Plastic Recycling FAQs

Please find all of our FAQs on our plastic portfolio here. If you have anymore questions don't hesitate to reach out to the co-founder Ant at [email protected]. 

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Which companies make up the Treepoints’ Plastic Portfolio?

Clean hub

CleanHub’s mission is “to build an equal economy for the non-recyclable plastic that isn’t currently collected because it has no value”.

They have created a track-and-trace software which is utilized by collection hubs to register the collected plastics and track where they end up. Recycled plastic that is collected is sold on for local recycling, and the low-value plastic is sent for co-processing.

This plastic is collected before it becomes ocean-bound, through partnerships with a variety of projects.

More info here: https://bit.ly/3XrEe9N

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Plastic Bank

We buy the majority of our plastic portfolio through CleanHub. However, this is through a set subscription meaning that we sometimes need to top up our portfolio with more.

Plastic Bank enables this flexibility and therefore part of our portfolio is made up with plastic recycled through them.

Plastic Bank establishes ethical plastic collection branches within 50 kilometers of coastlines and waterways. Their collection community members gather plastic waste directly from local beaches, riverbanks, neighborhoods, and even households – so that they are able stop ocean plastic directly at the source.

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Where does Treepoints recycle plastic?

Teepoints has a portfolio for plastic recycling with CleanHub and Plastic Bank. Plastic Bank is active in countries all over the world including, Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt and Brazil.

CleanHub operates on a slightly smaller scale and we are currently supporting their projects in Indonesia and India.

Give our globe a spin here to check out the project locations and names!

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What benefits do partners provide to local communities?

CleanHub aim to drive social change by focusing on three UN SDGs:

SDG 1: No Poverty - CleanHub initiatives have helped increase wages and benefits of field workers involved in the waste collection and management process.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth - Through CleanHub’s intervention, partner organisations they able to provide higher wages to workers, improve facilities at waste management centers, provide fire safety and financial assistance during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities - CleanHub work with partners and local communities to incentivise better waste collection processes from households and small shops. The overall goal is to divert waste from water bodies and landfills. In 2021, CleanHub and its partner organizations collected waste from over 200 houses of the fishing community in Konnad Beach, Kerala, 21 coastal villages and villages near rivers, warungs (small shops) in Jakarta, and completed 4 beach cleanup drives and 3 awareness sessions with local communities.

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Can I say our company is now plastic neutral?

Treepoints would strongly advise against claiming to be “Plastic-Neutral”.

According to WWF, claiming to be ‘plastic-neutral’ is problematic for a variety of reasons. Namely, in-order for a company to entirely offset plastic they would need to ensure that they are collecting their own polluted plastic. Any plastic that they do consume and that is not recovered can have unchartered lasting impacts. 

South Pole claims that a company can achieve ‘net-zero plastic leakage’ if they:

1. Measure their plastic footprint to identify how much of the plastic they use & produce is leaking into the environment, and where.
2. Retire an equivalent amount of plastic waste collection credits to the value of plastic leaked into the environment for the corresponding time period, region and polymer type.

The company can then achieve ‘net 100% recycled at end-of-life’ by:

1. Achieve net zero plastic leakage
2. Identify how much of the plastic they produce is not recycled
3. Purchase recycling credits in the relevant region and for the relevant polymer type. The credits should cover the volume not recycled by existing infrastructure

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How does Treepoints credit plastic?

A plastic credit is a measurable, transferable and representative unit which equates to a specified quantity of collected and recycled plastic waste. In the case of Treepoints, our plastic credits are in the form of plastic bottles.

 1 plastic bottle = 0.02kg plastic.

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