The From Beach to Big Bags (FBBB) project has reached an important milestone in its efforts to build transparent and accountable value chains for ocean-bound plastic.
The collection and traceability processes within the project’s value chain have now been certified under the Ocean Bound Plastic (OBP) Standard by Zero Plastic Oceans. The certification covers the collection activities managed by project partner Kabadiwalla Connect in Chennai, India, from the point of collection through sorting and aggregation until the material is transferred to the pelletizer.
This achievement marks an important step towards creating transparent, documented, and scalable systems for recovering ocean-bound plastic and returning it to the circular economy.
Why is certification important?
One of the key challenges facing the ocean-bound plastic sector today is transparency.
As demand for recycled materials continues to grow, buyers increasingly need confidence that materials are genuinely collected from at-risk environments, handled responsibly, and supported by reliable documentation throughout the value chain.
Certification helps address these challenges by providing independent verification of collection and traceability processes. It strengthens trust between collectors, recyclers, manufacturers, and buyers, while helping ensure that environmental and social impacts are properly documented.
Without transparency and traceability, it can be difficult to verify where materials originate from and whether the collection and handling processes create meaningful environmental value.
Strengthening the value chain
The newly obtained certification covers the first stages of the FBBB value chain, where ocean-bound plastic is collected, documented, sorted, and aggregated before being transferred for further processing.
By documenting these processes according to an internationally recognized standard, the project takes an important step towards building a value chain that can be trusted by future buyers and partners.
The certification also supports the project’s broader ambition of demonstrating how ocean-bound plastic can be transformed into valuable secondary raw materials through commercially viable and socially responsible value chains.
About From Beach to Big Bags
From Beach to Big Bags is a partnership project working to establish transparent value chains for ocean-bound plastic in Chennai, India. The project combines improved waste collection systems, traceability mechanisms, social inclusion, and recycling solutions to prevent plastic from entering the marine environment while creating value from recovered materials.
The project is funded by Danida Green Business Partnerships / Danida Market Development Partnerships and is implemented in collaboration with Ocean Plastic Forum, Kabadiwalla Connect and Gleco A/S.
