by Beryl Tranco

Periods are challenging. Besides the menstrual cramps that some women experience during this time of the month, single-use napkins that many women use to maintain their hygiene are also polluting the environment.

But these disposable napkins are products of the modern world’s fixation on convenience. Women just a few decades back used reusable cloth to maintain their hygiene without polluting the environment.

Cecille Guevarra, owner of Workingmum, has joined the growing businesses that give a nod to the sustainable ways of the past with her products—washable menstrual pads and pantyliners. Launched online in May 2018, Workingmum aimed to provide alternatives to disposable sanitary napkins.

Cecille is the tailor of her products. Originally from Occidental Mindoro and currently based in Sta. Cruz, Manila, she also subcontracts a seamstress from her province. “As I manage my own business, I am happy to provide livelihood to a single mother,” Cecille said, proud of empowering a fellow mother.

“I used to have rashes and blisters wearing them. I don’t want my daughter to experience these discomforts,” Cecille shared.

Cecille started sewing cloth pads for personal use in 2016. When her daughter started to have her period, she convinced her to use reusables which her daughter did.

“I have been in the reusable scene before I started selling my handmade pads,” she said.

When Cecille launched her business, her first buyer was her best friend, whose mother died of cervical cancer. “[My friend] had her tissue analyzed to test any indication of the disorder. She was then advised to not use disposable sanitary pads. For a ‘friendly’ price, she purchased her first set of cloth pads [from me],” Cecille said.

Cecille then linked up with other eco-warriors to resell her products. “I feel Workingmum is classy [for] having buyers from Makati and Bonifacio Global City,” she said, referring to Philippine cities where the well-off live.

She added: “I am aware that more than just wanting to be trendy, [the buyers] share the advocacy of personal and environment care. I will not do the math anymore. I’m humbled for being an instrument in avoiding disposable pads on the minefield of plastics.

Opportunities during the COVID-19 Pandemic

While the quarantines declared early in 2020 to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected many businesses and caused anxiety to many business owners, Cecille saw opportunity from the situation.

“People are forced to stay at home and have more time to go online. Thus, we received more messages for orders. It seemed these women had no other choice because most of the stores were close,” she said.

Since the lockdowns, another washable has been added to Workingmum’s products— facemasks. “The stocked raw materials for cloth pads were turned to reusable face masks. We make quality face masks that sell for a reasonable price,” Cecille said.

Due to limited access to resources, production is also limited. Cecille strategized the distribution and preferred not to sell in bulk. “However, there was an exemption. I had a buyer who requested to purchase in large quantities. I found out that she was donating the facemasks to frontliners,” she shared.

Moving Forward

According to Cecille, her business has been good for her family life. “The manufacturing of the washables has knitted the bond of my marriage. My husband is the ‘master cutter’ of the patterns,” she said.

She added that the business also allowed her to discover some things about herself. “I realized that I am an artist creating designs of my own products.”

The designs and the materials of the washables, according to Cecille, evolved as time went by. “We discovered better types of clothes and upgraded our products. This may have added costs on our part but we didn’t change our pricing. We ensure the quality to help keep women and girls feel comfortable while keeping conventional period products out of landfills,” she shared.

She added: “I consider Workingmum as a small step to a Zero Waste lifestyle—a small step from each of the women who purchased from us. Our sales may be slow-paced at times yet it is consistent and I am not giving up on it.”

Facebook

Instagram

Photos courtesy of Working Mum.

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This article is part of the book, BUSINESS UNUSUAL: Enterprises paving the way to Zero Waste, a collection of feature articles on select enterprises in Asia Pacific that practice and promote Zero Waste principles. Published by Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, the publication may be downloaded for free at www.no-burn.org/Business-Unusual.

While the demand for sustainable, packaging-free stores keeps growing, corporations remain slow to respond. They are still focused on greenwashing–producing supposedly eco-friendlier packaging for their products which are mere PR stunts in disguise.

Meanwhile, small enterprises, many of them start-ups, have been showing how present and future sustainable alternative product delivery systems look like. The existence of these enterprises–and their ability to thrive–is crucial for our calls for extended producer responsibility (EPR) and sustainable alternative product delivery systems. They serve as the concrete examples of the systems we are calling for.

While they concretize our calls, these startups need support in growing their businesses, which big environmental organizations like GAIA can easily provide–by showcasing them in our publications and promoting them in our social media accounts.

By featuring them, we hope more businesses will take the Zero Waste route, allowing us to heighten the pressure on corporations to move toward Zero Waste and on the government to enable an environment conducive to Zero Waste.

Business Unusual: Enterprises paving the way to Zero Waste highlights Zero Waste stores in the Asia Pacific region to showcase various sustainable product delivery systems and demonstrate that 1] Zero Waste stores (SUP-free packaging, refill, deposit/return systems) can be done and that 2] it is profitable.

