“I separate things like plastic which I burn at home, so they would not pile up.” That was Ni Luh Sukarti, a resident of Lelateng village in Jembrana Regency, in Southwest Bali speaking in 2020.
Back then, rubbish collection and waste management in her village were so unreliable that she and thousands of others like her had no choice but to deal with their household waste as best they could — even at a cost to their own health and the local environment.
Project STOP Jembrana, which was launched five years ago, aimed to give residents like Ni Luh a route to dealing with their household waste safely. It created the infrastructure to process 18,000 tonnes of waste a year — preventing 2,200 tonnes of plastic from leaking into the environment and creating around 100 jobs in the process.
Collecting waste reliably and efficiently is the first step. That stops rubbish from polluting our land, waterways and oceans. But to tackle the global plastic waste problem sustainably, we need a circular economy for plastics. That means keeping products in use for as long as possible and sorting waste so that valuable materials are not lost and can be recycled.
We need to move from a take-make-dispose mindset and evolve into a circular economy model that encourages and enables Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.
Between them, the “three Rs” cut demand for new raw materials; bring down greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately mitigate plastic pollution. We must pursue all three.
Some critics single out the relatively low rates of plastic recycling currently, compared to materials like paper for example, and argue we should not bother. But giving up on efforts to improve plastic recycling would be wrong. It is one of a range of solutions that require further investment and innovation.
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There is no silver bullet solution to the plastic waste challenge but by extending the economic value of plastics — a material used in almost every aspect of daily life, including sensitive food safety and healthcare applications — recycling is a vital pillar of circularity.
Despite the challenges, recycling rates for plastic need not remain so low. Improving them will require a collaborative, coordinated, and sustained effort from governments, businesses, as well as civil society organisations and communities. The next steps will differ from one country to the next depending on their existing capacity for waste management and recycling.
To support these efforts, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste is gathering the technological, economic, and social lessons of pioneers like Project STOP Jembrana and bringing them together so others can learn. In partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), we have developed a series of Solution Model playbooks that we hope will act as blueprints for systems change for the sustainable management of plastic waste.
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Every solution is tested through the Alliance’s portfolio of projects worldwide. As these projects and solutions progress, the Alliance, in collaboration with BCG, combines the Alliance’s findings with BCG’s industry and topic expertise into a set of practical and flexible guidance.
The Engaging Households in Segregated Municipal Waste Collection playbook, for instance, addresses the process of identifying and separating various types of solid waste within households. Splitting waste streams here is critical to reduce sorting costs and enable high-quality recycling.
In addition to the experience of Project STOP Jembrana in Bali, this playbook also draws insights from projects in Argentina and China.
The Engaging Households in Segregated Municipal Waste Collection playbook, for instance, addresses the process of identifying and separating various types of solid waste within households. Splitting waste streams here is critical to reduce sorting costs and enable high-quality recycling.
In addition to the experience of Project STOP Jembrana in Bali, this playbook also draws insights from projects in Argentina and China. A second playbook on Unlocking Value Through Basic Manual Sorting of Municipal Waste highlights the improved value recovery of plastic waste for recycling, including the use of simple and low-cost equipment to improve the ergonomics and speed of basic manual sorting.
This solution model is particularly relevant to countries with limited or nascent collection, treatment, and recycling infrastructure, based on learnings from projects in Brazil, China, Indonesia, and Kenya. Other playbooks will follow later this year.
Lessons from the Alliance’s projects form the basis of blueprints that demonstrate how national and municipal governments can successfully prevent plastic waste leakage on top of extracting value from recyclates. What we learn from them is being incorporated into future playbooks to address other parts of the waste management and recycling equation. It is about magnifying existing solutions, scaling their impact, and sharing knowledge from on-the-ground experience to help other players in the waste management and recycling value chain identify critical success factors specific to their local circumstances.
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No one organisation or solution can solve the complex challenge of plastic waste alone. However, a circular economy for plastics must have recycling as a cornerstone. That means improving waste management, supporting behaviour change, and encouraging innovation in recycling technologies, which will lead to a higher volume and higher quality of recycled material that stays in circulation. This systems change is only possible through greater collaboration between government and industry.
Because of Project STOP Jembrana, Ni Luh Sukarti has a working waste collection and management system that generates revenue from recycling. It is time to bring solutions like this to many others around the world who deserve the same.
Marc Schmidt is managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG); Nicholas Kolesch, vice-president of projects at Alliance to End Plastic Waste. They would like to thank Arun Rajamani, managing director and partner at BCG and Lionel Loh, former project leader at BCG, for contributing their insights to this article
