Sustainability Management and Marketing

This document discusses the background and importance of Plastic Collective, a company focused on transforming plastic waste into useful items. It explores their sustainability strategy, identifies the issue of plastic pollution, and suggests alternative strategies to address the issue. The document also analyzes the implementation of the strategies and their alignment with sustainability theory. It is a college assignment on sustainability management and marketing.

Sustainability management and marketing
NAME OF STUDENT
NAME OF COLLEGE
AUTHORS NOTE

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Contents
1. Background to the case.............................................................................................................2
1.1 Background of Plastic Collective..........................................................................................2
1.2 Importance of the company in the broad...............................................................................2
2. Demonstration of knowledge.......................................................................................................3
2.1 Plastic collective Sustainability-related strategy...................................................................3
2.2 Identification of sustainability-related issue faced by PC.....................................................3
3. Explanation of case and synthesis with theory............................................................................4
3.1 Identification and brief explanation of three alternative strategies to address the issue........4
4. Analysis of situation....................................................................................................................5
4.1 Strategy Implementation........................................................................................................5
4.1.1 Planning..............................................................................................................................5
4.1.2 Organizing..........................................................................................................................5
4.1.3 Leading...............................................................................................................................6
4.1.4 Controlling..........................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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1. Background to the case
With close to 8 million metric tonnes of plastics entering the ocean every year, various scientists
have predicted that the sea will contain more plastics than fishes by weight, until and unless strict
actions are being adopted. Reduction in the consumption of plastics, increasing recycling of
plastics and choosing non-plastic alternatives are the necessary changes which the consumers can
make in order to reduce plastic pollution. Apart from consumers, the government organizations
require to take necessary actions for reducing the plastic usage by creating and implementing
stringent laws and policies. As opined by Agyapong and Arthur (2018) it is also important for
business organization to develop and implement various strategies which will help in addressing
the negative impact created by plastics all over the world in landfills and oceans.
As opined by Belontz et al. (2018) in order to promote sustainability and to reduce the impact
created by plastics in oceans and landfills, major Australian businesses such as Woolworths,
Coles, Unilever etc. have come up with various initiatives in order to reduce the negative impact
created by plastics. Various Australian organizations have also end their support to various
initiatives and campaign which helps in addressing environmental concerns such as reduction of
plastic usage or ban of single use plastics.
1.1 Background of Plastic Collective
The mission of Plastic Collective is to empower the communities for transforming plastic wastes.
The organization aims to provide island and remote communities with a simple machine which
can remould the discarded plastic items into useful items which will enable providing income to
the communities. The organization also runs various workshops for educating people how to
reduce use of single plastics. According to Chung-Sum et al. (2018) the main principle on which
the philosophy of the organization is based upon is if some items have some value, then it should
not be considered as rubbish. Based on this principle, the company through simple machines
transforms single use discarded plastic items in to useful items which will help in generating
income.

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1.2 Importance of the company in the broad
A number of organizations both national and global have also collaborated with Plastic
Collective in order to reduce the negative impacts which are generated by their businesses. The
companies collaborate with Plastic Collective through the workshops and programs which help
in promoting the philosophy of plastic neutral.
2. Demonstration of knowledge
2.1 Plastic collective Sustainability-related strategy
As opined by Wijethilake, Munir and Appuhami (2018) the strategy which has been
implemented by Plastic Collective in order to address the sustainability issue of plastic pollution
is circular economy. The organization treats the single use plastics such as wastes as rubbish
which needs to be discarded, when individuals should treat the plastic items similar to resources
which are valuable and versatile materials, of which 80% of the plastic wastes can be remodified,
whereas in reality only 15% is recycled on a global basis. The organization believes that stopping
individuals from using plastic items can be viewed as stopping the tide. But whereas, if
individuals values plastics rather than considering them as wastes, it provides an opportunity to
prevent the great Plastic Tsunami which is heading towards the society.
The solution of Plastic collective is grounded on three fundamental pillars namely empowering
people with knowledge, innovating designs and materials which are new and creating with
dependent tools and machineries such as Shruder Machine.
As stated by Cronin et al. (2011) the Shruder program of the organization helps in providing the
communities with an end-to-end plastic recycling solution for producing recycled plastic output
items which are valuable in nature in the form of raw material which are shredded, cord and
other products which are moulded. The mobile nature of the Shruder enables the plastic
recycling machines for taking to the waste sites which help in eliminating the cost associated
with transportation of plastic waste in remote areas and islands.
2.2 Identification of sustainability-related issue faced by PC
The sustainability issue which Plastic Collective addressed is plastic pollution. Plastic waste
have transformed into an epidemic worldwide, with 370 million people belonging to 4000