DOWNLOAD BUSINESS UNUSUAL COPY (SINGLE PAGES)

DOWNLOAD BUSINESS UNUSUAL COPY (TWO-PAGE SPREAD)

by Sherma E Benosa

Once considered exclusive and primarily associated with privilege, Zero Waste stores have come a long way. Newer breeds of entrepreneurs have made it their mission to address this major criticism of Zero Waste stores being “too niche” by making them more accessible to the general public. But more importantly, these stores collectively showcase various environmentally conscious ways to deliver products—some revolutionizing the traditional concepts of refill and return-deposit using digital technology and marketing suave, while others focused on reintegrating these old sustainable systems into the fabric of everyday consumption practices.

Singapore’s barePack for example has pioneered an app-enabled, membership-based platform to loan reusable food containers for people on the go in partnership with food outlets and leading delivery platforms. Australia’s Bring Me Home, meanwhile, also an app-based platform, rescues surplus food from becoming food waste by connecting people to restaurants at the end-of-day—allowing them to avail of huge discounts for quality food that otherwise would go to the bin.

Indeed, various models of stores adhering to the same principles have grown, offering something patterned after good old practices, but responding to the needs of modern times.

So what is it that sets these entrepreneurs apart? What is it about the way they work that enables them to make a real difference the way billion-dollar multinational corporations are unable to? Our interviews with various enterprises across Asia Pacific showed the following six characteristics:

True Understanding of the Problem

When Jane Kou founded Bring Me Home, the mission was clear: “to reduce food waste by making surplus food accessible and affordable.”

Food waste is a big issue in the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia alone, over 7.3 million tons of food waste was generated from 2016 to 2017. Jane knew that solving the food waste problem would make a huge difference in addressing food scarcity. “A lot of the end-of-the-day food that might get chucked out if it’s unsold—no one knows where to find them… so that’s why we created the app,” she shared.

With the launch of Bring Me Home in 2017, consumers were able to avail of the same quality food at discounts ranging from 30% to 70%, thanks to the app. Moreover, partner food outlets increased their foot traffic during traditionally slow hours, increasing their profits and minimizing their food waste.

Genuine Desire to Make the World a Better Place

While the Coca-Colas and Nestles of the world continue to promise to make their packaging recyclable—an unambitious commitment they have not made progress in despite their billions of dollars—these small entrepreneurs have been rolling out their own solutions that are already creating a positive change in their communities.

Roxane Uzureau, founder of barePack Singapore, said that they are guided by their mission of replacing the millions of disposables used daily in food and beverage takeaway and delivery. “I have always been quite sensitive to the notion of waste. It’s something that genuinely upsets me. Everything has an environmental cost, even what you consider free,” she said.

Officially launched in Singapore in 2020, the barePack app has enabled its users to order food using reusable containers which they could return by dropping them off at member-restaurants and other drop-off points.

Changing Consumer Mindsets and Behaviors

When these entrepreneurs started with their enterprise, their communities did not have a good understanding of the concept of Zero Waste. Thus, educating the consumers became integral to their advocacy.

“We need everybody to understand that the business stands for a sole purpose: to make this planet a better and cleaner place,” said Rangi Jory Madarang, co-founder of AMGU, a plastic-free store based in Central Philippines.

According to Rangi, there are times when people who are not familiar with Zero Waste would visit their store and come out with a working knowledge on the concept. “They are amazed with what they learned inside the store, and then they come back and become our regulars,” she said.

Cheryl Anne Low, founder of NUDE, a store based in Malaysia, recalled the times they taught children about the concept. “Many children would pop in for biscuits and snacks, so we would teach them to bring their own containers. They would go home, tell their parents, and their curious parents would come visit us. Their praises for what we were doing in teaching their children about the environment and how something like packaging can be harmful to marine life and animals, were always heartwarming. The parents appreciated what we were doing, and the kids came every day,” she shared.

According to Bittu John Kalungal, proprietor of India’s 7-9 Green Store, seeing respected members of the community modeling good behavior, like bringing their own containers, inspires other people to do the same.

“A doctor came to the store with his own container to refill sugar. Another guy was in the shop. This guy watched the doctor refill his own containers, then came to me and asked me: ‘Does he always come with his own containers?” shared Bittu. “That should be the change coming from everyone. From this incident, the guy realized it’s not bad to bring containers from home and buy by refill. In our society, 20% of the people set the trend and the rest look up at these 20% and try to live like them. If we can change the attitude of the 20%, we can make a huge difference in our society.”

Finding Suppliers

Another key to providing quality and affordable products is having suppliers that are aligned with the Zero Waste goal.

“Making the suppliers understand the reasons why we would like to buy package-free from them and coming up with workable realistic solutions for both parties is important,” NUDE’s Cheryl Ann said, adding that to guarantee the quality of the products they carry, they make sure to go “into the detail of the ingredients and do research on each of the ingredients.”

Alison Batchelor, proprietor of Vietnam’s Refillables Hoi An, agrees. For her store, she traced the makers of various products and built a reliable supplier base that would not compromise on affordable, good-quality, refillable, and eco-friendly products.

When one of her first suppliers understood that Alison wanted to target a low-income demographic consumer base, they provided discounts on wholesale prices. These discounts were offset by minimized packaging costs.

Similarly, another supplier made their packaging fully plastic-free because of Allison. “They used brown paper but there was like a plastic wrap around the soap on the inside. It can’t look eco on the outside and then not be on the inside, so they worked with me to redesign their packaging,” Alison shared.

