Evidence-Based Policy for Environmentally Sound Management of Plastics in Asia-Pacific Region

This technical session titled “Evidence-Based Policy for Environmentally Sound Management of Plastics in Asian-Pacific Region” will focus on capacity building for plastic litter monitoring, aiming to promote evidence-based policy measure development, implementation, and enforcement of environmentally sound management of plastics in the Asia-Pacific region.

With the Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments (BC-PWA) unanimously adopted by Parties to the Basel Convention in 2019, the Basel Convention is at the forefront in promoting the prevention, environmentally sound management, and control of transboundary movements of plastic waste, thus protecting human health and the environment, including our oceans. In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with the use of single-use plastics on the rise and with waste operators working at limited capacity across the world, tackling the plastic waste crisis is more important than ever in making progress across the 2030 Agenda, including, but not limited to Sustainable Development Goals 3, 6, 12 and 14.

Further, the implementation of the BC-PWA requires various measures including capacity building for monitoring plastic litter (both microplastics and macroplastics), managing plastic inventories, identifying environmentally sound end-of-life management options, fostering regional collaboration, public awareness, education, information exchange, and so forth. The session will focus especially on the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and discuss the circumstances with examples on how the environmentally sound management of plastic litter can be achieved through not only technical and financial support but also through capacity building in institutional and policy measure aspects. The discussion will then extend to the importance of having monitoring, reporting, and verification systems at local, national, regional, and global levels with effective coordination.