Work that stands up to scrutiny

The brief

A plastic credit programme commissioned ClimateRoot to independently assess five plastic recycling facilities across India, each either certified or working towards certification under the programme's plastic pollution reduction scheme.

The requirement was explicitly qualitative. Rather than a quantitative impact or emissions-reduction assessment, the client needed an evidentiary account confirming that each facility was genuinely operating as claimed. Site selection, methodology and reporting format were all scoped around that requirement rather than a standard monitoring and evaluation framework.

Our approach

As lead consultant, ClimateRoot personally visited and assessed all five sites, structuring each assessment around a consistent five-part methodology.

• Site visit overview. Establishing current operational status against the facility's prior baseline.
• Project and infrastructure review. Covering capacity expansion, new equipment and workforce growth.
• Process and equipment walkthrough. Tracing material from intake through sorting, classification and onward sale.
• Compliance and documentation review. Confirming the validity of environmental, safety and labour permits, and the adequacy of traceability and extended producer responsibility record-keeping.
• Wrap-up assessment. Identifying outstanding needs and risks at each site.

The outcome

ClimateRoot delivered an independent field verification report confirming current operational status, infrastructure growth and compliance across all five sites. The report also drew out cross-site thematic findings on plastic credit market demand, the limitations of extended producer responsibility schemes in the Indian context, and the role of women in the waste-sorting workforce.