Revolutionizing, Rather than Co-opting, Old Systems

Besides BarePack and Bring Me Home, Enviu is another example of an organization that designs innovative reuse and refill models to reduce plastic pollution. Although not technically a store but rather an organization that develops and pilots various ventures in several countries, Enviu also runs the Zero Waste Living Lab (ZWLL) program to tackle plastic pollution in Indonesia. Under this program, they have created noteworthy models, among them Koinpack, QYOS, and CupKita.

Koinpack provides warung (a highly frequented store) customers reusable bottles as alternatives to single-use plastic sachets. Customers get cashbacks and incentives upon returning these bottles. Koinpack delivers new stock and ensures the empty packs are collected, cleaned, and refilled. Since its establishment in March 2020, Koinpack has avoided the use of more than 10,000 sachets and is currently active in five warungs and 10 waste banks.

Also following the “borrow-reuse-return” scheme, CupKita allows customers of popular cafés to rent a reusable cup using a mobile app and get a cashback upon returning it. This system is a replication of Muuse—a company facilitating companies, campuses and coffee shops with reusable items in Bali, Singapore and Hong Kong. Each cup is individually coded and must be returned within seven days. The endeavor envisions saving anywhere from 525 kilograms to around 2,000 kilograms of disposables per store annually.

QYOS maintains 24/7 cashless and touch-less vending machines, which dispense precise amounts of product (dish soap, body wash, or even hand sanitizer), enabling households to refill at the QYOS station instead of purchasing their daily necessities in single-use plastic packaging.

“We determine what business interventions are needed along the value chain. We validate new, sustainable business models by creating, replicating, or accelerating ventures. We use what’s already there and add what’s missing,” said Anne Poggenpohl, venture builder at Enviu.

Giving Back to Community by Patronizing Local Products and Sharing Profits

As if their enormous motivation to spark more environmentally friendly and sustainable consumption practices is not enough, many Zero Waste entrepreneurs manage to recenter their goals on improving the lives of their partner communities.

Juana Zero is a community store established by Mother Earth Foundation—a Philippine-based organization that helps communities develop and implement Zero Waste programs by partnering with local governments and capacitating waste workers. The goal of the store is to demonstrate that neighborhood stores—a major point-of-sale of products on plastic sachets—can sell the same basic needs without using plastic packaging. Besides inspiring other neighborhood stores to do the same, Juana Zero also gives back by giving a part of their proceeds to MEF’s scholarship fund for the dependents of their stakeholders: the waste collectors.

Meanwhile, Sierreza, also from the Philippines, started out as a non-profit aimed at supporting local farmers and indigenous peoples. Realizing that these communities need a steady market for their products, they established a farmer-centered Zero Waste store to sell local produce.

“Together with the farmers, we set a fair price at the start: something that would give the farmers income. The good thing about that is that they did not need to overproduce because even if they produce less, the price would still be competitive,” said Che Abrigo, founder of Sierreza.

Two years since the start of the project, Sierreza’s partner farmers have not only learned to be Zero Waste in every aspect of their production, they have also become h to conceptualize and run projects for themselves.

So what sets Zero Waste enterprises apart? The models show that creating environmental and social values are not impossible when doing business. It is not only possible but also desired by consumers. The little extras that they bring to the community, are not really little in terms of impact, nor are they mere extra. On the contrary, they are the heart of Zero Waste enterprises.

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by Edel S. Garingan

Getting into business is no walk in the park. It takes more than just putting your product in the market and expecting people to buy it. It is even harder if your business involves confronting culture, systems, and lifestyles—the very concerns of Zero Waste stores in Asia Pacific, especially during these days where convenience rules the day. These businesses—thriving even during the pandemic—are disrupting the unsustainable use of plastics and rediscovering Zero Waste ways to offer consumer products.

We interviewed 21 enterprises in Asia Pacific. From the neighborhood grocery store in Petaling Jaya in Malaysia to the surplus food delivery system in Australia, each store has an inspiring story to tell that goes beyond profit. The best part is—they are also growing!

The reemergence of Zero Waste stores in the region is more than just a welcome development; it is a big leap for businesses in reimagining the way materials and products circulate in a more sustainable way. The successful stories we featured in this book present the following beautiful possibilities for aspiring entrepreneurs in adapting Zero Waste as a driving force for their business—an approach
that:

…prioritizes its mission for the environment and the communities
What separates a Zero Waste store from other business ventures is its clear mission to help address plastic pollution and mitigate its impact to people and the environment. In Sri Lanka, for example, the tragedy of the 2017 trashslide in the Meethotamulla dumpsite has greatly moved businesswoman Udara Rathnayake to put solutions into action by setting a Zero Waste store for organic food and other household items. This is the same model for NUDE, a Zero Waste store in Malaysia that provides an array of products to its consumers without the unnecessary plastic packaging. NUDE also offers its consumers the choice of paying for items based on the amount they only need rather than buying them in predetermined sizes, weights, or containers.

