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Spotted: Despite growing awareness of the dangers of single-use plastic items, it’s estimated that plastic packaging waste generation has grown 30 per cent in the EU over the last decade – with Germany as the region’s leading producer of this waste.

Helping to make a dent in this source of pollution is German company WILDPLASTIC. The organisation partners with local collectors in countries with some of the densest plastic pollution challenges and the least developed recycling infrastructure. Working with these collaborators, the company turns wild plastic – waste that’s outside a closed-loop recycling system – into circular packaging.

Once the wild plastic is collected and shipped to Germany, the company sorts and washes it before processing it into granules for reuse. The granules are used to produce WILDBAGS for home and office rubbish collection and WILDmailingbags for post. WILDPLASTIC works with Planet A to complete full life cycle analyses of its bags and its shipping process is carbon neutral.

Part of WILDPLASTIC’s identity as a purpose-driven company involves improving working conditions for the people collecting the waste. So far, the company has recovered more than 490,000 kilogrammes of wild plastic and prevented more than one million kilogrammes of carbon dioxide pollution by replacing virgin plastic production with its recycled versions.

Written By: Keely Khoury