About
Controlling Plastic Waste in Pakistan
Value Chain Mapping and Capacity Building of Pakistani Government Stakeholders to Implement Basel Convention’s Amendments to Enhance Control of the Transboundary Movements of Plastic Waste
Funding Agency: Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN)
Total Budget: US$ 57,610
Project Lead: Dr. Jabir Hussain Syed, COMSATS University Islamabad
Collaborators: “Engro Foundation Pakistan”, “Engro Polymers & Chemicals” Limited Pakistan and Circular Plastic Institute (CPI) at Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL), Karachi Pakistan
The Basel Convention plastic waste amendments require participating countries to pay attention to the plastic waste trade, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC). While passed in 2019, it lacks implementation in South Asia. Pakistan in particular struggles to implement it and remains a major importer of PVC waste. Anecdotal evidence suggests that low implementation is related to multiple political and socio-economic reasons, but this remains to be verified. To enhance Pakistan’s capacity in implementing the Basel Amendments, it is important to scientifically verify the factors related to the low implementation and develop relevant evidence-based policy solutions. In this project, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), a public sector university, is collaborating with Engro Foundation, the non-profit arm of Engro Corporation, and Engro Polymer, the polyvinyl chloride resin manufacturing subsidiary of Engro Corporation.
This project proposes to enhance the Pakistani government’s capacity to implement Basel Amendments. This project will use a transdisciplinary approach to understand the socio-economic and political factors that lead to low implementation of Basel Amendments. It will conduct a value chain analysis, social network analysis, and policy coherence study to identify these factors. The project will use these research outputs to conduct workshops with government stakeholders and help them to develop a policy action plan that can be used to implement the Basel Amendments.