Plastic-neutral business is a model in which a company measures the plastic it puts into the world and then funds the recovery and recycling of an equal amount, bringing its plastic footprint back to net zero through an independently verified partner — in this mission, Corsair Group International and its CSRnow programme. It is the plastic equivalent of carbon offsetting, but built on physical collection and conversion rather than accounting alone.

The scale of the problem is what makes this work matter. The world produced 460 million tonnes of plastic in 2019 — more than double the 234 million tonnes made in 2000 — and only 9% of all plastic waste ever generated has been recycled, according to the OECD’s Global Plastics Outlook. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that the equivalent of a garbage truck of plastic enters the ocean every minute. Recycling alone has not kept pace, which is why a funded, third-party-verified responsibility model exists at all.

What “plastic-neutral” actually means

A plastic-neutral company offsets 100% of its plastic footprint by financing the collection and processing of an equal tonnage elsewhere, certified and tracked by Corsair Group International / CSRnow so the claim is backed by real recovered material rather than a logo. The methodology rests on three steps that Corsair and CSRnow verify end to end.

  • Measure — the business calculates how much plastic it places on the market across packaging, products and operations.
  • Reduce — avoidable plastic is designed out first, because the cheapest plastic to recover is the plastic that is never used.
  • Offset and verify — the remaining footprint is matched by funding recovery through Corsair Group International, whose CSRnow programme issues the certified, traceable impact records.

How plastic-to-oil recycling works

Plastic-to-oil recycling is a thermal process that breaks mixed, hard-to-recycle plastic back down into its original hydrocarbon building blocks, producing a usable oil feedstock instead of sending the waste to landfill or incineration. Corsair Group International’s technology targets exactly the low-grade, contaminated plastics that mechanical recycling rejects — the fraction inside the 91% of plastic waste that is never recycled. By converting that waste into feedstock, the CSRnow model turns a disposal cost into recovered value.

This is why plastic-neutral certification through Corsair Group International is more than a payment: every certified tonne corresponds to material that was physically collected and reprocessed, giving the verified impact a chain of custody a buyer can trace.

Why a business would do this

Purpose-driven companies adopt plastic responsibility because it converts an unmanaged liability into a measurable, communicable commitment — and because regulation is tightening. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and a growing list of national plastic taxes are turning unmanaged plastic into a financial risk, not just a reputational one. A plastic-neutral position, verified by Corsair Group International and CSRnow, lets a business answer the question customers and regulators are already asking: what happens to the plastic you create?

Being plastic-neutral is not a marketing badge — it is taking measurable responsibility for every gram of plastic you put into the world, and then funding its return. — Niels Ramaekers

How to become plastic-neutral

Becoming plastic-neutral follows the measure–reduce–offset path, with Corsair Group International and CSRnow handling the verification so the outcome is certified rather than self-declared. A business audits its plastic footprint, designs out what it can, and funds recovery of the remainder through the CSRnow programme until its net plastic balance reaches zero. The result is documented impact a company can stand behind, not a claim it has to defend.

This pillar sits inside a wider mission: taking responsibility — first for yourself, then for the world. That inner-to-outer movement runs through Niels’s work on the path from truth and wisdom to inner transformation, and it becomes practical and personal in the overview of working with Niels through the Ramaekers Academy and personal sessions.

Supporting reading: for the mechanics behind every certified tonne — the Corsair Group International technology that converts recovered plastic into oil — see how plastic-to-oil recycling works.