The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), a not-for-profit policy research institute in Japan, is launching Phase II of the Breaking the Plastic Habit in Asia project to test the effectiveness of behaviour-centred interventions to reduce the use and waste of single-use plastics in cities and communities. The project is conducted in close collaboration with the Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris, hosted by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), with support from the Ministry of Environment of Japan.
From Phase 1 of this project, IGES in collaboration with four implementing partners: The project was implemented from March to June 2023 by four partner organizations across four ASEAN countries: (1) Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Indonesia (2) University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), the Philippines (3) Chulalongkorn University, Thailand (4) Southern Institute of Ecology (SIE), Vietnam. The team have developed a toolkit that provides practical steps and examples of behavioural insights applications to reduce plastic waste in diverse contexts across four ASEAN Member States.
Phase II will build on the pilot projects conducted during Phase I and will generate practical knowledge and tools for applying behaviour-centred approaches in real-world settings. One of the key outcomes of Phase II will be a series of case studies designed to guide policymakers, businesses, and civil society in developing pragmatic skills to implement behaviour-centred solutions for environmental challenges. In addition, a new measurement framework will be piloted to assess the effectiveness of ‘nudge’ interventions across the region.
Following a thorough selection process, the following six implementing partners from six ASEAN countries were chosen:
1. Ministry of Environment, Cambodia
2. Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Indonesia
3. Econox Laos – Plastic Free Laos Label, Lao PDR
4. Institute of Civil Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), the Philippines
5. Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
6. Nopa, Công Ty TNHH, Viet Nam
Oct 2024 - Oct 2025
