Overview

The Plastic Waste Partnership (PWP) was established by the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (May 2019) to mobilise business, government, academic and civil society resources, interests and expertise to improve and promote the environmentally sound management (ESM) of plastic waste at the global, regional and national levels and to prevent and minimize its generation.

Mandate

At its fourteenth meeting, in its decision BC-14/13, the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, among others:

  • welcomed the proposal to establish the Basel Convention Partnership on Plastic Waste and decided to establish the Partnership and its working group;
  • adopted the terms of reference for the Partnership; and
  • requested the working group to implement its workplan for the biennium 2020−2021.

Goal

The goal of the PWP is to improve and promote the ESM of plastic waste at the global, regional and national levels and to prevent and minimize its generation so as to, among other things, reduce significantly and in the long-term eliminate the discharge of plastic waste and microplastics into the environment, in particular the marine environment.

PWP working group and project groups

The work of the Partnership is overseen by a working group which established four project groups as follows:

  1. Plastic waste prevention and minimization
  2. Plastic waste collection, recycling and other recovery including financing and related markets
  3. Transboundary movements of plastic waste
  4. Outreach, education and awareness-raising

Further information on the work of the project groups is available here.

Pilot projects

Pilot projects are to be implemented under the Basel Convention PWP to improve and promote the environmentally sound management (ESM) of plastic waste and to prevent and minimize its generation. To date, 38 pilot projects have been selected for implementation in 46 countries.

Further information on the pilot projects is available here.

Membership

Membership of the working group is open to Parties to the Basel Convention and others dealing with the different aspects of prevention, minimization and management of plastic waste as well as the Basel and Stockholm Conventions Regional and Coordinating Centres and the Regional Seas Programmes, which have specific expertise and experience required for the activities of the Partnership, and which satisfy certain criteria, as specified in the terms of reference. Further information on membership is available here.

Contact

Please contact Susan Wingfield (susan.wingfield@un.org) or Melisa Lim (melisa.lim@un.org) for further information on the Partnership.

Past Highlights

Basel Convention Plastic Waste Partnership Launch and Inauguration

Listen to the UN podcast that features the Basel Convention plastic waste partnership.

Download the digital calendar, featuring the finalist entries of the PWP photography competition!