…promotes sustainable lifestyle through creative marketing and education
Guided by their mission for sustainability, Zero Waste stores are proactively communicating their solutions to target consumers and the general public, thus raising public awareness on the issue and inspiring behavioral change. Slowood in HongKong, for example, utilizes its social media platforms to squeeze in Zero Waste content between product promotions.

And while they recognize that developing positive behavior towards Zero Waste is a long process, Zero Waste stores are trying different means to draw people in. From time to time, the 7 to 9 Greenstore in Kerala, India, distribute product samples for consumers to see for themselves that these items are as good as—or even better than—branded products.

…supports small producers and the local economy
Most Zero Waste stores, especially those that are acting as consolidators of products, prefer to engage with small producers and community-based social enterprises because for one, they have more flexibility to adapt Zero Waste in their businesses. They are doing this as a conscious effort to help the small business sectors and provide extra income for them. For example, Mother Earth Foundation’s JuanaZero sources recycled paper accessories from women artisans in their project sites. A lot of Zero Waste stores are also working directly with small farmers and other producers, procuring products at fair prices, and selling them sans plastic packaging.

…tries to integrate Zero Waste principles across the value chain
Zero Waste stores are about more than veering away from plastic bags and shifting to eco-bags. More importantly, they adopt Zero Waste principles in their value chains, from source materials close to actual production, to product delivery. Refillables Hoi An in Vietnam, for instance, ensures that their suppliers understand how plastic-free delivery systems can work in a tourist destination like Hoi An. Meanwhile, barePack in Singapore has successfully convinced restaurants that there is a conscious local market that prefers reusable containers for their takeout and food deliveries. These are just a few examples of unique approaches that engage different stakeholders in their value chain—the producer, the middleman, and the consumers—in the Zero Waste system.

Many think that Zero Waste stores are the emerging market of our time. In reality, they are a thing of the past that we should not have
left behind in the first place. The models that we are seeing now have already existed before. They are simply being adapted with some
modifications to suit our current contexts. While the past is “past” as we say, today, we have the right opportunity to create more business models that are more attuned to the sustainable future that we all dream of and deserve.

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by Daru Setyorini, Project Coordinator Zero Waste Cities, ECOTON

Gresik is a coastal city in East Java, Indonesia, located downstream between Brantas River and Bengawan Solo River. These two big rivers were included in the Top 20 most polluting rivers in the world, according to a study published in 2017 (1). Indonesia was also identified as one of major contributors of plastic leakage into the world’s oceans (2), with four Javanese rivers being of particular concern. The Brantas and Solo rivers discharge an estimated 38,900 (range 32,300–63,700) and 32,500 (range 26,500–54,100) tons of plastics per year, respectively. This means a little over 14% of marine plastic litter come from Indonesia’s waterways.

Gresik City has a population of 1.35 million, producing 388 tons of waste per day, or around 1.2 kg of waste per household. Like many cities in Indonesia, Gresik City has only enough resources to provide adequate management services to less than 50% of the population. Thus, many areas of the city, particularly those situated along river banks and coastal areas, rely on informal waste collection and indiscriminate dumping to rid of household waste. To make the waste situation worse, the congested Ngipik landfill – which receives up to 150 tons of waste per day – is projected to reach its full capacity by 2021. The city’s environmental agency is exploring a new location for another landfill but communities are pushing back on these proposals.

To address plastic leakage as well as poor waste management in Gresik, ECOTON partnered with Wringinanom Village in 2019 to launch the city’s first Zero Waste Cities project. The project covers door-to-door segregated collection, organic waste composting, and transporting residual waste to the Ngipik landfill for 500 households. While waste sorting is voluntary in Wringinanom, ECOTON is hopeful that community participation will pick up once multi-stakeholder partnerships are strengthened.

Currently, about 25% of households in Wringinanom Village participate in waste sorting under ECOTON’s Zero Waste Cities program. ECOTON handed tokens to these community members as an incentive for their continued support.

The operation of MRF or TPS3R Wringinasri (3RMRF) is regularly monitored by ECOTON and the Environmental Agency to make sure that all workers follow the working procedures. Almost all wet and dry organic waste are collected and treated to produce compost. Wet organic waste is processed in aerated brick wall composters outdoors, while dry organic waste is processed indoors. Recyclables and compost produced in the 3RMRF are collected and sold by waste workers to provide them additional income. Unfortunately, due to the decline of the cost of recyclables in the last 3 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the earnings from recyclable sales became unreliable. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the volume of recyclables collection increased 300% after implementation of the ZWC Program.

The implementation of the collection system is being supported by seven waste workers, one personnel who is assigned to operate the composting facilities and maintain flower vegetable garden, three waste sorters, and three waste collection personnels. The MRF site rearrangement was conducted to optimize waste treatment operation, providing sufficient space for the unloading and sorting of collected waste, composting of organic waste, and for storing recyclables. The garden area at 3RMRF was formerly used as a burning area of residual waste that piled up while waiting for waste containers from Environmental Agency Gresik. The garbage truck would drop off empty containers at 3RMRF and take the full container of mixed waste to the landfill. The residual waste piled up at 3RMRF because the pick up service for residual waste only ran twice a week. The current waste transportation service only covers 30% of the total population in Gresik. Wringinanom is located at the south outer edge of Gresik, bordering the Municipality of Mojokerto. The distance between 3RMRF Wringinasri to the Ngipik Landfill is 40 km, making the travel prone to several traffic accidents.

