Keep America Beautiful庐, a community improvement nonprofit organization, honored the American Chemistry Council (ACC) as the 2019 Vision for America Award recipient for championing innovation across the plastics value chain and for their role in forming聽 the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW). ACC President & CEO Cal Dooley accepted the award on behalf of ACC at the annual gala award dinner of Keep America Beautiful on Tuesday, Oct. 29, in New York City.
Dooley, who will be retiring at the end of 2019, helped bring together CEOs from leading global companies to form the AEPW. The Alliance 鈥� which today has more than 40 member companies 鈥� was publicly launched earlier this year with a goal of investing $1.5 billion over five years as a first step toward developing, accelerating and bringing to scale solutions to minimize and manage plastic waste, catalyze investment, engage communities, and promote solutions to help end plastic waste in the environment with specific, on-the-ground projects.
The AEPW was borne out of a belief that chemical and plastic makers share an imperative to combat the spread of mismanaged plastic waste around the globe. Research shows that most聽 ocean plastic starts out on land, primarily 鈥� but not exclusively 鈥� from places lacking formal waste management systems. Investments in developing infrastructure will help abate litter, which is the foundation of Keep America Beautiful.
Keep America Beautiful, the premier nonprofit researching litter and its attendant costs to our waterways and the environment, will be conducting a national litter study in 2020. ACC announced at the gala that it will make a $100,000 donation to support the Keep America Beautiful Litter Study, which will update the nonprofit鈥檚 landmark 2009 鈥淟itter in America鈥� research, the only national scale research on the quantity of waste and its improper disposal in public spaces.
鈥淐al Dooley and the American Chemistry Council have been instrumental in gaining commitments to pursue ending plastic waste in the environment through the Alliance to End Plastic Waste,鈥� said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Helen Lowman. 鈥淭o solve this crisis, the scientific community, government agencies, conservation groups, corporations, and individuals will have to work together to pursue innovative yet workable solutions. A better understanding of the how, why and where these land-based litter challenges arise through our research will help shape intervention strategies that can help address the marine debris issue.鈥�
Dooley noted that addressing this issue will require innovation and thought leadership throughout the value chain, including making changes to how we collect, sort, and process used plastics; changes in product design; more and better recycling capabilities; and new business models to repurpose plastics.
鈥淎lthough plastics provide important benefits to society, plastics and other trash don鈥檛 belong in our waterways or the environment,鈥� Dooley said in accepting the award on behalf of ACC. 鈥淭hat belief is what drove several leading CEOs to dedicate a significant portion of their time and resources to resolving this critical and complex problem.
Dooley acknowledged that diverse and sometimes opposing viewpoints exist on how best to address plastic waste. 鈥淲e will succeed by building a foundation of trust and mutual respect with all stakeholders who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work,鈥� Dooley added. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we believe in Keep America Beautiful and we encourage it to keep doing the hard work of bringing people together to build the future we all want to share through collaboration and partnerships that will move us forward.鈥�
Keep America Beautiful also presented the Keep America Beautiful Leadership & Innovation Award to Circulate Capital, which has launched, along with SecondMuse, The Incubator Network to develop and promote technologies and business models that help prevent ocean plastic waste and improve waste management.
Since 1986, Keep America Beautiful has presented the Vision for America Award annually to a corporation whose commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainability has significantly enhanced civic, environmental and social stewardship. Past recipients of the Vision for America Award, which has been awarded annually since 1986, include Delta Air Lines, Caterpillar, Dell, Honeywell, Nestl茅 Waters North America, PepsiCo, UPS, Xerox, and most recently, O-I.