Sustainable Environmental Marketing

This essay explores the Plastic Collective and their initiatives in sustainable plastic waste management. It discusses their mission, programs, and the impact they have on communities and the environment. The essay also highlights the importance of planning, organizing, controlling, and leading in achieving sustainability goals.

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Sustainable Environmental Marketing
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Sustainable Environmental Marketing
Plastic is becoming a worldwide pandemic, especially for communities living near oceans
and seas. In the Asia Pacific region alone there are more than 4000 islands accommodation
around 370 million people and these islands lack elaborate waste management systems. Plastic
waste has become a top environmental concern among environmentalists, policymakers, and
other stakeholders. Plastic waste mismanagement is against the concept of sustainable
development which aims at the exploration of natural resources in such a way that it does not
deprive future generations the chance to enjoy the same benefits. There are many government
and non-governmental organizations that have come out to push for sustainable development
both locally and a planetary level, (Charles, Schmidheiny and Watts, 2017). Environmental
sustainability is a complex concept that involves the formulation and correct implementation of
policies and strategies that regulate a wide range of activities in the world such as business and
industrialization. A lot of the waste materials and used products such as plastic bottle
eventually end up in the sea and oceans. This can be observed by just walking along the
beaches and a lot of plastic waste can be seen in most of the beaches. Can you imagine the
tones of plastic lying on the ocean floor? I bet it is absolutely high. This essay is about Plastic
Collective Australia and how it contributes to sustainability through plastic waste management
programs.
The plastic collective is one of the organizations that are in the forefront to protect the
sea from the plastic waste disposed off by humans. The Plastic Collective was founded in 2016
by Louise Hardman who is a chemistry teacher and a zoologist. Louise Hardman observed a
small green turtle chocked to death after it ate pieces of plastics that were hidden among in the

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seagrass and this incident ignited her purpose to stop plastic from entering the sea. She
became more concerned in finding the value of plastic even after it had finished its intended
purpose. For instance, once a beverage has been consumed does not make the plastic bottled
used for packaging the beverage does not become useless or just a waste as it is considered.
She became more attached to remote and islands community and helped them to use plastic
waste for income purposes by providing them with a simple machine that remolds plastics
waste into useful and practical items. She also educates people on several plastic related
issues such as the reduction of single-use plastic through Plastic Neutral workshops that she
runs.
Louise Hardman lives in a small village of Woolgoolga, Nth NSW in Australia. She
developed an educational program on plastic waste management and a mobile recycling
machine that can transform plastic waste into useful items. As she created the Plastic Collective
business she initiated ‘Know your Plastics' seminars that aimed at educating the community on
how to transform and add value to plastic waste. The mission of Plastic Collective is
empowering communities to transform plastic waste. The Plastic Collective wants to achieve
sustainability in plastic use based on three fundamental pillars. The first pillar is to empower
the community with knowledge on plastic use and transformation to help them make informed
decisions in plastic use and transformation of plastic waste, (Aldrich and Meyer, 2015). The
second pillar is to innovate new designs and reliable tools that promote environmental
sustainability and development. The third pillar is to create reliable and practical tools the likes
of the Shruder machine to help in the process of transforming plastic waste into more valuable
items.

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The Shruder program of the Plastic Collective includes training and machinery which
provide an end-to-end plastic recycling solution to the community members. The Shruder
machine converts plastic waste into useful items in the form of molded products, filament/cord
or shredded raw materials. In the process of recycling plastic waste, logistic problems and costs
may occur but the flexibility use of the Shruder machine reduces if not eliminate most of these
costs and challenges. The Shruder machine can be taken to the remote areas where plastic
waste is collected and can transform the waste at the site thus eliminating the cost of
transporting plastic waste to a central place. In June 2017, Louise Hardman won the Startup
Coffs Coast pitch competition she presented her machinery and program and it attracted the
attention of stakeholders as a practical solution to plastic waste management sustainability.
Apart from the Shruder Program Plastic Collective business has also initiated the Plastic Neutral
Certification for businesses or corporations. This program enables business organizations to
actively contribute to sustainable development by offsetting the amount of plastic they use by
directly sponsoring the Shruder program. Corporate Social Responsibility has become a public
concern and most business organizations want to be socially responsible by initiating and
supporting positive environmental programs in the communities within which they operate as a
way of giving back to society and establishing a good public image for their brand, (Martin et al,
2018). There are several organizations that have joined the Plastic Neutral Certification for the
business program and have helped in funding remote communities that need the Shruder
Machine and program. There are so many remote communities especially among the island
countries where elaborate waste management systems do not exist and they are in need of the
Shruder machine and program to help them manage the plastic waste. The Plastic Collective

