Catalysing capital

Unlocking capital to accelerate systems change

Mobilising capital remains one of the most significant challenges in advancing a circular economy for plastics.

While innovative technologies and business models continue to emerge across the waste management and recycling value chain, many projects struggle to access financing due to perceived risk, limited track records, fragmented value chains, and uncertain revenue streams. 

The financing gap is particularly acute in emerging markets, where waste management infrastructure remains underdeveloped and the need for investment is greatest. Without access to appropriate capital, many promising solutions face challenges scaling beyond pilot or early commercial stages. 

The Alliance is addressing this challenge by supporting financing approaches that can mobilise capital at scale for waste management and plastic circularity solutions. We collaborate with financing institutions to co-design financing mechanisms, while contributing technical expertise, concessional capital, and access to grant funding to help de-risk projects and reduce the overall cost of capital. We also convene strategic partnerships that strengthen project pipelines, improve investability, and help unlock larger pools of capital.

Financing aproaches to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy

Providing concessional capital to unlock catalytic financing

We provide concessional capital that helps de-risk projects, enabling projects to attract external growth capital. We create conditions that allow our project partners to tap into diverse impact funding sources to mobilise more capital into critical initiatives, fostering market development and ecosystem growth that accelerate the transition towards a circular economy for plastic. We participate in co-designing innovative climate finance instruments that traditional financing instruments find challenging.

Enabling ecosystem growth for plastic circularity

We foster technology incubators, research and development, and growth capital for innovative materials as well as reuse and redesign models including digital enablers.

Green infrastructure financing

Addressing plastic waste in the environment is key to climate mitigation. Innovative green financing solutions such as blended finance and results-based blended finance options are necessary to provide capital for these critical initiatives. We collaborate with Development Finance Institutions, institutional capital and other impact capital pools to co-design and participate in financing instruments and funding vehicles to accelerate the transition towards circular solutions that are economically viable.

Providing growth capital to innovation focused on driving transition to a circular economy for plastic

Launched in partnership with Lombard Odier Investment Managers, the Plastic Circularity Strategy is a growth-focused private equity impact fund that identifies unique opportunities across the three key pillars where funding is needed:

ii) Reuse and redesign models including digital enablers

The fund adopts robust impact reporting principles that help ensure it can balance its dual mandate of delivering on sustainability goals while producing attractive risk-adjusted returns that proves that the transition to a circular economy for plastic is a viable solution. The fund has started deploying capital into scalable opportunities.

ii) Advanced sorting and recycling technologies

i) Innovative materials

Unlocking catalytic capital by fostering collaboration between the private sector and Development Finance Institutions

PT ALBA Tridi Plastics Recycling, a joint venture between ALBA Group Asia and PT Dharya Daya Sustainea, secured a US$44.2 million blue loan from the Asian Development Bank, which was unlocked by a concessional loan from the Alliance. This blended finance approach secured the capital required for its scaling.