The Opportunity: Love them or hate them, plastics are everywhere around us. They protect our food, make our cars lighter and hospitals would not run without them. In fact plastics are so useful, their demand is expected to double in the next 20 years. Yet our plastics system is broken. Only 14% is recycled, resulting in a loss of USD 80-120 billion per year to the global economy. If nothing changes, there will be more plastics than fish in the ocean by 2050.

The Challenge: If we want to free our oceans from plastics, we have to fundamentally rethink the way we make and use plastic items. While value loss, environmental pollution and un-recyclable waste are the increasingly apparent undesirable effects of the linear plastics economy, what causes them is less obvious.  Let's start by asking, how might we get products to people without creating plastic waste?

The Event: We are hosting a group of thoughtful change makers to discuss where we are now and how we might change the future state specifically in terms of small format plastic waste, such as sachets, wrappers, tear-offs, straws, lids, and bottle caps.