Plastic Credits: Mitigating environmental impact or masking greenwashing?

Abstract

This thesis investigates the impact of VERRAs Plastic Waste Reduction Standard on plastic production, plastic waste management and pollution. While the program aims at reducing plastic pollution through driving investments towards development of recycling and waste collection capacities, it has been criticized for enabling greenwashing, lack of additionality and systemic impact. The study creates a System Dynamics model based on the latest research about the plastic lifecycle and demonstrates the long-term impact of the plastic credit scheme based on publicly available quantitative data and an expert interview. The results show that while a marginal reduction in plastic dispersion in the environment and increase in recycling is possible, the crediting mechanism offsets these achievements by stimulating primary plastic production. The findings suggest that the Plastic Credit Program has inherent flaws which undermine its effectiveness and prevent meaningful contribution to solving plastic pollution. This research contributes to the limited knowledge on plastic credit schemes and highlights the importance of systemic evaluation in complex interrelated environments.