WHAT ARE OBP PLASTIC CREDITS AND WHY DO THEY EXIST?
Global plastic production increases at a rate 10 times greater than that for plastic recovery. This is a direct consequence of financing flows, and low-income districts in developing countries suffer therefore the most from plastic waste accumulation.
OBP Credits offer a voluntary, secure, financing tool for the private sector willing to make a positive contribution to the problem.
OBP Credits are a type of plastic credits focused on removing from nature low value* Ocean Bound Plastic. Each OBP Credit is equivalent to 1Kg of low value OBP that has been removed from the environment in most needed locations and adequately treated by a certified organization.
OBP Credits are only issued by a certified project (to this standard: OBP-NEU-STD). Each credit corresponds to the effective removal and treatment of OBP by the project, and verified by the certification body. The OBP Certification Program does not allow forecasted or estimated plastic credits.
OBP Credits offer an immediately available option to alleviate the plastic pollution crisis while other much needed longer-term policies are developed for tackling the problem.
OBP Credit issuance and retirement are tracked in the public registry held by Zero Plastic Oceans.
In our registry of member organizations, you can find all the certified projects that can issue OBP credits and you can also look at this voluntary listing to find details on projects offering OBP Credits.
* In the OBP certification program this plastic waste is named Non-Commercially Recyclable OBP, it means all plastic waste that cannot be sold for recycling profitably and therefore is never collected.
Certified Project Collecting and treating a volume of OBP
Verification of the work done by a third party certification Body
Issuance of the corresponding OBP Credits
Tracking of the OBP Credits in ZPO´s registry
How can OBP Credits be used?
OBP Credits, through their third-party certification, offer a secure impact tool for companies interested in making positive contributions to the plastic pollution crisis, or seeking to meet environmental, social and governance goals.
Plastic Footprint or Plastic Impact Goal Identification
Reduction of unecessary usage
Optimization of internal operations related to circularity
Additional social and environmental impact by purchasing OBP Credits
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF OBP CREDITS AND WHAT DO THEY STAND FOR?
Projects that want to certify their collection and final treatment activities and issue and sell OBP credits need to comply with certain requirements which are validated by a third-party certification.
OBP Credits are only issued by projects:
- Focusing on non-commercially recyclable (NCR) plastic waste. This means that only the types of plastic with no local market for recycling (the ones left behind in the environment by local waste pickers), are included in the credits. This ensures a real positive environmental impact that could not occur without the OBP credit financing,
- Carrying out voluntary activities outside legal requirements,
- Using an approved final treatment option for the collected plastic waste that follows the waste hierarchy based on local available infrastructure and complies with our social and environmental requirements.
- Ensuring transparency and traceability of the specific plastic volumes to prevent double counting through allocation of unique serial numbers in our public OBP credit registry.
- Ensuring social and ethical safeguards in the working conditions of waste pickers.
- Ensuring an economic surplus to waste picker incomes since they can collect and sell greater volumes of plastic waste through the inclusion of a market for the NCR plastic waste.