Zero Waste Academy: Stories of Impact

GAIA Asia Pacific, in partnership with Mother Earth Foundation (MEF) Philippines, has been conducting a capacity-building workshop to capacitate members of the network and government officials to implement a community Zero Waste program since 2017.

Called Zero Waste Academy (ZWA), the workshop is an immersive 10-day course aimed at capacitating members and other stakeholders on how to implement a Zero Waste program in their respective cities and communities. Putting emphasis on experiential learning, the course provides a well-thought out mix of lectures, hands-on exercises, site visits and community engagements, demo-sessions, and networking opportunities.

Thus far, five in-person ZWAs have been conducted from 2017 to 2019.

In 2020-2022, GAIA Asia Pacific and MEF conducted other iterations of the academy, albeit virtually because of the lockdowns imposed by governments. Yaksa Pelestari Bumi Berkelanjutan (YPBB) Bandung likewise held other Zero Waste Academies on their own to support AZWI members in implementing Zero Waste in their communities.

As in any workshop, an essential measure of success of the workshop is how the graduates apply in their own contexts the lessons and skills they gained from their participation. GAIA Asia Pacific is immensely proud that five years since the first in-person ZWA, and three years since the last one, many of our graduates continued to champion Zero Waste in their own communities and countries, and many of them even spearheaded innovative and impactful Zero Waste initiatives and/or led campaigns such as plastic-free and anti-waste-to-energy (WtE) campaigns.

This publication is an initial attempt to document our graduates’ work to understand the academy’s impact on their work and their communities. This volume is not exhaustive — our intention is to periodically check on our graduates to celebrate their success in their own communities.

May you be inspired by our initial offering. Our graduates, without a doubt, are making the world a better
place. But do not take our word for it; read the pages of our publication and see for yourself!

A publication highlighting the work and realities of waste pickers in India.

There is no dearth of women environmental leaders in Asia Pacific. In the past decades, the region has become host to many impactful environmental initiatives and campaigns spearheaded by women leaders who not only dared to dream of a better future, but also rolled their sleeves up to ensure that the better future they dreamed of would become a reality.

But while there is general awareness that women play crucial roles in driving societal changes, exactly what they have done, and how massive their impact has been are often told sparingly, if at all. The spotlight is seldom shone on women leaders. And when it is, they are either made to share it with their male counterparts, or the spotlight shone upon them does not shine bright enough to adequately highlight their impact. 

Hence, this publication.

Vision and Grit: Exceptional Zero Waste Women in the Asia Pacific Region was conceived out of the realization that we have yet to truly take stock of the invaluable contributions of women leaders in Asia Pacific, particularly in the Zero Waste movement. It features 14 women leaders across the region whose initiatives have made a huge impact in their communities and have served as an inspiration for others to do the same. Because of their work, thousands of lives have been changed for the better, progressive policies and regulations have been instituted at various levels, enabling conditions for more sustainable options have been jump started, and Zero Waste models have been developed. Admittedly, so much still needs to be done at various fronts, but so much has also been achieved. Change is actually happening, and it is hugely thanks to our women leaders. 

Pore over the pages of this book and learn about some of the women who have helped make the world we live in a better place, and be inspired by their compassion, determination, and grit. Read their stories and understand their motivations, and be amazed and grateful that they stood up for what they believed in when they did, and continued the fight even when things were difficult. Our current realities may still be filled with challenges, but it is less so because women of character and strength live among us.

We are excited to share with you GAIA’s Shared-Tools Program!

WHAT IS THE SHARED-TOOLS PROGRAM?
As GAIA members, you have the opportunity to access several paid accounts of online tools that you can utilize for your campaigns. These online tools include Zoom accounts (both for meetings and webinars), Canva, Mentimeter, and Streamyard.

HOW TO AVAIL:

  • Zoom (in the meantime, reach out to Trish)
  • Registration link to access Canva, Streamyard, Mentimeter (please reach out to Trish)
  • Please wait for the confirmation email that includes the login details.

Thank you for your cooperation!

If you need training on any of these tools, please reach out to Trish Parras [patricia@no-burn.org]

Once faced with waste management challenges exacerbated by tourism, two communes in Hoi An, Vietnam — Cam Thanh and Cham Islands (Tan Hiep Commune) — have become the faces of Zero Waste through the collaboration of stakeholders from the government, community organizations, farmers’ associations, businesses, and tourism associations.

Island communities face more challenges when confronted with the problems posed by single-use plastics. As a response to these challenges, GAIA Island communities face more challenges when confronted with the problems posed by single-use plastics. As a response to these challenges, GAIA Asia Pacific is launching this latest publication, Community Voices: Impacts of Single-Use Plastic Regulations on Philippine Coastal Communities. This highlights different experiences of waste management implementors from Siquijor, San Carlos, and Dumaguete City in implementing their single-use plastic regulations.

When China closed its borders to foreign waste in 2018, countries in Southeast Asia were flooded with garbage masquerading as recycling, primarily from wealthy countries in the Global North. This investigative report uncovers how communities on the ground were impacted by the sudden influx of foreign pollution, and how they’re fighting back.

With organics making up more than 50% of solid waste in Asia, managing this waste stream will have a huge impact on waste management and the reduction of methane emissions. 

With superb illustrations and easy-to-follow instructions, “Back to Earth” encourages people to explore every facet of composting: whether in a sprawling backyard or in a limited space such as a high-rise apartment, composting can be customized to suit any situation. 

The most important message, however, is that composting is a simple and yet effective step anyone can take to help alleviate the burden on our landfills, replenish soil nutrients, and reduce carbon and methane emissions. 


The scale of global plastic pollution has been brought to light in recent years. Over 300 million tonnes of plastic is produced each year, and more than 90 percent of it ends up in landfills, waste dumps, incinerators, and on lands and waterways. Like many other countries in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is dealing with growth in both domestic consumption of single-use plastic and waste arriving at the ports in the name of trade. Indonesia has been labelled as the second largest contributor to ocean plastic leakage after China. In addition to the amount estimated to leak into waterways and the ocean (9 percent of the 4.8 million tonnes of plastic waste generated in Indonesia every year), the majority of plastic waste in the country is being inadequately managed through open burning (48 percent), dumping on land or dumpsites (13 percent).

In response to the unprecedented plastic pollution crisis, fast-moving consumer goods companies and the petrochemical industry have supported and promoted countless miraculous-sounding technologies, pushing back on their bad reputations as major plastic polluters. CreaSolv is Unilever Indonesia’s flagship project on this front, and the media has touted it as an example of a technological innovation that can solve the entire global plastic waste problem by recycling the lowest-value plastic.

Two years after the highly-celebrated launch of the pilot plant in Indonesia in 2017, however, the fuss around the CreaSolv project quieted down as the company secretly shuttered the operation. Reports from local investors revealed multi-layered fallout of the CreaSolv project, from the logistical difficulties of sachet collection through challenged economics around the end products.

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