In a compelling address at COP29, Dr. William Chizhovsky, founder and CEO of The Good Plastic Company, highlighted the urgent need to transform our approach to plastic waste while sharing his company’s innovative solution to the global plastic pollution problem.

The company tackles some grim statistics when it comes to how we manage plastic production and waste globally: 

• Nearly two-thirds of all plastic waste comes from packaging, consumer products, and textiles, items with lifespans of under five years. 
• As little as 9% of plastic waste is being recycled globally. 

“About eight million tons of plastic waste escapes into our oceans — that’s about five trash bags lining every foot of coastline around the world,” he added. “The rest ends up in landfills, the natural environment, the incinerator, and in animals and humans.” 

That plastic production has increased exponentially, from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons by 2015, doubling by 2050 according to some predictions, the question arose at the annual event about how to stop it. 

Stopping it may prove difficult, but finding a purpose for it is not, from Chizhovsky’s perspective. “Our future depends on reimaging used materials and waste like they are a valuable resource. And finding ways to use it — at a scale that truly impacts those statistics.” 

Since its founding in 2018, The Good Plastic Company has repurposed over 2 million pounds of plastic and is on track to recycle 1 million pounds annually by transforming it into Polygood^®, a building material made entirely from recycled plastic. 

Each Polygood^® panel weighs between 50-80 kilograms, and companies use thousands of these panels a year to build furniture, make flooring, facades, and other elements for interior and exterior projects. All in all, it amounts to tonnes of plastic a year that does not reach our environment. 

Since 2018, we’ve repurposed over 2 million pounds of plastic waste. And with COP29’s focus on developing global carbon market regulations and targeting $250 billion in annual carbon credit trading by 2030, we demonstrated how companies like ours are already creating tangible emissions reductions that could be valued through carbon credits. Major brands like Nike, LUSH, and Adidas recognize this dual benefit

One client, Nike, used 30 tonnes’s worth of recycled plastic for just one single store for the construction of retail counters, footwear stands, shelves, pedestals, and even plant pots. The company has gone on to use Polygood in 40 additional outlets. 

Polygood® is also recyclable at the end of a project’s life, to be made into new panels through the company’s free Take Back Programme. Such “Product as a Service offerings” is a key component to circular economy: closing the waste loop of materials and products so that they may have longer lifespans and cycles of reuse. 

“Product as a Service is the future of industry,” Dr. Chizhovsky emphasised. “At The Good Plastic Company, we ensure our panels are 100% recyclable and reusable. Clients can return them to us, where we create new panels from used products and construction offcuts, again and again.”

Dr. Chizhovsky called for broader industry adoption of circular principles, urging manufacturers to:

• Challenge conventional thinking about materials
• Look at waste streams as potential resources
• Consider entire product lifecycles
• Make smart choices at the design phase (i.e. circular materials, easy disassembly, avoiding glue and other binders that make recycling harder)
• Bridge sustainability challenges through collaboration

“The technology exists. The demand exists,” he concluded. “Now we need the will to scale these solutions globally. Because every piece of plastic we transform is one less piece in our oceans, one less burden on our planet, and one more step toward a truly circular future.”