Safeguarding the Plastic Recycling Value Chain: Insights from COVID-19 impact in South and Southeast Asia

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe setbacks to the ongoing global movement to tackle plastic waste and to move towards a circular economy. Circular economy initiatives and commitments by the plastics industry and national-level marine plastic prevention programs, especially those in South and Southeast Asia, rely on recycling value chains to collect, clean and process the plastics for recycling. The abrupt stoppage of the value chain has led to more plastics entering landfills and likely more plastics entering the open environment and waterways, as there have been less formal and informal collectors engaged in waste management and plastic collection.