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islands from the Asia Pacific region lacks safe waste management. As such, this equates to
11million tonnes of plastic creating pollution in the environment and water bodies. As opined by
Carlini and Kleine (2018) the huge amount of plastics being dumped in the ocean not only
disrupts the ecosystem of the ocean but also pollutes the islands and adding the problems of the
individuals residing there. There are various issues which are being faced by the distant and
isolated islands throughout the Asia Pacific Region which includes:
Collection and Infrastructure- In case of small and remote communities, waste collection is often
non-existent as a result of excessive costs related to transportation and lack of infrastructure
regarding waste management.
Community health and safety issue- As stated by Huber & Comstock (2017) the common
activity of burning plastics poses severe harmful issues regarding health of the people.
Additionally the dumping of plastics helps in promoting unhealthy condition and increased risk
related to consumption of human beings which are first ingested by the fish and other marine
organisms and later ingested by human beings.
Negative impact of tourism- The visual and aesthetics effects from pollution of plastic on
beaches and in waterbodies is harmful for purposes of tourism, which is a major source of
income for majority of island countries.
3. Explanation of case and synthesis with theory
3.1 Identification and brief explanation of three alternative strategies to
address the issue.
As opined by Kithumbu, Huho and Omondi (2017) the sustainability practices which are adopted
by Plastic Collective such as transforming waste single use plastic into useful and valuable raw
materials which provides source of income to the communities and educating the affected
communities regarding waste management and prevention of plastic pollution complies with the
theory of sustainability as it helps in creating a form of the economy and society which is lasting
and can be lived on a global scale. As stated by Shields and Shelleman (2015) the first alternative
strategy to Plastic Collective regarding addressing the issue is to enter into partnerships with
various tourism bodies to reduce plastic pollution in various tourism sites. As opined by Mellen

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(2016) the second alternative strategy for Plastic Collective is that they can tie up with various
state level and federal level government agencies in order to ensure smooth funding of
initiatives. The third alternative strategy which can be used by Plastic Collective is that they can
communicate to the tourists regarding the increasing concerns regarding plastic pollution and
involve them in various community development programs which will not only help in
addressing the issue but also will help in empowerment of the local community.
4. Analysis of situation
4.1 Strategy Implementation
As opined by Coppola and Ianuario (2017) the theory of sustainability helps in describing a form
of the economy and society which is lasting and can be lived on a global scale. The theory of
sustainability can be classified into four capital model and natural capitalism. The four capital
theory of sustainability states that there are four types of capital in each society such as human
capital, finance capital, environmental capital and manufactured capital and for creating and
maintaining sustainability in the society the above mentioned capital must be balanced in the
society. The natural capitalism theory of sustainability demonstrates various elements such as
radical resource productivity, biomimicry, investing in natural capital and services in flow
economy which must be applied for maintain environmental stability in the society.
4.1.1 Planning- As stated by Hammami et al. (2017) planning plays a major role in promoting
sustainability as it enables to plan and develop strategy in order to address various sustainability
issues and promote environmental sustainability. In case of Plastic Collective, the planning
process helped in identifying the various factors which can help in engaging the affected
communities with the sustainability practices of the organization.
4.1.2 Organizing- According to Kassinis & Vafeas (2006) organizing also plays an important
role in promoting sustainability as it helps in organizing the resources which are required for
implementing the sustainability practices. In context of Plastic Collective, it can be stated that
organizing helps in assembling the resources and also designing the organizational capabilities
for implementing the sustainability strategy of the organization and also by organizing various

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programs and workshops in order to enable individuals and business organizations to adopt the
sustainability practices of the organization in the most effective manner.
4.1.3 Leading- According to Johannsdottir, Olafsson and Davidsdottir (2015) leading also
plays an important role in promoting sustainability as it allows taking charge of various
initiatives which will be implemented in context of sustainability. In context of Plastic Collective
it can be stated that the organization is leading the sustainability initiatives by providing
knowledge to the affected communities regarding plastic pollution and regarding waste
management strategies.
4.1.4 Controlling- As stated by Teh and Corbitt (2015) controlling also plays an important
role in ensuring the success of sustainability strategy as it involves monitoring and evaluation of
the sustainability practices and strategies which are implemented. In context of Plastic Collective
it can be stated that the process of controlling helps in ensuring that the strategies and initiatives
which are adopted by the organization perform according to its expectations and also allows the
organization to modify the initiatives in case of emergence of any issue which affects its
effectiveness.

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