Delterra is thrilled to be highlighted in two commitments unveiled this week at the Our Oceans Conference, which mobilizes voluntary commitments to deliver courageous, measurable and impactful actions towards a clean, healthy and productive ocean.

Scaling solutions to plastic waste in Indonesia with $5.1M from Minderoo Foundation
Delterra is partnering with Minderoo Foundation to eliminate the harmful effects of plastic and develop circular economy markets for plastics in the Global South. With the aim of contributing $5.1 million over three years, Minderoo will help to scale Delterra’s successful Rethinking Recycling program in Southern Bali. The goal is to create a replicable model to tackle waste across Indonesia and in other countries, with the potential to attract investment from development banks and other investors.

Supporting companies in Brazil and Indonesia to tackle plastic waste at source with $1.9M from Walmart
Through a partnership with Walmart to expand the reach of the Plastic IQ program, Delterra is helping companies reduce plastic waste from packaging and move them towards a circular economy. Plastic IQ is designed to help companies assess the environmental and economic impact of their plastics packaging portfolio and make strategic decisions to stop plastic pollution at source. With Plastic IQ, companies can have a positive impact on tackling plastic pollution through tangible plans to meet targets and goals from the EMF Global Commitment, national/sub-national regulations, and the forthcoming Global Plastics Agreement.

It is clear that pollution from land is having disastrous consequences for our oceans, which in turn is having negative impacts on human health and activities. There is no question that we need to reverse this trend and that we have a narrow window for action.

Speaking at the Conference, Delterra senior leaders will share recommendations for the UN Global Plastics Agreement and bring insights from Delterra’s work on the ground in Global South countries.

Looking at advances in innovations to reduce the plastic footprint in our ocean, Delterra will share learnings from our work with material traceability technology that helps provide companies with certainty on where their recycled plastics are coming from, including guaranteeing claims about recycled materials and avoiding unethical sourcing of plastics.

Other innovations that Delterra has implemented in Indonesia and Argentina, with promising potential for scale, are digital platforms that improve the collection and sale of recyclables, such as:

• an AI powered chatbot that answers questions about what is recyclable and provides reminders on collection days
• an e-learning program to support cooperatives and waste workers to understand how to collect, sort and find buyers for materials at a fair price; and
• an operations platform that enables waste workers and municipalities to better manage and track materials and payments.

Sometimes the best innovation is not a new technical solution, but rethinking the way that people interact with their environment. To that end, Delterra has been successful at designing and delivering behavior change programs to millions of people, effectively encouraging them to separate waste, organics and recycling, enabling these materials to be put back into productive use in a circular economy, with significant environmental, economic and social benefits. Our research shows that this work is 80% cheaper than mechanical separation and also more sustainable.

Delterra is proud to contribute to this Conference, joining likeminded organizations and governments in a collective global effort to protect and restore one of our most valuable resources – our ocean.