Test-bedding solutions for change

Every year, Ghana generates 840,000 tonnes of plastic waste, fuelling the rise of an informal yet vital waste picking sector. Despite their critical role, informal waste pickers often operate under dangerous conditions and lack job security. In this article, we explore how ASASE is changing this narrative, giving waste pickers, including those from vulnerable groups (mostly women), a safer, more dignified and financially sustainable means of employment.

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Digital watermarks for plastic packaging have been successfully tested at industrial scale. This enables waste management services to collect more information on each piece of plastic packaging waste as they are processed, enabling them to sort packaging waste items more efficiently and potentially increase the supply of feedstock.

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Nextek’s solution, COtooCLEAN. uses super-critical CO₂ as a solvent to remove contaminants meaning recycled plastic films can be used in food packaging. The process has a 60% lower carbon footprint than virgin plastic production and current disposal practices.

In today’s increasingly AI-enabled world, companies are developing cutting-edge solutions to address environmental issues. Rematics is leveraging AI-powered computer vision technology to drive more precise separation of household waste. Here’s how.

The JingSu project helps reduce the flow of plastic waste into the Yangtze River by collecting, sorting, and recycling the growing volume of single-use food and beverage containers, increasing the scope of what is considered recyclable.

The Let’s Transform initiative tackles both environmental and social concerns in India by helping to build ethical supply chains and improving the lives and livelihoods of waste entrepreneurs and informal waste workers, while also diverting low value plastics from landfills and water bodies.

At the Center for Regenerative Design and Collaboration (CRDC Global), plastic waste is regenerated into a high-value construction material, RESIN8.

The Alliance is collaborating with universities and research institutes in India, Singapore and Thailand on the research and development of incorporating difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into asphalt roads. The in-field monitoring has concluded in Singapore and Thailand, while the trials for India will be under way in 2024.

From malls and supermarkets to hospitals and condominiums, waste cooperative Coopama has confidently grown its reach and plastic recovery rate in Rio de Janeiro through an Alliance-funded pilot to increase its capacity. More capital has since flowed into the initiative, sustaining its impact.

Over 90% of plastic waste in Vietnam are collected by informal waste pickers. Despite their crucial role, they often operate without any significant support. Read about the project aimed at improving their income and working conditions.

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In a country where waste management is hindered by limited and unequally distributed resources, the South African Healthcare Foundation brings the public and private sectors together in a coordinated effort to divert plastic waste. The four-year programme will fund upgrades of sorting, education for the community, and the establishment of an innovation hub.

Scaling community-based plastic waste collection, the project aims to enhance capabilities in the region to produce high-quality recyclates and unlock value from hard-to-recycle plastic waste.

SEArcular Ocean Bound Plastic incentivised locally-run waste collection centres and waste pickers to collect flexible plastic packaging waste in Gresik, Indonesia, keeping them out of water bodies and bringing them into circularity.

The Alliance-backed Prayaash initiative pilots solutions that tap and grow Nepal’s informal waste collection network, while creating the necessary infrastructure to divert waste away from landfills and towards recycling.

The Aviral pilot programme is tackling plastic waste in India’s holiest – and most polluted – river at source, creating alternative pathways for used plastics in the cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh, and offering a waste management model that can be scaled across north India.

In Marilao, the Collect, Certify, Circulate programme has effectively diverted plastic waste away from landfills and water bodies, and towards co-processing or recycling, including by roping in women micro-entrepreneurs as waste warriors.

Our partnership with Greenback in Cuautla, Mexico, helps close the loop for film and flexible plastics by leveraging an innovative process that transforms them into pyrolytic oil, which can be used in the production of food-grade plastic packaging.

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A student committee from Universitas Hasanuddin is deploying locally-designed trash traps along South Sulawesi’s key rivers to reduce plastic leakage into the sea, redirecting it towards recycling, while also rallying surrounding communities on the responsible use and disposal of plastic waste.

Recicleiros, in partnership with the Alliance, has started up 14 sorting centres as cooperatives in small to medium-sized cities in Brazil, bringing recycling to these communities for the first time. The project is creating new jobs and connecting various players along the value chain, laying the pathway for an inclusive, high-impact, and economically viable system.

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In five neighbourhoods in the Argentinian city of Olavarría, bags of unsorted waste have become a much less common sight. Instead, almost half the residents and businesses separate their waste before putting it out on designated collection days. With the success of its pilot, Delterra is now rolling out its GIRO Argentina model to 120,000 residents. Olavarría is now on its way to becoming a city with one of the highest recycling rates in Latin America.

