PCX Solutions has launched the Alternative Materials Certificate (AMC). This financing mechanism hopes to reduce fossil-based plastic, helping to tackle the plastic pollution crisis. Additionally, the certificate is designed to lower the unit cost of more sustainable alternative materials by narrowing the price gap with fossil-based plastic.

“At the core of the plastic crisis is a market failure, where fossil-based plastics are artificially cheap because their environmental costs are not priced in,” said Stefanie Beitien, Managing Director of PCX Solutions. “By tackling this structural challenge during production, the AMC makes sustainable alternative materials commercially competitive and ready to scale.”

The certificate is backed by a standard and a data-driven methodology that calculates the real cost of switching to alternative materials. It considers the price difference between an alternative material and fossil-based plastic, as well as the cost of post-consumer recovery, enabling full circularity.

PCX Solutions is working with The Greater Good Diaper Project on the first verified application of AMCs to replace fossil-based diapers in the Pacific Islands, utilising the deliver-collect-compost model with a community-based approach.

Dr Jason Graham-Nye, Co-Founder of The Greater Good, added, “Alternative Material Certificates reward the switch to alternative materials by making it financially viable and verifiable. As the first application of this instrument, The Greater Good Diaper Project can now offer a fully compostable diaper and service at the same price as a conventional plastic one.”

The AMC framework involves buyers, sellers, and verification bodies, with PCX Solutions managing the standard and issuing certificates that are third-party verified. Buyers of AMCs include brands, retailers, and financial institutions as well as philanthropic organisations looking to support projects with verified impact. Whereas sellers of AMCs are producers, transformers, or market facilitators of alternative materials.