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has a goal of delivering the Shruder program to more than 4000 isolated and remote
communities. For Plastic Collective to successfully meet this target there must be good
planning, control, organizing, and leading in the organization. Planning, organizing, control, and
leading will facilitate the activities that will enable the program to be initiated and maintained
in the remote communities.
Planning is very crucial in any waste management system with the aims to be effective
and sustainable. The Shruder program is a waste management practice that mainly
concentrates on plastic waste and deals with the monitoring, managing and processing plastic
waste materials. Planning should be done at every stage of the program since waste
management has several stages and all these have to be well planned for to eliminate any risks
that may arise from uncertainty, (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). The Plastic Collective has to
formulate and implement a strategic plan that will serve a framework and guide to words the
realization of its goals. The Shruder program and the Plastic Neutral Certification for businesses
program require funds to support activities such as seminars and the purchase of recycling
machines and tools hence the company should have a clear plan for all the sources of income to
sponsor the programs. Strategic planning will help the company to deliver sustainable plastic
management programs that have the ability to respond the needs of a dynamic environment
that brings new challenges and opportunities, (Lovan, Murray, and Shaffer, 2017). The company
should plan well when and where to deliver the programs and how they should make a
partnership with other organizations that are oriented towards sustainable waste management
practices.

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Controlling is also an important function of management and it will play an essential
role in the management of the Plastic Collective company in Australia. Controlling will enable
the company to monitor and regulate its activities. Controlling will ensure that all activities of
the organization take place as planned and this will facilitate the realization of the sustainability
goal of the plastic waste management practices, (Israel et al, 2019). Controlling will enable the
organization to detect any deviation in the real results and the execrated results which will
enable the company to initiate corrective measures to make activities well aligned to the plan.
Controlling also helps in the efficient of available resources. Both physical and human
resources of the company will be used efficiently towards achieving the organizational goal,
(Tietenberg and Lewis, 2016). Controlling will also help improve employee motivation as well as
ensuring that employees are well disciplined. The company should formulate rules and
regulations that control the activities of its employees, partners and other stakeholders that
participate in their programs.
The role of organizing cannot be overlooked in any community-oriented program. The
Plastic Collective business aims and empowering the community and it can achieve this
effectively through good community organization strategies. Organizing has the benefit of high
public engagement levels especially among the marginalized groups like the ones the Plastic
Collective is targeting. Community organizing brings a sense of relevance, significance, and
dignity among people, (Selin, S., 2017). The organization will bring cohesion as well and
collective goodwill of the community towards important issues. Plastic waste management is a
very important concern and its impact on aquatic life and the communities around islands is
very huge. Organizing will bring the community members together and embrace the Plastic

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Collective programs as a practical solution to the challenge. Organizing will also enable the
company to run its problems efficiently without any challenges as all the stakeholders will be
involved in the formulation and implementation of the programs, (Carley and Christie, 2017).
The programs require organizing the community into small groups that will collect and recycle
the plastic waste as well as sell the final products. Furthermore, organizing will make
community members pay attention to plastic waste management programs.
Good leadership will have a tremendous positive impact on the plastic waste
management program. The company has to establish good leadership strategies that will
motivate the remote communities to embrace sustainable plastic waste management practices.
Leadership will enable the business to network and seek resources to support the programs,
(Drabek, 2018). It is important to have a good partnership with other organizations but without
good leadership and coordination, it would be difficult to achieve the collective goal of the
partnership.
Although the Shruder program and Plastic Neutral Certification for businesses may
contribute to sustainable development I would recommend that the business should consider
focusing on sustainable material management. Sustainable material management ensures that
material flow at different levels is managed such that it results in very few wastes. Instead of
concentrating on recycling and reusing plastic waste the business should initiate strategies that
will ensure there is minimum plastic waste disposal, (Assembly, 2015). Secondly, the business
should concentrate on public-private partnership for service delivery. They should seek
collaboration with organizations that share the sustainability goal such as Coca Cola and pull

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funds and efforts towards the realization of the common goal. Sustainability will require the
input of influential policymakers thus all these stakeholders should be involved.
References
Aldrich, D.P. and Meyer, M.A., 2015. Social capital and community resilience. American
behavioral scientist, 59(2), pp.254-269.
Assembly, G., 2015. Sustainable development goals. SDGs), Transforming our world: the, 2030.
Carley, M. and Christie, I., 2017. Managing sustainable development. Routledge.
Charles Jr, O.H., Schmidheiny, S. and Watts, P., 2017. Walking the talk: The business case for
sustainable development. Routledge.
Drabek, T.E., 2018. Community processes: coordination. In Handbook of disaster research (pp.
521-549). Springer, Cham.
Martin, C.S., Thomas, B.G., Greenfeld, M.D., and Hutchins, D.J., 2018. School, family, and
community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Corwin Press.
Green, G.P. and Haines, A., 2015. Asset building & community development. Sage publications.
Israel, B.A., Schulz, A.J., Coombe, C.M., Parker, E.A., Reyes, A.G., Rowe, Z. and Lichtenstein, R.L.,
2019. Community-based participatory research. Urban Health, p.272.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lovan, W.R., Murray, M. and Shaffer, R., 2017. Participatory governance: planning, conflict
mediation and public decision-making in civil society. Routledge.
Selin, S., 2017. Elaborating the Role of Backbone Leadership Organizations in Sustainable
Tourism Development: The Monongahela River Valley Coalition. Sustainability, 9(8), p.1367.

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Tietenberg, T.H., and Lewis, L., 2016. Environmental and natural resource economics.
Routledge.
https://www.plasticcollective.co/mission