The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) slashed 138,162 tonnes of unmanaged plastics waste and valorised a further 165,317t last year, according to its latest research.
The figures from the global nonprofit’s ‘Strategy in Action’ 2025 progress report bring cumulative totals since the organisation’s inception in 2019 to 378,147t reduced and 418,529t repurposed.
The alliance, which now counts some 70 companies – including brand owners, resin producers, converters, waste managers, recyclers, and technology providers – as signatories, said it had transitioned from smaller, standalone projects to larger-scale integrated country and thematic programmes under its Strategy 2030.
Country programmes have been established in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, to help them ‘move up the recycling maturity curve’.
Second-largest contributor
Indonesia is the second-largest contributor of mismanaged plastics waste globally, producing 3.2 million tonnes each year, of which more than a third ends up in the ocean, according to the UN.
The report highlighted that coordinated interventions across the waste management system are now underway in the country, led by the Indonesian government and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)’s Solid Waste Management for Sustainable Urban Development (SWM-SUD) project.
In 2025, an integrated pilot began in Malang Regency in East Java to implement a comprehensive waste management system. This included behaviour-change campaigns to encourage waste segregation at source, upgraded collection infrastructure, enhanced sorting capacity, and strengthened links with local recyclers.
In March 2026, the AEPW also commissioned a mini materials recovery facility (MRF) as part of its 12-village pilot in the Malang Regency.
‘The mini MRF is a cornerstone of the Malang project,’ stated the report. ‘Waste from thousands of households is now regularly collected, sorted, and channelled for recycling and recovery. Materials that would have previously been lost to the environment are now managed through an efficient local system.’
Around $150m in loan support
Under SWM-SUD, which AIIB is supporting with approximately $150 million in loans across more than 10 cities and districts, replicable pilot projects are being established, the report continued.
This reduces investment risk and mobilises blended finance while ‘building circular, economically viable waste management systems that can be scaled nationally’.
In India, an AEPW-financed municipal waste processing facility has also been established in partnership with municipal authorities in Mathura-Vrindavan. The facility is now running at 75 per cent capacity and is expected to process up to 300t of waste a day, diverting 80 per cent of the city’s waste from landfill, according to the AEPW.
“Last year was an important first year for Strategy 2030 as we strengthened the foundations for impact at scale and systems change,” said Jacob Duer, AEPW president and chief executive.
“We are seeing early results in markets where the need is greatest but delivering solutions that create greater, lasting impact takes sustained effort, strong partnerships, and commitment. We have made important progress this year and are building momentum for the years ahead.”
Third-party funding commitments
The AEPW also revealed it has catalysed $641m of funding commitments from third-parties and impact investors since 2019.
Its education and behaviour-change initiatives have also reportedly reached more than 1.5 million people since inception. In 2025, it engaged 559 organisations to finance, develop, and implement its projects.
Advanced projects in Europe and North America under its Flexibles Programme have also begun.
In Phoenix, Arizona, a new collection model for flexible plastics from commercial and industrial sites has been established.
Working with RME Defeats Waste, the project brings on-site baling and on-demand collection to smaller generators, including manufacturers and hospitals, that generate too little material for traditional collection to be economically viable, creating a practical pathway to recycling where none previously existed.
Supply and demand mapping
The alliance has also commissioned a study of the US flexible plastics system to map supply and demand, and quantify end-market opportunities for recycled flexible plastics.
According to the AEPW, the lightweight nature, diverse material composition, and frequent use of multilayer structures make flexible plastics difficult to collect, sort and recycle efficiently.
These technical challenges reduce the availability of high-quality recyclates, while the higher costs and fragmented nature of flexible plastics recycling systems make recycled material less competitive than virgin plastics.
The new programme identifies high-value applications for recycled flexible plastics and the material specifications they require and uses these insights to guide system design.
Integrated solutions are then validated through ‘real-world demonstration projects that strengthen collection, sorting and recycling systems while improving the quality and consistency of recyclates’.
‘Finally, we work with partners across the value chain to replicate successful models, align stakeholders, and create the policy, technical and investment conditions needed to scale circular systems,’ the report stated.
Barriers to circularity
The research also identified capital mobilisation as one of the biggest barriers to building a circular economy for plastics at scale.
The AEPW said it had continued to expand its role as a catalyst for circular plastics investment over the past year using its capital and expertise to de-risk projects, strengthen investment pipelines, and unlock wider pools of financing from public, private, and philanthropic partners.
The Plastic Circularity Strategy, managed by Lombard Odier Investment Managers and helped established by the AEPW through seed funding and technical advice, reached its final close in summer 2026.
The AEPW said it is continuing to deploy growth equity capital into companies developing solutions that advance plastics circularity.
These include Spain’s Fych Technologies, whose patented process recycles complex multilayer plastics, and Switzerland’s Bloom Biorenewables, which converts non-edible biomass into bio-based chemicals and materials.
