A Plastic Stewardship Program is a structured framework that enables organizations to take accountable responsibility for plastic across its lifecycle from material use and packaging design to leakage risk, recovery, and disclosure.
The program integrates plastic accounting, reduction planning, neutrality pathways, and responsible plastic credit mechanisms, supporting organizations in meeting ESG expectations, voluntary plastic responsibility commitments, and emerging plastic governance requirements across India and global markets.
Plastic stewardship refers to a systematic, data-driven approach to understanding and managing plastic impacts across operations, products, and value chains.
Unlike traditional waste management, plastic stewardship focuses on:
It enables organizations to move from ad-hoc initiatives to measurable, auditable plastic responsibility.
An effective Plastic Stewardship Program typically includes:
Plastic stewardship is implemented through interconnected solution layers:
Establishing defensible plastic baselines, polymer-wise inventories, and multi-year tracking systems aligned with global plastic accounting frameworks.
Identifying priority reduction opportunities through packaging redesign, material optimisation, and circular economy interventions.
Designing reduction-first neutrality approaches and determining the responsible role of plastic credits in addressing residual plastic footprints.
Ensuring traceability, avoiding double counting, and supporting credible, verifiable plastic responsibility claims.
A robust Plastic Stewardship Program aligns with globally recognised voluntary frameworks and methodologies, including:
Such alignment strengthens credibility, comparability, and stakeholder trust.
A structured Plastic Stewardship Program enables organizations to respond with clarity, credibility, and long- term impact.
Plastic Stewardship Programs are relevant for:
FMCG and consumer goods companies
Retail, e-commerce, and packaging-intensive businesses
Manufacturers with multi-tier supplier networks
Organizations pursuing plastic neutrality, ESG leadership, or voluntary responsibility commitments
Organizations adopting a Plastic Stewardship Program benefit from clear measurement, prioritized reduction, and credible accountability mechanisms creating long-term environmental and business value.
Understanding, Mechanisms & Benefits
Plastic credits are a market-based mechanism enabling organizations to take responsibility for residual plastic waste after prioritizing reduction and circularity measures. One plastic credit typically represents a verified unit of plastic waste collected, recycled, or properly managed, beyond business-as-usual scenarios.
Plastic credits are increasingly used by corporates, FMCG brands, and manufacturers to support plastic neutrality goals while maintaining traceability, credibility, and audit-ready documentation.
Plastic recovery or recycling initiatives are deployed in areas with high leakage risk.
Outcomes (e.g., tonnes of recovered plastic) are tracked and independently verified.
Verified credits are registered through recognized frameworks (e.g., Verra, PCX).
Organizations purchase credits to offset residual plastic footprint and make credible responsibility claims.
Credits must represent plastic recovery beyond business-as-usual.
Clear tracking from collection to recycling or disposal.
Each credit is unique and claimable once.
Clearly defined boundaries, project documentation, and claim verification.
Plastic credits complement, not replace, reduction efforts:
Organizations are encouraged to prioritize reduction, using credits only for residual plastic footprints
Building a sustainable future through responsible plastic stewardship