New York, Feb. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Repurpose Global, a leading sustainability action platform, is thrilled to announce the launch of its pioneering initiative, the Reuse Outcomes Fund. The $1 million fund is designed to catalyze equitable access to reuse and refill solutions, leveraging outcomes-based financing to address the global plastic pollution crisis.
Plastic pollution poses a significant threat to our environment and all life on Earth. According to a recent UN report, ‘Turning off the Tap', transitioning to a truly circular economy represents the most effective approach to combating plastic pollution, with approximately 70% of plastic reduction achievable through reuse, refill, and new delivery models. However, the reuse movement encounters several complex barriers, including inadequate infrastructure, high cost of adoption, and a lack of access to flexible financing for early-stage innovators, which have hindered its growth and widespread adoption.
The Reuse Outcomes Fund aims to finance the deployment of critically lacking reuse and refill infrastructure, especially focusing on engaging consumer goods sectors with high single-use plastic intensity such as FMCG, food service and delivery, grocery, e-commerce, and retail. Within these sectors, the new fund by Repurpose Global will target three promising solution archetypes, namely infrastructure for refilling water and other beverages, reuse & reverse logistics models for food and grocery delivery, and returnable packaging in e-commerce and physical retail.
The Reuse Outcomes Fund is dedicated to creating a circular economy accessible to all, with a particular focus on solution models that serve low and middle-income communities in the United States, Canada, and India. The new fund will also operate based on a pioneering theory of change revolving around Outcomes-Based Financing (OBF), where unlike traditional philanthropy or profit-oriented investments, Repurpose Global will fund the implementation of reuse solutions with the sole objective of achieving measurable, additional, and verifiable environmental outcomes (e.g. tonnage of plastic waste avoided), prioritizing impact return over financial return. This approach helps ensure that the most effective and impactful solutions receive the support they need.
In addition to scaling solutions directly, the Reuse Outcomes Fund will also tackle systemic challenges associated with increasing penetration of reuse and refill. As a part of the Fund, Repurpose Global will help advance the development of high-integrity frameworks and implementation standards, aimed at guiding the scale-up of waste reduction models worldwide. The organization will also build knowledge repositories that document project implementation best practices, making them transferable and replicable.
“At Repurpose Global, bringing people together to create systems change against the most pressing social and environmental issues facing our world has been our mission from day one, and this new commitment to advancing the reuse movement is a timely and critical extension of that mission,” said Svanika Balasubramanian, Repurpose Global CEO & Co-Founder.
“Imagine a world where everything we use can be given another life. Where fridges stocked with single-use products are replaced with refill stations in every convenience store you walk into, and where the ‘Milk Man’ model of delivering essential goods is the norm as opposed to the exception,“ shared Peter Wang Hjemdahl, Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder at Repurpose Global. “This vision, where reuse beats single-use and is accessible not only globally but for all strata of society, is the guiding philosophy that underpins our new Reuse Outcomes Fund.”
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ABOUT REPURPOSE GLOBAL
Repurpose Global is the world’s leading Plastic Action Platform, bringing together brands, consumers, innovators, and policymakers to collectively combat the plastic waste crisis. Through its pioneering solutions across the circular economy value chain, the organization has helped more than 300 companies measure, reduce, and take action on their plastic footprints, while driving systems change on a global scale. Repurpose Impact Projects have recovered over 23 million kilograms of plastic waste from the environment to date, protecting vulnerable coastal regions across the Americas, Africa, and Asia. In doing so, the organization has enabled the delivery of waste management services to millions of people across the world, while positively impacting the lives of thousands of marginalized waste workers. Founded in 2016, Repurpose Global now employs over 70 full-time team members across offices worldwide. For more information, please visit https://repurpose.global/.
Contact information:
Yulu PR
repurpose@yulupr.com
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