The Asia-Pacific region faces growing challenges in managing plastic waste due to rapid urbanization, rising consumption, and inadequate waste management infrastructure and regulations. The accumulation of plastic waste has led to severe environmental and health impacts, contaminating land, water, and air. Informal waste collectors play a critical role in recycling and collection, but their efforts are hindered by poor coordination, insufficient investment, and weak governance, limiting the effectiveness of circular economy initiatives and exacerbating social and environmental impacts.
The TCCF Plastics Circularity Project, funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation, addresses these challenges in nine countries, including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The project seeks to establish a sustainable and gender-responsive circular economy for plastics, reducing plastic leakage into the environment while enhancing the livelihoods of waste workers, particularly women and vulnerable groups. Strengthening waste management frameworks, infrastructure, and integrating the informal sector are central to achieving these goals.
The project focuses on stakeholder engagement, creating multi-stakeholder platforms that include the private sector, civil society, and local communities. Gender-sensitive initiatives support women-led cooperatives and indigenous communities, ensuring inclusive participation in the plastics value chain. Best Environmental Practices (BEP) and Best Available Technologies (BAT) are deployed to improve collection, recycling, reuse, and disposal of plastics, alongside capacity building for waste collectors to enhance safety and technical skills. The project also supports national policy and regulatory development, including Extended Producer Responsibility systems, and promotes the formal integration of informal waste collectors into recycling processes.
In Vietnam, the project supports national interventions through the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP), which promotes knowledge sharing and collaboration. Key initiatives include implementing waste-back-to-shore schemes in fishing ports, pilot frameworks for responsible sourcing, and supporting waste sorting at the source with public awareness campaigns. Two national communication campaigns have been launched to promote plastic recycling and responsible waste management practices.
The Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) underpins project activities by identifying environmental and social risks, developing mitigation measures, and providing training, stakeholder engagement, and grievance redress mechanisms. Fieldwork and consultations with stakeholders, including port authorities, waste collectors, and informal workers, have informed project planning and risk management. Waste-back-to-shore schemes encourage fishermen to return plastic and marine waste to port facilities, extending a proven model from other Vietnamese coastal provinces to Ninh Co, Phan Thiet, and Hon Ro, thereby preventing marine pollution and supporting sustainable local waste management practices.
These interventions collectively aim to reduce plastic pollution, strengthen circular economy systems, and improve social and environmental outcomes in South, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.
