South-East Asia is at the heart of this marine plastic pollution challenge. Six of the top 20 estimated sources of plastic marine debris are from South-East Asian countries. If South-East Asia were thought of as one country, it would represent the single biggest source of mismanaged plastic waste globally.
Policies and measures to tackle plastic waste are crucial for all countries in the region. However, the pace of policy intervention has been very slow due to inadequate awareness of consumers and businesses, and insufficient understanding of the potential points-of-entry for policy intervention. In this respect, SEA circular, in close collaboration with Food Industry Asia (FIA), has carried out a research survey on Perception on Plastic Waste: Insights, interventions and Incentives to Action from Businesses and Consumers in Southeast-Asia.
This research aimed to increase understanding of business and consumer attitudes towards plastic waste. The research explored human factors and organizational cultures affect the actions, especially consumers, business entities, policy makers and informal sector. Finally, the findings provide fundamental for creation of business-to-business and consumer-to-business platforms to set the conducive business environments that can help to scale up utilization of market-based instruments in plastic value chain.
This regional dialogue will serve as a platform to disseminate the key knowledge and lessons gained from the research, and the implications to future policies and strategies that will benefit to sustainable practices of plastic waste management. The dialogue will also feature an engaging panel session amongst key stakeholders representing the industry and consumers to exchange views and insights on the role of businesses in advancing circularity, approaches to handhold SMEs in the journey and how the sector should prepare and support the impending international legal instrument on plastic pollution.
Date: Friday, 11th November 2022, from 09:00 to 11:00 hrs. (GMT+7, Thailand Time)
More information & Registration: Regional Dialogue Series by SEA circular Perceptions on plastic waste: A dialogue on the findings of a regional study and the role of businesses in accelerating circularity | AIT Extension