• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Navigating the Poles
    • New Security Broadcast
    • Reading Radar
  • Multimedia
    • Water Stories (Podcast Series)
    • Backdraft (Podcast Series)
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Water, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Animated Short)
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • China Environment Forum  //  Q&A

    Building an On-ramp for Catalytic Capital to Reduce Plastic Leakage: Q&A with Circulate Capital’s April Crow

    April 1, 2021 By Ruyi Li
    Waste plastic bottles from automobile oils and beverages

    Back in 2005, as a part of the Coca-Cola Company Environmental Team, April Crow was a pioneer working on the concept of sustainable packaging. In the mid-2000s, despite stories on the great pacific garbage patch, ocean plastic waste was not high on policy or corporate agendas. April believed this was due to a lack of scientific data on the scale and threat of plastic waste. To fill this gap, April’s team partnered with Ocean Conservancy to convene leading scientists to help fill these knowledge gaps. Their research found the majority of marine plastic pollution stemmed from five Asian countries that lacked waste management infrastructure, which if fully in place, could reduce leakage by 45 percent. This insight raised a challenging question—how can companies and aid agencies bring funding to these markets to facilitate better infrastructure and prevent plastic leakage?

    April left Coca-Cola and helped launch Circulate Capital in 2018 where following the concept of catalytic capital, her team looks for investable opportunities to achieve sustainable waste value chains, investing in waste collection systems, processing technology, and creating a “second life” for post-consumer plastic materials. The first seven investments in South and Southeast Asia could prevent five million tons of plastic from leaking into the ocean. We sat down with April to discuss her innovative work on plastic waste reduction.

    April CrowPhoto credit: DCW-Photo, courtesy of April Crow. 

    China Environment Forum (CEF): What aspect of the plastic waste problem are you solving? Why is this work so important to build a circular economy?

    April Crow (AC): At Circulate Capital, we are looking at opportunities to show this is truly an “investable space.” Our funding is dedicated to India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. We did our original landscape assessment work in these countries to look for investable opportunities. The investment we have made to date is throughout the value chain, looking at collection systems, processing, technologies that can create additional uses for these materials.

    Many of these projects have had trouble finding investment through traditional means. We are trying to build an on-ramp for institutional investors and demonstrate the pipeline of these investable opportunities and attract others.

    We announced our first investment at the beginning of last year in Indonesia. At the end of last year, we announced several diverse investments within India ranging from increasing food grade recycled content to increasing capacity and improving the quality of recycling. Some investments are focused on building more collection materials, others are based on technology, like apps that can share knowledge to help the waste collectors within the informal sector.

    CEF: We learned from Circulate Capital’s investment project with the Indonesian recycling company Tridi Oasis that it is not only about funding their work but helping them with market and technology access. Could you tell us more about the impacts of your work with Tridi Oasis and local communities in Indonesia?

    AC: I am excited because we have the ability to make local connections and bring the support far beyond just dollars. By looking at the “how” questions—what equipment they are purchasing, and the companies’ quality standards—we help advance connection points in the future. Our work is unique in that we are involving global companies and are able to bring their supply chain and technical knowledge along with the investment. We can help Indonesian companies like Tridi Oasis with their overall business model and end markets to make them more sustainable in the long run.

    Based on my experience, a lot of important individual philanthropic efforts were made in the past, but to build a real solution is to build sustainable financial models.

    With just the first seven investments, we are expecting to prevent 5 million tons of plastics going to the ocean, and also decrease greenhouse gas emissions. In local communities, it is also about job creation and improving the livelihoods. During a lot of my travels to Indonesia and the Philippines, I realized that investment opportunities come with deep engagement with local communities. The resulting social economic benefits and the recognition from the communities as being a part of the solution are really exciting to see.

    April Crow in Jarkata (1)Photo credit: April and her colleague on a visit to an informal waste transfer station in Jakarta, used with permission courtesy of Derek Stephenson.

    CEF: What are the challenges that hinder the progress of your work?

    AC: We realize that lots of solutions must be built from the ground. Our funders are in these countries and looking to help. The challenges also appear in the question of whether the projects are scalable. Our investment team goes through hundreds of opportunities, looking at which are suitable to bring into our portfolio. Clearly in the current environment of COVID, the investees have to pivot and often drive more innovative solutions for business stability.

    We saw the most investment opportunities in India and Indonesia, where our team members were first on the ground. Now India has been a little easier, in part because of the strong startup community.

    CEF: What sort of gender or equality issues can be involved in your work?

    AC: A lot of women are involved in the waste recycling space, in Indonesia in particular. I started working on the plastic leakage issue with missing information. The turning point was when science and data came together. Hardly any academics were in this field a decade ago. Then we started to know Jenna Jambeck, as well as other academics like Kara Lavender Law and Chelsea Rochman and others. These women are all the game changers leading us down a path and bringing the industries and societies to action. It is really difficult to champion any change without the scientific data based research. With the help of solid information, you can have a really intelligent science and business driven conversations which lead to solutions.



    This blog is part of the Closed Loop Innovator Series which profiles stories of women around the world innovating in business, civil society, and science to reduce plastic waste pollution.  

    Ruyi Li is a research assistant at the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum. Her recent focuses are waste management in Asia and low carbon transition in China. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) with an MA in Energy, Resources & Environment and International Economics.

    Sources: Circulate Capital, MacArthur Foundation, Ocean Conservancy, The Coca-Cola Company, Tridi Oasis. 

    Lead Photo Credit: Waste plastic bottles from automobile oils and beverages, courtesy of Umatul Ummi/Shutterstock.com.

    Topics: China Environment Forum, Q&A

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets by NewSecurityBeat

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

Featured Media

Backdraft Podcast

play Backdraft
Podcasts

More »

What You're Saying

  • Rainforest destruction. Gold mining place in Guyana China’s Growing Environmental Footprint in the Caribbean
    ZingaZingaZingazoomzoom: US cleans up. China runs wild on free rein- A lack of international compliance mechanisms to hold...
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous souhaitons que le partenaire nous apporte son soutien technique et financier.
  • shutterstock_1858965709 Break the Bias: Breaking Barriers to Women’s Global Health Leadership
    Sarah Ngela Ngasi: Nous sommes une organisation féminine dénommée: Actions Communautaires pour le Développement de...

Related Stories

  • Taking pictures at TPA (The Last Slaughter Place) in Jatibarang as the final
dumping place of all garbage of Semarang City. Photo credit: Tigor Sabas ManaluTurning the Tide: How Can Indonesia Close the Loop on Plastic Waste?
  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2023. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000