It can be concluded that Zero Waste Cities approach in Gresik consists of 7 ACTIONS PIKUL BARENG, Sharing the Burden to Achieve Gresik Zero Waste Cities, It’s Easy and Possible. The actions are as follows:

Waste segregation at source
Reduce single-use plastics
Waste management service accessible for all households
Cut back on residual waste
Sufficient budget allocation
Redesign products to reusable alternatives
Education for segregated waste collection

The Government of Wringinanom Village, in partnership with ECOTON, is currently preparing a community education team to run a door-to-door education program as well as a village regulation to obligate all households to conduct waste segregation at source. The Government of Gresik City is likewise preparing a regulatory framework to improve the budgeting and regulatory settings to encourage all villages in Gresik City to implement their own Zero Waste City program. The Government of Gresik Municipality plans to improve the operation of conventional waste transfer stations, so it will not only focus on improving the waste collection and transporting waste to landfill without treatment, but it will also initiate waste segregation at the household level to produce more compost and increase recyclables collection.

REFUSE SINGLE USE PLASTICS,

SEGREGATE WASTE AT SOURCE AND REDUCE RESIDUAL WASTE

GO FOR ZERO WASTE CITIES, IT’S EASY AND POSSIBLE

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(1) Lebreton, L. C. M., van der Zwet, J., Damsteeg, J.-W., Slat, B., Andrady, A., & Reisser, J. (2017). River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans. Nature Communications, 8, 15611. doi:10.1038/ncomms15611.

(2) Ibid.

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GAIA is grateful for the contributions from ECOTON. This feature is made possible through the Zero Waste Cities project — an initiative coordinated by GAIA Asia Pacific and funded by the Plastic Solutions Fund (PSF). The views expressed in this feature do not necessarily reflect that of its funders.

Zero Waste challenges the “take-make-waste” mode, focusing on collective responsibility and waste prevention. To date, more than 25 cities across the region have established Zero Waste models, showcasing innovations in source separation, organics management, materials recovery, and plastic regulation. Several of these cities have also incorporated brand audits in their baseline studies, exposing plastic waste as one of the most problematic aspects of their waste streams. While plastic bans have greatly reduced the number of carrier bags and plastic straws, governments struggle dealing with the volume of single-use plastic, often spending millions of dollars in transportation costs for landfilling, or even incineration.

This year’s Zero Waste Cities Conference will gather government officials, experts, civil society organizations and Zero Waste communities and practitioners in a series of virtual events from January 25 – March, 2021. Building on previous editions held in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, the event will feature Zero Waste champions from different countries across the Asia Pacific Region in the digital platform. The aim is to feature conversations to showcase the diversity of actions, experiences, challenges, and successes towards the common goal of a Zero Waste World.

About IZWCC2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges and sometimes intensification of difficulties in mobilizing for a healthier and just environment. However, our Zero Waste champions across the region continue to rise to these challenging times. To address the barrier of face-to-face meetings, the International Zero Waste Cities Conference 2021 will be held virtually. The conference will feature the following elements:

Pre-recorded country-level one-on-one conversations with a GAIA member and one partner zero waste advocate/ally
Virtual Tour of Zero Waste City models in the region
Twitter Conference on the conversations around Zero Waste in the Region

Showing the world that Zero Waste is possible

Interview with the Korea Zero Waste Movement Network team

The Korea Zero Waste Movement Network started with 31 grassroots organizations in Seoul way back in 1997. It has then expanded to a national network with 180 organizations including environment, citizens, and women’s movement. The key role of KZWMN is pushing for alternative policies on waste and supporting ecological waste treatment like recycling systems.

The KZWMN has shown a lot of successful activities through its 180 grassroot NGO network which helped the expansion of Zero Waste movement starting with local communities. One of the biggest achievements of the KZWMN is its role in reducing more than 3 billion dollars in the national budget through its campaign on decreasing use of disposable products, reduction of packing papers, and reduction of food garbage. According to Mi-hwa Kim, KZWMN Chair who has been with the Network for 20 years, “our work will never stop until we reach our goal of an ecological society.”

Below is an excerpt of the interview with the team.

Public campaign to reduce food waste by 50%.

What are KZWMN’s top priorities?

As a specialized organization focused on waste problems, the KZWMN key roles include: (a) giving critical advice to the waste policies of the government and observing the waste management practices of entrepreneurs, both activities aim to prevent misuse of resources, (b) making sure that the global civil society reinforce global environmental cooperation, and (c) making efforts to achieve a sustainable recycling society by bridging the citizens and the government to work together.

What are the main ongoing campaigns of KZWMN?

