The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW; www.endplasticwaste.org) is partnering with Plug and Play (Sunnyvale, California / USA; www.plugandplaytechcenter.com), a global innovation platform that specialises in creating industry-specific accelerator programmes. Called the “End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform”, the initiative will identify solutions to reduce the impact of plastics waste in the environment. It will run two programmes a year in three locations, or hubs: Silicon Valley, California / USA, Paris / France and Singapore.

AEPW will work with its partners to select areas of focus while Plug and Play will source specific startups. Each programme will run for 12 weeks and accept 10 startups. The programmes will end with a demonstration day where AEPW and Plug and Play members have the opportunity to invest in participants. “Plug and Play will be the connective tissue between each of the hubs and provide startups access to new markets and alliance members a collaboration vehicle across the network to put an end to plastic waste,” said Plug and Play’s chief revenue officer Michael Olmstead. Plug and Play’s founder and CEO Saeed Amidi added that through this platform, he will spend more of his time on sustainability-focused initiatives and invest in 20 startups in this space per year. Applications are open for the first programme, which will run from February through May 2020.