Author: Charles Pekow
Pay someone to clean up a ton of plastic fouling the environment in a developing nation and get certified to create another ton. Then call yourself pollution neutral. This system of “plastic credits” is catching on globally, especially among corporations. Several organizations now sponsor a plastic credit certification process in Asia, the Pacific region, Africa and South America. But as of yet, no common standard or regulations govern the accuracy of the data on what is collected or how the collected material gets recycled and reused. In any event, critics note, the system only deals with the downstream issue of plastic already in the environment, and not the issue of the manufacture and use of plastic in the first place.