We work on Zero Waste policies which involve monitoring of single-use plastic (SUP) cups reduction in fast foods and cafés and SUP bags in markets. We also prepare policies for the establishment of Zero Waste shops, policy proposals for the improvement of the food culture which includes research and consultation, policy proposal for waste disposal units, regulatory policy for packaging and repackaging and reducing packaging for all materials, and policy proposals for pilot projects on separation of colorless plastic bottles. We also monitor deposits for empty glass bottle containers and handling fee management systems.

KZWMN helped push the government policy mandating 35% reduction in disposable products by 2022. The government’s plan will prohibit paper cups in cafés and food stores and plastic bags in stores, supermarkets, retailers, and bakeries by 2022 and in all industries by 2030. It also includes prohibition of single-use spoons and chopsticks in food deliveries by 2021 and containers that are difficult to replace are converted into eco-friendly materials or reused. In funeral halls, all single-use cups and containers will be disallowed by 2021. Government offices have prohibited umbrella plastic covers in 2020 and will prohibit it in large stores by 2022. Single-use straws will be prohibited by 2022. In lodging businesses with 50 or more rooms, there will be no provision of single-use bath products (shaving machines, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush.) by 2022 and by 2024, this policy will apply to all lodging businesses.

On top of our work on Zero Waste policies, we also conduct Zero Waste education for the youth. We engage them in campaigns and environmental monitoring activities. In the past, we have worked with around 50 schools and 4,300 participants both face-to-face and online. We also provide trainings to other environmental groups and to teachers.

We are very active too in regional activities. There are 5 regions and 53 organizations across the country who promote Zero Waste through education, campaigns, and modelling. We now have Zero Waste tourist attractions, No Plastic Zones Universities, No Plastic Festivals, and Zero Waste markets across the country. We establish models to spread a culture of Zero Waste and no to SUPs.

We also conduct Zero Waste activities with corporations such as the KZWMN-P&G Korea signages that encourage environment-friendly practices. We collaborate with them on programs to continue the Zero Waste work. Visit https://www.instagram.com/eco__mate/ and https://www.instagram.com/zerowaste_kzwmn/ to know more.

We conducted the Reduce Plastics, Cheer Up! Plastic Down Campaign with 12 distribution companies. These companies promised to work together to come up with concrete and practical measures to reduce plastic waste and spread eco-friendly consumption by recognizing corporate social responsibility. The participating companies include L’Oreal Korea, Lotte Chilsung Beverage, Market Curly, Maeil Dairy, Amorepacific, LG Household & Health Care, Coca Cola Beverage, Korea Yakult, Korea Packaging Recycling Business Credit Union, Korea P&G, CJ Cheiljedang, CJENM O Shopping, GS Home Shopping, and NS Home Shopping.

We pushed for the Packing-Delivery Plastic Reduction Commitment jointly signed by the government and the delivery companies which promised to reduce plastic use by up to 20%. This includes a plastic source reduction plan such as reducing the number of packaging-delivery containers and minimizing container thickness through container standardization. The KZWMN and delivery company program aims to reduce disposable plastic and food waste. We are working on improving the food culture to lean towards no food waste and reduce the use of disposable plastic.

We are also working on getting the commitment of electronic companies to create a sustainable waste collection system by establishing a cooperative model for the recovery of waste electronic products.

What is KZWA’s biggest accomplishments/achievements?

Our biggest accomplishment is the introduction of the volume-based waste rate system and the volume-based food waste rate system which encourages the citizens to reduce the volume of waste they produce because the more waste they produce, the bigger is the collection fee that they need to pay.

We are also successful in prohibiting the use of single-use cups and plastic bags and pushing for Extended Producer Responsibility and the Framework Act on Resource Circulation.

What challenges are you facing? How is your work impacted by the COVID crisis?

As more and more people live at home due to COVID, the use of single use items, single use food containers, and packaging waste for parcels are rapidly increasing. For personal hygiene, we are proposing a campaign to encourage everyone to bring reusable food containers and other activities to encourage the reduction of packaged waste from parcels. We are exploring platforms for using common food containers.

What are the main environmental issues that your country/region is facing?

While the use of disposable items is increasing rapidly and the amount of garbage is increasing, there is a shortage of landfills. It is said that Korea’s landfill site has only 28 years left. Due to this, wastes that cannot be disposed of in Korea are being illegally exported overseas.

Packaging material improvement campaign.

What are your thoughts on the waste crisis that many countries in your region (and in the world) are living right now?

Consumption by necessity is turning into a consumption trend for convenience and expression. The problem of increasing waste caused by the change in consumption trend, the lack of recycling, and the problem of illegal waste exportation are some of our biggest problems. The first thing we have to do is change our consumption habits and reduce unnecessary things. While doing that, we also need to call on our government to promote Zero Waste practices, and also continue the call to big corporations to transition to sustainable and environment-friendly practices.

How does your work on waste relate to social justice?

Our world is faced with waste problems, indiscriminate resource mining to create new products, poor wages for the workers, bad working conditions, exposure to chemicals that harm workers’ health, animal testing problems, and threats to marine terrestrial flora and fauna suffering from unauthorized dumping of garbage. Beyond those problems, there are other social and ethical issues that we also need to look at. All ecosystems have the right to live safely and equally. KZWNM’s role in this is to create a Zero Waste society by minimizing environmental, social, and ethical damage of our activities, solving the waste problem, and reducing the social costs of our waste.

