Germany's federal ministry for development (BMZ) and more than 30 other industry and academia members launched the international plastics waste alliance "Prevent" on 9 May 2019. The alliance is to act as a platform for exchange and international collaboration aimed at developing a functioning circular economy. Prevent members want to improve prevention, collection, recycling and the use of secondary raw materials in developing and emerging economies, with the focus on plastics waste from packaging and single-use products as well as waste E&E equipment (WEEE).

Germany's development minister Gerd Müller notes that, like climate change, waste is increasingly becoming a global survival issue. "Waste is not garbage, but a valuable raw material." According to the ministry, global waste will grow 70% to 3.4 bn t by 2050 – and ocean plastics litter will increase tenfold. BMZ is building up a recycling system for Africa's largest e-waste dump in Ghana, for example, where up to 10,000 people will be trained and thus get a job. In Indonesia, the ministry is investing in the construction of waste disposal sites and sorting facilities.

In addition to the ministry for development, the founding members of Prevent include the federal ministry for the environment (BMU), the German association for recycling, water and raw material economy (BDE), WWF Deutschland, the Wuppertal Institut and the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV) as well as departments and institutes at German universities in Dresden, Kassel and Rostock, Germany's Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) and the United Nations University. From industry, Nestlé, Werner & Mertz and Alpla, and social enterprises such as the Grameen Creative Lab and the Plastic Bank are members. German waste and recycling companies include GreenCycle, DSD, Umicore, Remondis, Wastecon and Blackforest Solutions. The German plastics converters industry association (GKV, Berlin; www.gkv.de) and German RETech partnership are also part of the alliance.