Preventing More Than One Million Tons of Plastic from Entering the Environment

How USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean program has prevented more than 127 billion plastic bottles from entering into the environment 

Clean Cities, Blue Ocean, USAID’s flagship global program under the Save Our Seas Initiative, has reached a significant milestone: preventing more than one million metric tons of plastic from entering the ocean–the equivalent of over 127 billion plastic bottles. This progress is a result of the Clean Cities, Blue Ocean’s collaboration with more than 25 cities across 10 countries to implement sustainable solutions for reducing ocean plastics that are tailored to meet the needs and local realities of individual communities and their waste management systems.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at key approaches that the program has employed to meet this milestone in preventing ocean-bound plastic. 

Improving the Management of Plastics and other Existing Waste

Supporting government partners to better manage final disposal sites for waste that can’t be avoided or recovered can achieve relatively quick and significant results to directly prevent plastic from polluting the environment. Roughly 40 percent of the world’s waste ends up in open dumpsites, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Often, these sites are located near waterways and coasts and store plastics and other waste in uncovered, open pits where plastics can easily be blown or washed into the surrounding environment. By remediating and improving the ongoing operation of or closing these sites, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean is preventing significant volumes of legacy waste from leaking into the ocean. 

The exponential impact of addressing disposal sites is exemplified by USAID’s work at the Tamangapa disposal site in Makassar City, Indonesia (population 1.5 million). When Clean Cities, Blue Ocean and the city’s government began working together, the disposal site (pictured in the “before” image above) exhibited many of the challenges common to open dumpsites: uncovered waste stored in uncontrolled piles prone to collapse and landslides, dangerous conditions for informal waste workers and the surrounding community, and an absence of any measures to reduce or control climate-fueling methane emissions.

To start, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean and Makassar City began working together on a solid waste management plan– identifying priority actions to improve local waste management. Remediating the Tamangapa open dumpsite and creating a new sanitary landfill was identified as crucial, particularly because of the site’s size, age, and proximity to housing and waterways. To support the site’s remediation, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean provided technical assistance in areas including landfill gas management, stormwater management and leachate collection, proper daily cover procedures, as well as provided reference and training materials to support environmental remediation. Using this guidance and its own funds, Makassar City has remarkably transformed the site, which is no longer classified as an open dumpsite, but rather, a controlled landfill. The community and the local environment have now been made safer and healthier, as pictured in the “after” image above. 

As a result of the remediation of Tamangapa, an estimated 6,716,000 metric tons (MT) of waste and recyclables, which had accumulated over the site’s twenty-three years of use, are now being safely managed–including 1,074,560 MT of plastic that is no longer at risk of leaking into the environment. In addition to these impacts, is the improved health and quality of life of the community. The remediation efforts at the site contributed significantly to Clean Cities, Blue Ocean’s milestone of managing one million metric tons of plastic, illustrating how better management of existing waste and plastics that can’t be reduced or recovered can produce significant gains toward eliminating ocean plastic pollution. 

Eliminating plastic pollution requires a holistic approach that addresses each of USAID’s Building Blocks for a Circular Economy. To learn more about Clean Cities, Blue Ocean’s broader work and impacts to date, visit urban-links.org/ccbo. 

Increasing Plastic Recovery and Recycling Rates

Clean Cities, Blue Ocean also works widely to support local businesses to advance aggregation, processing, and recycling of plastics–keeping plastics out of the ocean and returning them to the circular economy. In Indonesia for example, USAID and its partners, Prevented Ocean Plastic Southeast Asia (POPSEA) and subsidiary Prevented Ocean Plastic Indonesia (POPI), have expanded Indonesia’s recycling infrastructure through new aggregation and collection centers in the cities of Semarang, on Java, and Makassar, on Sulawesi. The new facilities now serve as regional hubs that are optimizing the volume and value of plastic waste and provide high-quality, traceable plastic to global buyers. USAID supported POPI by providing technical assistance as they planned and built out the centers, as well as provided equipment to shred (or densify) plastic materials, enabling the centers process and recycle volumes large enough to establish a strong local recycling market, improve logistic efficiencies, and reach international buyers. The centers also work directly with informal waste collectors, especially women, to help ensure inclusivity and recognition in the industry, fair pricing standards, safe working conditions, and build their skills to optimize the value of collected plastics. 

POPI’s Semarang center, on average, processes over 250 metric tons of plastic every month— the equivalent of nearly 27 million plastic water bottles. POPI’s second USAID-supported facility in Makassar is also now fully operational and capable of processing 400 metric tons of recycled plastic per month—adding an equivalent 43 million plastic water bottles. The organization plans to develop 25 similar aggregation facilities in underserved areas across Indonesia to create more consistent and valuable markets for plastics.

Social and Behavior Change for Reduced Single-use Plastics

Single-use plastics are a particularly pernicious component of plastic waste and greatly impact the environment. Reducing global dependence on and consumption of single-use plastics is key in eliminating ocean plastic pollution. Across its engagement sites, Clean Cities, Blue Ocean works with local organizations and their communities to reduce plastic use through alternatives or reuse.

In the Maldives, for example, program grantee, the Small Island Geographic Society (SIGS) engaged local residents to research the greatest areas of opportunity to reduce single-plastic usage and pilot viable alternatives such as water filters to eliminate the need for bottled water. The project succeeded in reducing participating households’ use of various single-use plastics—including a 100% reduction in the use of bottled water as the households stopped buying bottled water when given safe alternatives. The pilot activities also produced recommendations for potential local government incentive programs and future social and behavior change strategies, in support of the Government of the Maldives’ national phase out of single-use plastics.

In other contexts, USAID is supporting partners to develop or expand business models that embrace reuse. In Tingloy Island in the Philippines for example, local organization Pure Oceans, is launching sustainable businesses like Eddie WOW Catering Service to reduce plastic waste from large community gatherings held on the beach, which are a rich local cultural tradition and include birthdays, christenings, fiestas, and funerals. Eddie WOW provides reusable tableware for rent, eliminating the need for single-use plastics, as well as a dedicated washer so that renters don’t need to do any additional work. This tailored approach not only reduces the demand for single-use plastics but also integrates small businesses into the circular economy, benefiting both the environment and the community.