
About the Project
Addressing the escalating plastic crisis in five countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia
In May 2024, a coalition of environmental organizations, including HEJSupport (International), AWHHE (Armenia), RUZGAR (Azerbaijan), Ecovision (Georgia), CSD (Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan), and CSA (Ukraine), launched a joint project that exemplifies our collective commitment to tackling the plastic crisis across five countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia (EECCA).
The Plastic Waste Partnership under the Basel Convention supported the project to mobilize civil society, governments, and other stakeholders in the targeted countries to minimize plastic waste generation, promote environmentally sound plastic management, and contribute to sustainable plastic-free alternatives.
The project’s overarching goal is to significantly and lastingly impact plastic pollution in the targeted countries. By reducing and preventing plastic waste, particularly single-use plastic, we aim to inspire hope and optimism for a cleaner, healthier future. The project’s objectives are to raise awareness and empower key stakeholders and the public to develop, assess, and implement feasible solutions to address the plastic crisis and contribute to a toxic-free circular economy.
The project focuses on five countries in EECCA: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. All targeted countries have a low level of post-consumer plastic waste recycling. This is primarily due to the disorganized separate waste collection system, low awareness of the dangers of plastic waste, and lack of necessary recycling facilities. Some target countries have adopted regulations to control the production and use of single-use plastics, including shopping bags, food containers, and disposable plastic cutlery. However, these initiatives are in the early stages of development and are poorly enforced.
Awareness of toxic plastic additives is limited in the target countries. Consequently, the current recycling facilities do not differentiate between non-toxic and contaminated plastic waste. For instance, recent data reveal the presence of toxic brominated flame retardants, the UV stabilizer UV-326, and bisphenol A in pellets made from recycled high-density polyethylene intended for use in new products, sourced from 24 recycling facilities across 23 countries, including those in the EECCA region (link).
Since 2018, representatives of EECCA NGOs focused on sound chemicals and waste management have adopted annual statements to tackle plastic issues in the region. They urge their governments to ensure the implementation of extended producer responsibility to enhance the environmental performance of plastic products throughout their lifecycle, support initiatives to ban single-use plastics, continuously expand the list of banned single-use plastics, and guarantee regular monitoring of toxic plastic additives in recycled plastic pellets.
Key activities of the project include:
1. Data Collection and Information Sharing
1.1. Develop national inventories of the primary sources of plastic pollution, including plastic waste generation, import and export with a view to informing governments, the private sector and civil society on ways to prevent and reduce plastic waste;
1.2. Develop a report based on the assessment of the availability of sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics in the target countries to encourage their use;
1.3. Prepare information document on the content of toxic additives in plastics to serve a clean non-toxic circular economy, based on publicly available data and information;
1.4. Based on interviews with manufacturers, prepare analysis of prospects for reducing plastic pollution in the target countries.
2. Development and dissemination of information material among stakeholders in the target countries
2.1. Based on collected data and information in activity 1, prepare information materials on plastic packaging, single-use plastic products, toxic additives, safer alternatives for further dissemination
2.2. Develop an online course (e.g. plastic packaging, single-use plastic products, toxic additives, safer alternatives) with the goal to promote the prevention and reduction of plastic waste as a step towards a toxic-free circular economy.
2.3. Develop a project clearinghouse website for information sharing
2.4. Disseminate the information materials via clearing house, social media, stakeholders, project partners channels, media.
3. Conduct a capacity-building and awareness-raising campaign in the region on reuse, recycling, recyclability and/or disposal options for plastic waste in the target countries of the region
3.1. Conduct national webinars for different stakeholder groups
3.2. Webinar for media representatives, press conferences and media outreach, including social media
3.3. Preparing a joint statement in the form of recommendations (NGO demands) for policy makers, consumers, and industry on key areas of reducing plastic pollution to contribute to the development of ambitious plastic waste regulation and plastic waste minimization in the region