Circular Economy and Plastics: A Gap Analysis in ASEAN Member States

The Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ENVforum) Annual Conference 2019 “The Role of Consumers in Triggering Change in Consumption & Production” was held from 29 to 30 July 2019 at the Pacifico Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan. The conference brought together various stakeholders from civil society organisations, governments, and businesses to discuss the potential of consumers in achieving SDG 12: Ensuring Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns.

One of the main issues discussed during the conference was related to the prevalence of single-use plastic. One report stated that with the current trend of consumption and waste management practices, there will be an estimated 12 billion tons of plastic litter in landfills and natural environment.  Plastics in environment have dire consequences on biodiversity, health, social and economic, with many cross-cutting factors.

Based on E-READI project of EU and GIZ, IGES made a presentation of brief overview of initial findings from the project on analyzing policies to tackiling plastic pollutions in ASEAN member states.