SOUTH AFRICA – BASF, a multinational chemical company, has pledged support to the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) in its bid to reduce plastic waste and pollution in Africa.

AEPW is a new initiative of global companies, of which BASF is a founding member, and has committed over US$1 billion with the goal of investing US$1.5 billion in working on solutions to reduce plastic waste in the environment over the next five years.

Dr. Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors and Chief Technology Officer of BASF SE, said :“We strongly support the aim to reduce plastic waste in the environment.

We are co-founding the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, because we want to drive and promote solutions that will effectively help solve the world’s plastic waste problem,”

The Alliance aims at developing and implementing new solutions that will minimize and manage plastic waste which includes the promotion of solutions for used plastics by helping to enable a circular economy.

“Plastics are efficient materials that can save resources and enable health, safety as well as convenience benefits for society.

These benefits could be contradicted, if plastics and their waste are neither used nor disposed nor recycled in a responsible manner.” Said Brudermüller.

Research by the Ocean Conservancy reveals that plastics in the ocean predominantly originate from litter on land while coupled with inadequate waste collection and recycling infrastructure, this leads to significant waste leakage into the oceans.

The Scope of EAPW

The alliance is a not-for-profit organization that includes companies from across the global plastics and consumer goods value chain covering chemical and plastic manufacturers, consumer goods companies, retailers, and waste management companies.

The AEPW seeks to initiate corrective actions through projects resonating in four key areas which include infrastructure development to collect and manage waste and increase recycling

The Alliance will also develop Innovation to advance and scale up new technologies that make recycling and recovering plastics easier and create value from post-use plastics.

The third aspect involves Education and engagement of governments, businesses, and communities to mobilize action.

AEPW will also engage in projects geared towards Cleaning upof concentrated areas of plastic waste in the environment, particularly the major conduits of waste, such as rivers, that carry land-based waste to the ocean.

The alliance will work with governments, intergovernmental organizations, academia, non-government organizations and civil society to invest in joint projects to eliminate plastic waste from the environment. 

The engagement of BASF in the alliance reinforces the company’s engagement for a responsible handling of plastics.

“One important measure to end uncontrolled entry of plastics into the environment is to build up closed circles where plastic can be used as new raw material.

The chemical industry plays an important role in innovating and implementing large-scale processes to convert plastic waste into new products,” said Brudermüller.

BASF, Berry Global, Braskem, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, DSM, ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics Corporation USA, Henkel, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Procter & Gamble are some of the founding members of the AEPW.