This week, the BVRio team delivered a regional training programme on innovative financing options for addressing plastic pollution in the South Asia region. Ministries of the seven nations attended, all keen to know more about Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), plastic credits, and the new Plastic pollution linked bond of the World Bank.
Organised by South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) and Plastic Free Rivers and Seas for South Asia Project (PLEASE Project), the two day interactive training session was hosted by the Maldives, and attended by Government representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Funded by the World Bank and implemented by SACEP, the PLEASE Project works towards strengthening innovation and coordination of circular economy solutions to plastic pollution flowing into South Asian Seas.
The 2-day training programme was organised to equip government officials of the SACEP member countries with the necessary knowledge and skills to implement effective EPR systems, utilise Plastic Credits, the World Bank Plastic bond and explore other innovative financing mechanisms for plastic waste management.
“As there is no single best solution for addressing plastic pollution through financing, it is crucial for Governments to be able to weigh up and compare which financial instruments work best to their specific national and subnational or even municipal contexts. At the end of the second day each country presented their favoured approach to EPR, some incorporating credits, cap-and-trade, matching funds and bonds into their strategy. With this session, and follow up support, we will now also be able to assist them with practical design or implementation questions.” Lead trainer, and Kolekt Founder, Thierry Sanders.
The session adopted a blended learning approach, combining interactive lectures, group discussions, case studies from BVRio and Kolekt’s extensive experience, presentations by participants and hands-on exercises to address the critical need for capacity building and knowledge sharing across different national contexts to combat plastic pollution and support the transition to a circular economy.
Participants were trained to understand, compare and select the financial models that are most appropriate to their situation, which included; EPR systems (European, Indian, Kenyan, Mozambican, Philippines and more), Plastic Credits (CCM, Verra, PCX, OBP and others), Brands financing Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and Recyclers, Municipal charging schemes, Deposit-Return Schemes (DRS), and other forms of results-based financing for Waste management, such as futures contracts and repayable grants. Traceability tools and Kolekt’s National EPR software system were demonstrated to bring conceptual policies down to a hands-on level.
The team, made up of Thierry Sanders, BVRio Circular Economy specialist Dr Maria Accioly from Brazil and Kolekt Circular Economy Legal Advisor, Neelo Oppedal from Botswana covered the different mechanisms through practical experiences of successful and failed case studies, the theoretical pros and cons, different sources and uses of funds, the time to calculate the expected amount of financing that can be raised.
Mst Rukshana Rahman, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh, on behalf of the participants added, “We thank SACEP for organizing this regional training on such important topics of innovative financing for plastic pollution control, and giving opportunity for its member countries to attend the training, not only from the Ministry of Environment, but also other important line agencies like the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry /trade/commerce to understand the financing options and opportunities. We also thank the resourceful trainers for making the training content easy to understand for a diverse group of participants with varying levels of understanding of the subject matter.”
Speaking after the session, Mr. Norbu Wangchuk, Director General SACEP thanked the participants for their active participation and the interest to understand EPR and plastic credits and plastic bonds and congratulated the trainers for successfully imparting the knowledge to the participants, by bringing global experience and adapting regional context.
He added, “Such regional training is a way to showcase the South Asian solidarity to tackle environmental issues that crosses political borders, such as plastic pollution that is transboundary in nature. We, SACEP, as the intergovernmental organisation catering to the South Asia countries, are ready to facilitate and leverage One South Asian voice through regional learning and collaboration.”
