Publications Search

Open waste burning is a widespread practice that is provoked by a lack of systematic waste collection, the unavailability of other disposal options, and inadequate land for the final disposal of the collected waste, especially in low- and middle-income countries. From a global perspective, two billion people have no waste collection at all, and the...

Dr Yasuhiko Hotta, Vice President of APRSCP and Programme Director of Sustainable Consumption and Production Area at IGES, identified six challenges for adopting EPR: interpretation of EPR, the difficulty of identifying producers, the infeasibility of the take-back scheme, competition with the informal waste management sector, waste collection and...

For a pollution free planet, UNEP has been implementing plastic pollution-related projects in the Mekong basin countries since 2019. Past projects aimed to identify a region-based model for monitoring and assessment of plastic leakage and pollution reduction targeting land-based plastic leakage entering waterways such as rivers and canals or...

At the session 2 of 16th APRSCP, along with GIZ, SWITCh-Asia, and UNEP, IGES presented a key concept for APRSCP Strategy, IGES emphasized the changing emphasis of SCP over the last 30 years. Also, considering many ongoing international initiatives on SCP and circular economy, it is necessary to consider collaboration and synergies among many on...

The objective of this report is to provide an analysis of the current policy environment for garment production in Cambodia, applying a systems lens to identify challenges and opportunities for enhancing the sustainability of the sector. To maintain the competitiveness of Cambodia’s garment sector in the global market, a shift to sustainable...

IGES organized a training course on muncipal solid waste management and circular economy on November 14-16, 2022 for ADB staff. During the training, Hotta provided a lecture as follows; Hotta shared that with economy and social development, policy is shifting towards CE. He buttressed his case with Japan as a case study. He stressed that in 60s and...

A global agreement to end plastic pollution must be based on pertinent, multi-disciplinary knowledge. Consideration of the full life cycle impacts of plastics and substitutes is important to achieve sustainable solutions rather than shifting the burden. Hence, this process requires considerations of fossil-based and biobased feedstocks for plastic...

The objective of this Guideline is to provide a systems approach to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in the seafood sector in Vietnam that considers all stages of the production chain. SCP is conceived as a crucial framework for achieving the social and economic benefits, and minimizing the environmental burden, of Vietnam’s seafood...

The Guidelines for Resource efficiency and cleaner production in Vietnam's Pangasius processing sector were developed within the framework of technical assistance of SWITCH-Asia provided to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, through the Programme of Sustainable Production and Consumption (SCP Facility), which is funded by the European...

The sound management of healthcare waste (HCW) has been receiving increasing global attention, now even more so given the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic. Uncontrolled fluctuations in generation quantities, the composition of HCW as well as the significant impacts it poses on public health and the environment require a more dynamic and cohesive...