Skip to content

We are tackling the plastic waste problem.

Plastic waste is consuming our environment, landfills, oceans, and even our own bodies. We need to take action now with innovative solutions to close loops and bring our consumption patterns into circularity. To do this we need to fully understand the problem at hand.

Not all plastics are treated equally. It’s all about type, quality, and recovery. Currently, over 50% of plastic waste has no economic value leaving it to leech into our environment. While robust markets currently exist for some post-consumer plastics such as PET, other plastic materials that are more difficult to recycle and collect are deemed less valuable and are not captured by the current recycling practices. We need to come up with innovative ways to incentivize the collection and use of all plastic types.

In developing countries, the collection of plastic waste is dominated by the informal sector for trading to recycling facilities and focused mainly on plastic bottles (PET), containers (HDPE, PP), and hard plastics (ABS, PC). Lower value plastics (LDPE, PS) have to be very clean to be collected by waste pickers. Low demand for single-use or contaminated, plastic waste from recyclers continues to result in highly polluted land and water environments.

Women play an important role in every stage of the plastic waste value chain, especially in the crucial informal collection. However, instead of being recognized, they face stigma, poor social protection, unsafe working conditions, inadequate equipment, and low wages.

How do we tackle the immense environmental and social issues surrounding no-value plastic waste?

View our solutions & services below:

ReForm Plastic

Location: Vietnam; Myanmar

Stage of development: Start-up

This social enterprise is transforming low-value plastics into durable, competitive boards through simple processing and a fully inclusive model.

collection schemes cover-07

Collection Schemes

Location: Vietnam

Stage of development: Validation

We are piloting ways to drastically improved collection through integrated approaches & infrastructure together with schools, businesses, and municipalities.

Bear in Mind Logbooks

Location: Hong Kong

Stage of development: Start-up

This social enterprise is creating journals out of paper-free material.

Refill station

Location: Vietnam

Stage of development: Start-up

HealthyFarm, a social enterprise, works in agriculture but also distributes cleaning products, soaps, shampoos and basic food products with zero-waste packaging and full refill system.

refill-08

Our services in the waste sector

We provide sustainable waste management solutions

From simple audits to implementing full waste schemes, our team has built expertise in a vast range of services in this sector particularly in Vietnam with a growing portfolio of projects in ASEAN. As waste compositions in Southeast Asia tend to be vastly different from developed countries, we can offer practical, implementation waste solutions. Our past project clients include:

ADB-Logo.svg
iucn-facebook-share-logo-square
assist asia
undp logo
giz-logo
idh-1

Waste audits

Providing a clear overview of the volume and diversity of waste streams

Informal Sector Integration

Building feedstock streams with the informal sector for private sector supply chains

Collection Scheme Projects

Creating sustainable collection schemes to ensure reliable downstream supply chains and proper waste handling

Feasibility Studies & Research

Analyzing and research any given waste environment to build understanding in the market or for particular market entry projects