Asian Scientific Alliance for Plastic Pollution and Value Network Management

Plastic pollution poses a global environmental challenge, with Asian developing countries accounting for over 85% of terrestrial plastic inputs into the oceans. The drivers of this pollution, however, are global. Various sources contribute to waste generation and pollution, including households, industry, and agriculture. Waste management in developing countries often relies on millions of informal pickers, as well as thousands of small-scale informal plastic waste dealers, and recyclers. Recognizing this workforce is integral to identifying workable and inclusive solutions to plastic pollution. The ASAP project centers on two pillars: Pillar 1: Analysis of the conditions, drivers, and mechanisms leading to plastic waste mismanagement, littering, and releases to rivers and the sea in Asia's three largest countries: China, India, and Indonesia. Pillar 2: Creation of an international network of experts and local interest groups, gathering annually in a series of thematic conferences through the establishment of a thematic knowledge hub. Work in Pillar 1 has largely concluded through data collection on informal plastic recycling from two case studies in India (in the cities of Surat and Vapi) and one in China (a suburban district of Shanghai). This involved interviews with waste pickers and retailers, revealing dense networks of operators and providing data on their ability and efficiency in handling plastic waste, primarily sourced from households and small businesses. ASAP scientists, in partnership with UN-Habitat and with the official endorsement of the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, authored the report "Leaving No One Behind: How a global instrument to end plastic pollution can enable a just transition for the people informally collecting and recovering waste." This report will serve as the basis for recognizing the informal recycling sector in the UN negotiations for the global plastics treaty. ASAP's work also led to two international webinars, a policy brief, and a working paper published through the International Knowledge Hub Against Plastic Pollution (IKHAPP). Pillar 2 resulted in establishing IKHAPP as an internationally recognized authoritative source of scientific knowledge syntheses, linking science to policymakers and the broader society. Through its IT platform (ikhapp.org), IKHAPP serves as a knowledge hub operated by an independent research community, collecting, reviewing, organizing, and presenting the most relevant, original, and impactful scientific works, analyses, and discussions useful for prioritizing workable solutions to the plastic problem, with a special focus on Asian developing countries. Through this platform, researchers working in ASAP projects have published 29 knowledge syntheses, produced 9 webinars involving hundreds of international experts, and attracted thousands of scientists, experts, and policymakers. The platform has also published a report, a working paper, and a policy brief. Additionally, ASAP researchers have provided the international expert community with access to assessment tools, such as user-interface models of plastic pollution environmental transport, and a digital library with hundreds of selected scientific publications. In the first two years of activity, IKHAPP reached a global audience of over a hundred thousand visitors, averaging 1000 visits per day from nearly all countries in the world. Two regional IKHAPP virtual offices were created (in India and Indonesia) KHAPP was recently selected by the German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) as a knowledge platform to support international cooperation work nested in the ASEAN Regional Action Plan for Combating Marine Debris. Here ASAP researchers have provided local stakeholders with a series of knowledge products including syntheses of international policies on combatting plastic pollutions, and baseline reports on microplastics sources and pollution management options, IKHAPP has also attracted the attention of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which granted funds to establish a library of scientific, policy, and technical documents on the use and management of plastics in agriculture. As part of this agreement, the ASAP team will produce three FAO reports in support of the preparation of the International Voluntary Code of Conduct on plastic use in agriculture. Finally, IKHAPP contributed to the creation and serves as the secretariat for the Scientists Coalition for an Effective Plastic Treaty, an organization of 300+ independent scientists worldwide contributing to negotiations for the UN Legally Binding Instrument to combat plastic pollution, known as the Plastic Treaty. Within the last six months of the project, ASAP has proven to be a successful and impactful initiative. The team is actively striving to identify funding opportunities to maintain and further develop IKHAPP after the project's conclusion.

The ASAP project will target key sources and socioeconomic drivers of marine litter in Asia's three largest countries: China, India and Indonesia. The project will deliver quantitative assessments of plastic litter releases from source hotspots in the three countries, asses critical interlinkages between plastics waste and chemical pollution and improve the understanding of the socioeconomic determinants of plastic waste mismanagement. The project will also host a knowledge hub and a network secretariat for research and stakeholders in the region. Mismanagement of both domestic and imported waste from the developed world is one of the key drivers of plastic pollution. In these countries, plastic sorting, collection and recycling is mainly processed by millions of marginalized informal workers in poorly understood plastic waste value networks (PWVN). This workforce plays an extremely important role in the society and for the environment through capturing value from waste and reducing environmental releases. With lacking or inadequate formal management in place, broken or dysfunctional informal value chains are the main causes of pollution. Plastic litter also conveys hazardous chemicals both from additives and chemicals used in recycling. If released during litter ageing, they will pose a risk to marine biota and humans. The chemical pollution of plastic is a major impediment for a well-functioning and sustainable recycling sector, and a major hinderance towards circular economy avoiding polluted plastic in new products. The project will elucidate the functioning and sustainability of informal PWVNs, its interconnectedness to chemical pollution and quantitatively assess plastic releases to rivers and the sea. ASAP will both generate empirical data from original surveys and leverage on existing regional projects and initiatives. The project will provide science-based support to local Asian governments in their efforts to address plastic pollution.