POP: On the Road to Verification by Starboard
Vera is a global leader helping to tackle the world’s most intractable environmental and social challenges by developing and managing, has accepted the documents from Starboard which are listed on its website for the 30-day public commentary, starting on 23 February! Starboard is very excited to be the second programme in Thailand!
Our premium member, Starboard is guilty of playing a contributing role in the plastic industry, but they are working to become part of the solution by offsetting their plastic footprint. In addition, Starboard is the first to put an internal price on plastic based on usage. At the end of 2017, they initiated the world’s first plastic offset programme (POP). The company assigns a dollar value to each material based on its lifespan, recycled/bio content, and harm to the environment, then multiply this by how much is used to make the products. The funds from the tax go to a pilot programme that cleans up plastic from the beaches in Pattaya, Thailand, offsetting Starboard’s plastic impact.
Over the last 3 years, Starboard has been running a successful Plastic Offset Programme (POP). Since it began POP has grown significantly, collecting over 235,000 kg of plastic trash from the beaches in Thailand! As the programme has expanded it has become increasingly important that the company is totally transparent about what they are doing, and where the plastic they are collecting is coming from. The company knows that they’re doing the best they possibly can to clean up and protect beaches from plastic waste. But with so much greenwashing going on they know it can be hard to trust brands to do the right thing. It is for this reason that they are working with Verra to verify POP against their Plastic Reduction Standard.
About the Plastic Waste Reduction Programme
The Plastic Waste Reduction Programme (Plastic Programme) enables robust impact assessment of new or scaled-up waste collection and recycling projects.
People use more than 350 million tonnes of plastic every year, with only a fraction of this going to recycling. It is so important to continue scaling up collection and recycling projects and to certify the actions of these projects. They are key to reducing the use of virgin material and keeping plastic from entering the environment.
The Plastic Programme is used for consistent accounting of a variety of plastic collection and recycling activities. The Programme enables independently audits projects (like POP) to determine the extent to which they have reduced plastic waste in the environment and/or have increased recycling.
Where is POP in the Process?
Starboard is currently in the 30-day public commentary stage of the verification journey.
To see the document that shows the full verification process that POP will be going through over the next few months, please visit here.
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