Standalone projects

This project aimed to contribute to preventing and reducing marine pollution by building capacities to manage plastic waste. It placed particular emphasis on improving understanding and implementation of the Basel Convention, and on strengthening the related institutional, regulatory and technical capacities for the prevention and minimisation of plastic waste, environmentally sound management (ESM) of plastic waste, and controlling the transboundary movement (TBM) of plastic waste.

This project was funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.

Key achievements of the project include:

Component 1: Controlling the TBM of plastic waste

• Draft report on the assessment of the national legal and institutional framework, identification of gaps and recommendations to improve the regulatory framework in Ghana and Sri Lanka;
• Trainings for competent authorities and enforcement authorities on the effective control of TBM of plastic waste. Trainings in Ghana were held online on 14 May 2020; with a follow-up in-person training on the 23 June 2023. Trainings in Sri Lanka took place online from 27 September - 1 October 2021; and in-person on 12 and 13 June 2023.

Component 2: Ensuring the ESM of plastic waste

• Development of the Plastic Waste Inventory Toolkit, and national plastic inventories for Ghana and Sri Lanka;
• Workshops on ESM and plastic waste inventory took place in Jakarta for Asia-Pacific from 19 to 21 June 2019 and in Barcelona for Africa and others from 3 to 5 April 2019, co-financed by Sweden. A third workshop to build capacity of Basel and Stockholm Parties to use the inventory toolkit and develop ESM strategy took place in Montevideo for Latin American and Caribbean countries, in conjunction with a regional workshop on national reporting under the Stockholm and Basel Conventions, from 18 to 21 April 2023;
• A draft gap analysis of waste management regulations and capacities for their implementation and enforcement in Ghana and Sri Lanka.

Component 3: Tackling source

• A compilation of best practices for prevention and ESM of plastic wastes.
• Implementation of local pilot projects:
  • Production and use of reusable bags (Ghana)
  • Use of compostable packaging (Ghana)
  • Beach clean-up and citizen science survey (Ghana)
  • Use of water vending machines (Ghana)
  • Prevention of releases of microplastics in recycling facilities (Ghana)
  • Plastic-free schools (Ghana and Sri Lanka)
  • Collection and recycling of plastic waste fishing nets (Sri Lanka)
  • Prevention and ESM of plastic waste in hotels (Sri Lanka)
  • Reducing releases of microplastics (Sri Lanka)
• Global Workshop on Plastic Waste

More information on the project can be found in this factsheet.