Contributed by Junaid ul Shafi and Nalini Shekar of Hasiru Dala (India)

The pandemic has shattered the livelihoods and lives of millions of people across the globe. Established states and systems are still trembling with the jolts pandemic gave to their structures, and so are individuals. Those living a sustainable life strived to live according to their principles of sustenance. Although the lockdown enforced in response to pandemic was initially lauded by some zealots for the resulting decline in greenhouse emissions and decrease in air pollution across the globe, the pandemic increased demand and consumption of single use plastics. Likewise, people used more disposable plastic cups and takeaway containers because of fear of getting infected from possibly contaminated reusable materials.

In these times, when sustainability and survivability was a challenge, there were some people who proved to be the sign of hope and resilience. When people were struggling to feed their families, some activists from Samaritan/Civic societies and organizations were on ground trying to ensure that nobody went to sleep hungry, and that no children are malnourished due to shortage of food, while keeping the dignity and privacy of beneficiaries intact. In some cities, people joined hands to clean their streets and beaches, while in other parts they were spreading information about segregating waste and disposing bio medical waste properly and effectively.

Hasiru Dala, a social impact organization in Bengaluru, India joined citizens, the State, and the local government to ensure that hope and solidarity is provided to the community of waste pickers, in particular and to the informal workers in general. The organization was actively involved in With Bengaluru, a consortium of Bangalore based NGOs and other social impact organizations that distributed relief kits to those badly impacted by the lockdown. The organization ensured that the distribution was humane, eco-friendly, inclusive, and takes into account different organizations and vulnerable groups like sex workers, migrant laborers, the elderly, pregnant women, among others.

The organization saw a wave of resilience in different quarters of the city when different sections of people came forward to help each other in this time of crisis.

In the Bengaluru neighborhood of JP Nagar (Jayaprakash Narayan Nagara), Hasiru Dala and WoW (women of wisdom) had established a community composting facility that served 70 households. During the lockdown, the city had limited waste management services which impacted the collection system. Collection services in JP Nagar, however, were not disrupted. Sorted waste continued to be collected and handled in the Dry Waste Collection Centre (DWCC) – a neighborhood dry waste aggregation center established and supported by the state and citizens, respectively.

This was surely a demonstration of the power of decentralized, State-supported, and citizen engagement initiatives. In Bengaluru, areas where such decentralized processes were established also has similar stories. In addition, WoW and other citizen groups supported the sanitation workers with food and PPE kits. In India, most waste workers or sanitation workers come from the Dalit community, and the gap between the class and caste is huge. This pandemic broke all barriers the local citizens supported the sanitation workers with groceries and sanitation kits.

Kumudha, an informal waste worker who operated the DWCC in Ward 177, created awareness videos about the effects of irresponsible disposal of PPE on workers with clear instructions on proper disposal of PPE and other potentially infectious materials to educate the citizens around her area who regularly gave waste to her. Her awareness videos went viral over social media and were widely shared by politicians, authorities, and citizens. As a result, we started to see the difference in people’s behavior around disposal of single-use PPEs. The eco warriors in the city and the local government also promoted reusable masks rather than single-use disposable masks. Being proactive about sustainable living during the pandemic was laudable.

Hasiru Dala also created a poster that displayed a message from workers to citizens about the appropriate use of waste management systems, and created a podcast on how people could support the sanitation workers during the pandemic.

In the stories of hope and resilience that brought light to the dark phase of the pandemic lockdown is the story of Sampangi, a a waste picker who now operates an DWCC and went to the streets to find waste pickers to purchase their recyclable waste and paid them above the market prices she felt that would provide a source of income to those financially crippled while keeping their dignity intact. During the lockdown, although she suffered a loss of INR15,000 due to decline in prices of recyclable materials post-lockdown, she is glad that she was able to contribute to her community.

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GAIA is grateful for the contributions from PPLH Bali. This feature is made possible through the Zero Waste Cities project — an initiative coordinated by GAIA Asia Pacific and funded by the Plastic Solutions Fund (PSF). The views expressed in this feature do not necessarily reflect that of its funders.

20 years ago this month, a group of fiercely dedicated activists from across the globe had a vision: to create a cross-regional, grassroots network to stop the threat of incineration and build a just, zero waste future. Over the course of December, we will be featuring stories from GAIA’s founding members in five continents on what it was like to be there at the beginning, and what inherent values and ideas laid the groundwork for the powerful force that GAIA is today.

Shahriar Hossain: Coming Home

by Sherma E Benosa, Knowledge Management Officer, GAIA Asia Pacific

The 1990s were not the best of times for Bangladeshi environmentalist Dr. Shahriar Hossain. The decade saw the then thirty-something activist receiving death threats, dodging attempts on his life, and going into exile.

“In 1992-1993, we were running a campaign on a national plastic bag ban in Bangladesh,” Dr. Shahriar recalled, referring to the early work of ESDO or Environmental and Social Development Organization, which he had founded the year prior.

