Singapore, 18 April 2024: The ERIA Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris (the Centre) hosted the Toward Plastic Circularity: Good Practices from Singapore webinar, providing a platform to share and exchange insights on private sector efforts to promote plastic circularity in Singapore.
The seminar was organised using a hybrid format whereby speakers gathered for an in-person discussion at the Royal Plaza on Scotts Singapore hotel with 156 attendees on Zoom, YouTube, or in person. The online participants came from 10 ASEAN countries along with eight additional countries in Asia Pacific, South Asia, Africa and South America.
Moderated by Ms Melissa Cardenas of Environweave, the seminar began with welcome remarks from Mr Reo Kawamura, Director of the Centre, who noted the importance of engaging the private sector.
'Given the roles it plays in plastic production and circulation, the private sector is inevitably one of the most significant stakeholders in finding comprehensive solutions to plastic waste challenges,' he said.
This view was echoed by Mr Santhosh Manivannan, Director of Policy Division at Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA), who said: 'The importance of the discourse on plastic circularity is not just for policymakers, but for the wider community, including our private sector and especially our private sector businesses.'
Panellists engaged in a discussion on plastic circularity and shared good practices from private sector actors in Singapore.
Mr Michikazu Kojima, ERIA Senior Research Fellow on Environmental Issues, opened the panel discussion by providing an overview of extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes in the ASEAN region, highlighting the deposit refund scheme which Singapore will implement starting July 2025. He also spoke on the rationale, preparations, and build-up toward the scheme.
As a comparison to practices in Singapore, Mr Roy Andy Panjaitan, Economic Cooperation and Private Sector Development Advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Indonesia briefly introduced the EPR policy in Indonesia and delved into GIZ’s programmes to support its implementation in two of its project sites, highlighting opportunities and challenges from GIZ's experiences.
Mr Jeryl Yep, co-founder and Innovation Lead at Semula Pte Ltd, summarised the start-up’s approach by saying 'problems are just opportunities that haven’t presented themselves'. Through utilising plastic waste as raw materials for furniture, Semula attempts to simultaneously tackle two environmental problems by reducing the amount of waste going to the landfills and reducing the pressure on the environment from resource extraction.
Mr Jerid Soo, Assistant General Manager of Pacific International Lines (PTE), recommended actionable levers toward circularity, starting from general mitigation steps every company can take, before delving into specific levers that logistics and transportation industry actors can contribute at the industry and sectoral levels.
Ms Yee Shien Su, Partnerships Manager at Zero Waste SG, discussed the lessons learned and best practices from the Bring Your Own (BYO) Singapore campaign, where consumers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags, bottles, or containers when shopping. One of the points highlighted was the importance of communicating not only to the consumers, but also to the cashiers and staff who are at the frontline of implementing the campaign.
After the panel discussion, all the panel speakers, along with Mr Kawamura; Mr Manivannan (NEA); and Ms Huileng Tan, Executive Director of Zero Waste SG, participated in a discussion session during which online participants on Zoom enthusiastically posted many questions for the speakers. During this opportunity, Ms Tan highlighted Zero Waste SG’s role in creating a better understanding of consumer perceptions and nuances to support the implementation of plastic reduction regulations.
In the spirit of continued knowledge and experience sharing, the seminar ended with an invitation to register on the Centre’s online private sector platform (PSP). Centre Management Associate Ms Elsa Noviani encouraged private sector actors to register on the platform for an opportunity to showcase their products, services, and technologies contributing to plastic waste reduction. This invitation was reiterated in Mr Kawamura’s closing remarks, which emphasised the importance of collaborations between the public and the private sector, including through the Centre’s PSP.
The Private Sector Initiatives to Reduce Marine Plastics Seminar Series is one of the Centre’s flagship programmes to promote the innovative practices of private sector actors in increasing plastic circularity and reducing plastic waste in ASEAN Member States (AMS). The seminar in Singapore marked the eighth edition and AMS visited by the Centre as part of this series, and was conducted in collaboration with the NEA and the GIZ Reduce, Reuse and Recycle to Protect the Marine Environment and Coral Reefs (3RproMar) partnership programme, and supported by the Singapore Environment Council.
3RproMar (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Protect the Marine Environment and Coral Reefs) is an ASEAN-German cooperation project implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in coordination with the ASEAN Secretariat. In 2023, 3RproMar launched its Regional Knowledge Hub for Marine Litter Prevention in ASEAN. This partnership unites ERIA’s Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris, AIT’s Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific, and NIVA’s International Knowledge Hub Against Plastic Pollution. The goal is to disseminate scientific insights and best practices to support informed decision-making in the region.
Read media coverage of the event at: Borneo Terkini, News24 Philippines, Warnaplus, Boracay Island News Network, Rapport Philippines, Words Vietnam, The Pop Blog, Dug Out Philippines, Pasbana, and Thailand Business News
Research Associate
Singapore, 18 April 2024: The ERIA Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris (the Centre) hosted the Toward Plastic Circularity: Good Practices from Singapore webinar, providing a platform to share and exchange insights on private sector efforts to promote plastic circularity in Singapore.