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Instead of serving drinks and snacks, special machines in Chinese cities are taking in plastic waste and dispensing circularity. Building on LOVERE’s model to place smart bins across several districts in the dynamic city of Shanghai, the goal is to more than double recycling rates in Chengdu and Xi’an from 15% to 35%.

The Circulate Initiative and SecondMuse have concluded a three-year project aimed at supporting innovations that could advance plastic waste management in Asia. The project supported more than 350 startups, targeting early-stage and pre-investment solutions. With US$2.3 million in funding, some 42,000 tons of plastic waste was diverted from the environment.

Japan ranks among the largest producers of plastic waste in the world, and the nation’s culture of innovation is helping it solve this problem. Through our incubation programme with Plug and Play, the End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform, two of 11 winning initiatives have become part of the Alliance’s portfolio of solutions: Megloo Re-use and POOL Recycling System.

In central Bangkok’s Klongtoei district, the Recycle Market app is connecting players in the district’s recycling ecosystem. From residents through to recyclers, plastic waste is purchased and delivered on demand. Some 2,000 residents are participating in the Eco Digiclean Klongtoei pilot, where the app issues credits for deposited waste, and can be redeemed for cash.

In India, a new generation of eco-warriors is taking the future into its hands – starting with responsible plastic waste management. SOCEO’s educational programme has engaged over 45,000 students on the role they play in addressing plastic waste pollution in the region.

In South Africa, informal waste pickers or “reclaimers” remain largely invisible, despite being critical contributors to waste management. Johannesburg-based African Reclaimers Organisation has been working to change this through uniting 6,000 reclaimers under a single umbrella.

The ParikraM initiative plugs the gap between collection and recycling with the right processing and sorting infrastructure, and technology solutions that optimise operations and enable materials traceability across the value chain.

Following a successful six-month collaboration in 2022, Taka Taka and the Alliance are now embarking on a more ambitious undertaking: to put into place a sustainable recycling solution for flexible plastics. In salvaging flexible plastic waste and returning it to the production cycle, the material can be diverted away from the Dandora landfill – one of Africa’s largest dumpsites.

Through a new generation of student eco-influencers, the Ocean Stewards Educational Programme aims to reshape community attitudes and actions around plastic waste reduction, collection, and recycling.

Piloting an operating model to incentivise collection and create value from hard-to-recycle plastic waste for local shops and households, where hard-to-recycle plastic waste is collected and exchanged for groceries.

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One of the most ambitious waste management projects is underway in Indonesia. The aspiration is to bring together the municipal and national governments, expertise and funds from the private sector, and the participation of local communities in a coordinated push to transform the waste management landscape.

CRDC aims to end plastic waste through regenerative design. With our support, CRDC turns hard-to-recycle plastic into a concrete additive called RESIN8, to reclaim the value of plastic waste.

Ideas come from anywhere in the world. That’s why we partnered with Plug and Play Tech Center in 2019 to develop the End Plastic Waste Innovation Platform—to foster startups from across the plastic value chain, and transform plastic waste management around the world. In February 2020, we kickstarted the first Selection Day with 10 finalists in our inaugural Silicon Valley hub.

Abidjan, Ivory Coast, is home to 4.5 million people that generate around 1.25 million tons of waste a year. Our project, Circulaire Abidjan or Circular Abidjan, aims to make collecting that waste accessible, while creating value for the community.

Basisa Bazaruto, which means Clean Bazaruto, is our project in partnership with African Parks. Nestled on Mozambique’s southern coastline, the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park is home to over 2,000 marine species, including the last viable population of dugongs in the Western Indian Ocean.

The Jembrana regency—where hilly jungles full of life meet beautiful beaches on Bali’s northwest coast—is often touted as a hidden gem. The Ijo Gading River that runs through the regency is the island’s largest ocean plastic contributor, accounting for 12% of Bali’s plastic waste leakage. On its banks are the Jembrana and Negara subdistricts, home of our first Indonesian programme.

Planks of Promise aims to help scale the collection and recycling of plastic waste from around Manila—including hard-to-recycle plastics like sachets and films—supporting our partner, The Plastic Flamingo. Our first project in the Philippines, Planks of Promise works to turn plastic waste from the Metro Manila area into recyclable plastic planks that will then be made into emergency shelters for Filipinos displaced by the natural disasters in the region.