Aligning interests through a world that ships on recycled plastic

“We have created a plastic apocalypse.”
National Geographic, June 2018

 

Imagine a garbage truck of plastic trash dumping into the ocean every minute – 18 billion pounds per year and growing. Imagine current plastic production doubling in the next 15 years. Imagine in 30 years our oceans filled with more plastic than fish. No volunteerism, public awareness campaign, or domestic policy, no matter how noble and well-planned, will slow the rising tide of plastic, much less reverse it.

The solution must be rooted in economic self-interest; of the chemical and plastic manufacturer, retailer, consumer, waste collector, and the recycler. When economic self-interest is aligned with public policy and social consciousness, the world changes.

It is the ambition of the QRS Group to align these self-interests through a world that ships on recycled plastic. With our partners, we recycle waste plastic into pallets and composite railroad ties. Both products replace wood by putting plastic to work – again – productively, economically, and safely.
Replacing wood pallets and chemically-soaked wood railroad ties will eventually require billions of pounds of hard-to-recycle containers, bags, pouches, and wrap - the very type of waste plastic that is choking our waterways and oceans. These ubiquitous, simple, and durable products offer a realistic demand solution across the globe, providing all stakeholders in the plastic value chain a path to participation in the circular economy that consumers are increasingly demanding.
Forward-thinking companies that compel the use of plastic pallets, and advocate that their goods move over composite railroad ties, can rightfully claim verifiable and tangible action in the battle against waste plastic.

The apocalypse that massive plastic waste has created can only be transformed by embracing opportunities that require equally enormous demand and are capable of aligning interests on a global scale. In envisioning a world that ships on recycled plastic the QRS Group aspires to help create such an opportunity.