The seminar was organised using a hybrid format whereby speakers gathered for an in-person discussion at the Royal Plaza on Scotts Singapore hotel with 156 attendees on Zoom, YouTube, or in person. The online participants came from 10 ASEAN countries along with eight additional countries in Asia Pacific, South Asia, Africa and South America.
Moderated by Ms Melissa Cardenas of Environweave, the seminar began with welcome remarks from Mr Reo Kawamura, Director of the Centre, who noted the importance of engaging the private sector.
'Given the roles it plays in plastic production and circulation, the private sector is inevitably one of the most significant stakeholders in finding comprehensive solutions to plastic waste challenges,' he said.
This view was echoed by Mr Santhosh Manivannan, Director of Policy Division at Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA), who said: 'The importance of the discourse on plastic circularity is not just for policymakers, but for the wider community, including our private sector and especially our private sector businesses.'
Panellists engaged in a discussion on plastic circularity and shared good practices from private sector actors in Singapore.
Mr Michikazu Kojima, ERIA Senior Research Fellow on Environmental Issues, opened the panel discussion by providing an overview of extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes in the ASEAN region, highlighting the deposit refund scheme which Singapore will implement starting July 2025. He also spoke on the rationale, preparations, and build-up toward the scheme.
As a comparison to practices in Singapore, Mr Roy Andy Panjaitan, Economic Cooperation and Private Sector Development Advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Indonesia briefly introduced the EPR policy in Indonesia and delved into GIZ’s programmes to support its implementation in two of its project sites, highlighting opportunities and challenges from GIZ's experiences.
Mr Jeryl Yep, co-founder and Innovation Lead at Semula Pte Ltd, summarised the start-up’s approach by saying 'problems are just opportunities that haven’t presented themselves'. Through utilising plastic waste as raw materials for furniture, Semula attempts to simultaneously tackle two environmental problems by reducing the amount of waste going to the landfills and reducing the pressure on the environment from resource extraction.
Mr Jerid Soo, Assistant General Manager of Pacific International Lines (PTE), recommended actionable levers toward circularity, starting from general mitigation steps every company can take, before delving into specific levers that logistics and transportation industry actors can contribute at the industry and sectoral levels.
Ms Yee Shien Su, Partnerships Manager at Zero Waste SG, discussed the lessons learned and best practices from the Bring Your Own (BYO) Singapore campaign, where consumers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags, bottles, or containers when shopping. One of the points highlighted was the importance of communicating not only to the consumers, but also to the cashiers and staff who are at the frontline of implementing the campaign.
After the panel discussion, all the panel speakers, along with Mr Kawamura; Mr Manivannan (NEA); and Ms Huileng Tan, Executive Director of Zero Waste SG, participated in a discussion session during which online participants on Zoom enthusiastically posted many questions for the speakers. During this opportunity, Ms Tan highlighted Zero Waste SG’s role in creating a better understanding of consumer perceptions and nuances to support the implementation of plastic reduction regulations.
In the spirit of continued knowledge and experience sharing, the seminar ended with an invitation to register on the Centre’s online private sector platform (PSP). Centre Management Associate Ms Elsa Noviani encouraged private sector actors to register on the platform for an opportunity to showcase their products, services, and technologies contributing to plastic waste reduction. This invitation was reiterated in Mr Kawamura’s closing remarks, which emphasised the importance of collaborations between the public and the private sector, including through the Centre’s PSP.
The Private Sector Initiatives to Reduce Marine Plastics Seminar Series is one of the Centre’s flagship programmes to promote the innovative practices of private sector actors in increasing plastic circularity and reducing plastic waste in ASEAN Member States (AMS). The seminar in Singapore marked the eighth edition and AMS visited by the Centre as part of this series, and was conducted in collaboration with the NEA and the GIZ Reduce, Reuse and Recycle to Protect the Marine Environment and Coral Reefs (3RproMar) partnership programme, and supported by the Singapore Environment Council.
3RproMar (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Protect the Marine Environment and Coral Reefs) is an ASEAN-German cooperation project implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in coordination with the ASEAN Secretariat. In 2023, 3RproMar launched its Regional Knowledge Hub for Marine Litter Prevention in ASEAN. This partnership unites ERIA’s Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris, AIT’s Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific, and NIVA’s International Knowledge Hub Against Plastic Pollution. The goal is to disseminate scientific insights and best practices to support informed decision-making in the region.
Read media coverage of the event at: Borneo Terkini, News24 Philippines, Warnaplus, Boracay Island News Network, Rapport Philippines, Words Vietnam, The Pop Blog, Dug Out Philippines, Pasbana, and Thailand Business News
Research Associate
