack access to proper waste management solutions. Because of this deficiency, rivers are now major sources of pollution, bringing plastics and other waste into the ocean. Communities and economies that depend on robust freshwater and coastal systems are also impacted, in addition to ecosystems.
The collaboration will benefit from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s ten years of experience collaborating with regional organizations in Latin America. Its current presence in Brazil will be expanded upon by the first activities, where the team will work with stakeholders to create a scalable intervention model. Attracting a variety of voluntary investments and creating long-lasting funding systems that can be duplicated in other areas dealing with comparable issues are the objectives.
Both organizations emphasized how crucial it is to work together to address plastic waste. Deborah Backus, CEO of Clean Rivers, and Jonquil Hackenberg, CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, emphasized that this partnership will build on the efforts of governments, corporations, waste pickers, and civil society organizations, generating momentum for long-term systemic change.
