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Kick-off: Introducing more than 20 pilot projects for a Circular Economy for Plastics

Country: Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, China
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key Area: Ports & Fisheries, Consumption & Production, Waste Management
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How to stop plastics from finding their way into the ocean? ’Rethinking Plastics’ works on solutions together with seven countries and a lot of experienced partners in East and South East Asia.

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Part of these efforts are pilot projects, which test new approaches and upscale best practices to prevent marine plastic waste and are implemented by non-profit organisations. Beginning of March, ‘Rethinking Plastics’ announced the 23 selected pilot projects in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam which are supported with a total budget of around 2.7 million Euro. They cover approaches for the management of plastic waste, sustainable consumption and production of plastic as well as the reduction of litter from sea-based sources, such as ships and fishing vessels.

Explore all Pilot Projects.

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Ship and Port Waste Management: Addressing Sea-based Marine Litter from Commercial Vessel and Ports

Country: Indonesia
key Area: Ports & Fisheries
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As a response to the growing numbers of plastic waste in the world and specifically in Indonesia, the President of Indonesia issued a Presidential Regulation to Address Marine Debris No 83/2018, which aims to reduce 70% of marine plastic debris by 2025 with concerted efforts of all Ministries. The Regulation outlines priority actions to tackle marine plastic debris sourced from land and sea-based activities. With regards to sea-based activities, sea-transportation together with the fisheries sectors are the priority sectors to combat the potential leakage of plastic litter. A functioning ship waste management in ports is very relevant in this regard. 

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To initiate discussions on the current situation and direction for the ship and port waste management in Indonesian ports, ‘Rethinking Plastics’ and the Coordinating Ministry for the Maritime and Investment Affairs together with the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) co-organised an online exchange on 'Ship and Port Waste Management: Addressing Sea-based Source Marine Litter from Commercial Vessel and Ports' on 27 January 2021. Besides assessing the current situation, the session also served to share and showcase lessons learnt and experiences from the European Union in addressing ship and port waste management as well as to identify potential policy and technical areas for further development and improvement in addressing ship and port waste management in Indonesia.

It gathered close to 200 participants in total and was officiated by the Director General for Environmental Management and Forestry, CMMIA and presented two keynote speakers of the Director General Sea-Transportation, Ministry of Transportation and the EU Delegation to Indonesia. In addition, international speakers from the EU in Brussels, the International Maritime Office, the Key Expert on sea-based sources of ‘Rethinking Plastics’ and national speakers from the technical directorates under the DG Sea-Transportation, Indonesia Port Corporation (IPC), Indonesia Ship Owner Association (INSA), and the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) joined the exchange.

The speakers outlined that

Highlight Quote 1: for vessels, it is essential that they are able to deliver their operational waste and cargo residues to port reception facilities. Such facilities or waste management systems need to be constantly upgraded to serve the growing number of international and domestic ships that bring cargo to Indonesian ports.
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Whenever such port waste reception facilities are absent, ships have no alternative but to dump waste illegally into the sea, which can include oily waste, garbage, sewage and specific hazardous waste. This has a huge impact on the marine environment, fishing and tourism industry and undermines steps taken towards sustainable port development. At present, in most Asian ports, waste management is ad hoc with an informal trade system that collects waste which can be recycled.

International conventions, such as MARPOL, regional agreements and national legislation in principle regulate waste management in ports to avoid illegal dumping. In Europe, the EU Directive 2000/59 EC on Port Reception Facilities came into force in 2002, being replaced in 2019 by the Directive 2020/883. Their effect has been significant: the volume of waste delivered to ports has been increasing while illegal dumping of waste was reduced significantly.

Major ports in Southeast Asia are striving towards implementing improved measures as demonstrated for example by ports in Europe. Indonesia’s largest port, the Tanjung Priok port of Jakarta, is also moving in that direction to plan and establish efficient ship waste management.

Based on the session's discussions and findings, recommendations as next steps for Indonesia were developed. They include the need to conduct a Technical and Gap Analysis for Port and Ship Waste Management, and the set-up of a multi-stakeholder forum to strengthen the coordination towards effective management of the ship/port waste.

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Ready for the Ocean Quiz?!

Country: China
key Area: Circular Economy, Awareness Raising
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In October and November, Chinese school children between 6 and 15 years were invited to test their knowledge on marine biodiversity and marine environmental protection in the ocean knowledge contest, organised under ‘Rethinking Plastics’.

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The question pool consisted of 500 questions, fitting to the different age groups. They covered the marine life and marine litter knowledge, including garbage classification as well as prevention and sustainable plastic consume. More than 25,000 students and teachers from 40 schools in 18 Chinese provinces, regions and municipalities took on the quest which aimed to educate about the challenges faced with marine litter and actions to avoid it. Their results not only showed high enthusiasm, but also a rich marine knowledge and awareness of marine environmental protection. 

If you want to test yourself, you can check out our Quiz section with a few questions here

Steps to reduce Single-Use Plastics in Food Delivery and Takeaway

Country: Indonesia, Thailand
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key Area: Consumption & Production
Related item: Less Plastic Waste in Indonesian Markets, Less Plastics in Phuket
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Plastic usage in food delivery, takeaway and online commerce has seen an additional rise due to COVID-19 related restaurant closures and distancing measures.

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Video 1 Description: The dialogue in Indonesia on 15 December took place online and can be accessed on YouTube.
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‘Rethinking Plastics’ fosters exchange on steps towards the reduction of single-use plastics and more sustainable alternatives and business models. In this framework, two dialogues on policies and practical examples took place in Indonesia and Thailand, involving key stakeholders such as the food delivery platforms. In Thailand on 3 December, 44 participants exchanged about concrete needs and necessary next steps to implement a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) and several stakeholders, which was signed in September 2020. The dialogue in Indonesia on 15 December took place online and can be accessed on YouTube.

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In picture: What do you do to reduce plastic pollution?

Country: China
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key Area: Consumption & Production, Awareness Raising
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The amount of plastic waste is a growing global challenge, especially when it ends up in the sea. How can we reduce plastic waste? What ideas are there to replace or recycle plastic products? Which alternatives do you use in your daily life?

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Jointly with the China Association of Circular Economy (CACE), ‘Rethinking Plastics’ invited Chinese photographers to answer these questions, share experiences and good ideas in pictures and join the Green Development and Circular Economy Photo Contest, organised by CACE, in a specific plastic reduction category. A jury of experts evaluated all submitted pictures and the best pictures were awarded and exhibited at the annual meeting of CACE in November.

The grand price was awarded to Ying Limin, showcasing the ‘Guardians of the Great Wall’ in China. Click through the gallery for selected winning pictures out of 807 pieced submitted in three categories.

Photographs shown:

  • Guardians of the Great Wall (Ying Limin)
  • Keep Our Beaches Clean, photo set (Zhong Yunming)
  • Plastics Recycling, photo set (Zhang Li)
  • Waste Segregation and Circular Economy Through Shadow Puppet Play (Zhou Zheng)
  • Little Environmental Fighters, photo set (Liu Xiumei)
  • River Course Cleaning and Waste Collection (Huang Shenglin)
  • Stop Eating Plastic (Li Chan)
  • 19-Waste Segregation in Villages (Lu Wen)
  • Everyone Is Reducing Plastic (Meng Jie)
  • Chinese Cleaners (Zhou Zheng)
  • Protect Our Marine Environments, photo set (Zhong Yunming)
  • Collect Every Plastic Waste They See (Zhang Wenqiang)