As the head of the organization, he was at the forefront of the campaign, and inevitably, he got the ire of the industry. “People tried to kill me several times. I requested for protection from the government, but I was denied support. I was forced out of the country instead,” he said.

Dumbfounded that the country for which he served as the youngest freedom fighter during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war had turned its back on him, the gentle, soft-spoken Dr. Shahriar packed his suitcase and left for the United States in 1994—carrying with him his vision, but leaving behind his loved ones.

“It was very difficult for me. I left behind my family in Dhaka. My children had to stay at home and not go to school for a year. My team in Bangladesh suffered but they continued their work. It was hard, but the good thing is that many came forward to support,” he recalled.

In the United States, Dr. Shahriar was provided the support and protection his own country had denied him by the Advocacy Institute of Washington, an organization that trained lobbyists in how to effectively pursue their causes. Its co-founder—David Cohen—took Dr. Shahriar under his wing.

“David was like a father to me. He helped me mentally and supported me financially,” Dr. Shahriar shared, adding that it was through Mr. Cohen that he got jobs while in exile.

Dr. Shahriar soon found himself working as International Fellowship Coordinator for the Advocacy Institute. Later he became a faculty member at the George Washington University teaching social ecology, and a contributor to the Washington Post.

But it was his work at the Advocacy Institute that proved seminal for the formation of what is now a global network of organizations and activists fighting for a toxic-free world—the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).

“During my time at the Advocacy Institute, I learned so much about incineration processes and issues. At the time, I was working in communities. In Delaware, there were communities within the incinerator facilities,” Dr. Shahriar said.

According to Dr. Shahriar, the incinerator industry had its heyday in mid- to late-1990s, peaking in the early 2000s. “It was not an easy time. Everybody was moving toward incineration. The incinerator companies were targeting Asia, Latin America, and Africa,” he shared.

Fortunately, Dr. Shahriar’s work at the Advocacy Institute involved organizing fellowships for environmentalists and activists from around the world, and Mr. Cohen gave him the space to do his own advocacy. He used these fellowships to talk to the fellows about incineration.

“The fellows showed interest in taking on the issue. We thought of creating a global movement. We thought it was high time to talk to the developing nations and bring the activists together. We thought about raising one voice together—one voice saying, ‘No to incineration!’” Dr. Shahriar said, adding that during those times, some of the fellows already had local campaigns against incinerators.

Dr. Shahriar recalled Ricardo Navarro, Paul Carter, Neil Tangri, Jayakumar Chelaton, and Bobby Peek as among the first ones to respond positively to the idea.

These conversations were followed by a flurry exchange of letters between and among Dr. Shahriar and the fellows. “There was no email yet at the time. We had to rely on fax machines and letters, but fax was not accessible in some countries, so we mostly relied on letters,” Dr. Shahriar shared.

And in December 2000, after years of dreaming together and organizing, the thinkers came together in Johannesburg, Africa, and GAIA (originally Global Anti-Incineration Alliance) was born.

Unfortunately, Dr. Shahriar did not make it to the gathering. “I sent a message which was conveyed in the meeting,” he said.

The year after, in 2001, Dr. Shahriar was back in Bangladesh. “The government invited me back and committed to support my plastic bag movement,” shared Dr. Shahriar, adding that being back home gave him “a feeling of rebirth and return to [his] freedom land.”

And true to their word, the Bangladeshi government banned plastic bags in 2002, making Bangladesh the first country in the world with such a national ban.

Immediately after, ESDO—as a founding member of GAIA—launched a national anti-incineration campaign. The organization has since launched many other campaigns, including mercury-free dentistry, Zero Waste, and a ban on single-use plastics, among others.

Meanwhile, GAIA, despite experiencing some ups and downs, has grown immensely, becoming a strong global network, especially in recent years. In 2016, it gave birth to the global movement Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) together with partner organizations.

Looking back, Dr. Shahriar can’t help but feel emotional thinking about what GAIA has become, and what it has achieved. “We have obsoleted the idea of incineration. We have put forward the idea of Zero Waste communities. We have established that if we want to have sustainable waste management, we have to move towards Zero Waste,” he said.

He also considers the birth of BFFP as among the network’s major achievements. “We thought about it in 2013. We thought of having a space that welcomes ideas even from those who are not members of GAIA, and it’s thanks to Christie Keith, (GAIA International Coordinator) for taking the idea and moving it forward,” he said.

Now a strong global movement, BFFP has campaigned, among other things, for the same thing that got him exiled and almost killed nearly 30 years ago—ban on plastic bags—and the movement has had major successes. Single-use plastics are now banned in many cities and countries around the world.

For Dr. Shahriar, it’s coming full circle. “My feeling is, we just crossed a hurdle towards a SUP-free planet, and that the war I started with a single issue of plastic bags was a starter to achieve my vision of a plastic-free world,” Dr. Shahriar said.

Although he has been fortunate to see successes in his advocacy, Dr. Shahriar believes that the work of an activist never ends. “Keep in mind that the journey you started is endless. Until your last breath, you have to move forward with your mission and commitment. Activists have to have that commitment not to give up. We may not have the results in our lifetime, but if we continue, the next generations will see results.”

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Shahriar Hossain: Coming Home

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