The global environmental crisis caused by plastic waste has captured the attention of policy makers, decision makers, the public and businesses in the region. The situation calls for an immediate need to move away from today’s linear take-make-waste model and explore potential solutions to move towards circular economy measures to address the issue in its entirety.

ICLEI South Asia has been supporting local governments across the region to translate the objective of circularity into actions, manifested through diverse practices on the ground. However, it is realised that though the concept of circular economy is gaining traction at the local level, many local governments are struggling to find concrete entry points to this holistic concept.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) and ICLEI South Asia have entered into a partnership to bring to the fore several opportunities to address these gaps and needs of urban local governments. The mandates of both organisations are similar, and converge towards identifying and enabling deployment of solutions that can help local governments to scientifically and sustainably manage the ever-growing plastic waste.

Under the project, ICLEI South Asia along with other ICLEI offices in Asia will provide technical support for the development of a plastic waste management strategy and the preparation of Project Information Notes (PIN) for pilot projects in two Indian cities and three Southeast and East Asian cities. Building on the inherent synergies of the partnership between AEPW and ICLEI South Asia, the project, through a multi-pronged approach, will engage with cities to conduct detailed waste characterisation to generate primary data, assess gaps and opportunities in the existing waste management system, identify potential techno-economic and socially acceptable solutions, support cities in deploying these solutions and share knowledge and best practices across cities and platforms.

The idea is to provide the necessary basis for cities to successfully implement and scale up their waste management infrastructure based on reliable data and scoping, utilising well-proven technologies and practices. The project will also contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SDG 11 & 12), while contributing towards SDG 14, Life on Water, specifically on preventing and reducing marine pollution of all kinds. The project will be implemented over a period of 20 months (November 2020 to July 2022).