In Indonesia, the annual waste generation is estimated to be up to 6.8 million tonnes. (Photo: AFP/VNA) From the group of innovators, 18 finalists wereselected from seven countries – Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore,Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, the UNDP said in a press release.
To help address the worsening plastic problem, UNDPlaunched the Ending Plastic Pollution Innovation Challenge (EPPIC) Phase IIearly this year with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs andthe Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).
EPPIC seeks to find innovative ways to fight oceanplastic, that are under development but lack the support or visibility to grow.For this year’s challenge, the proposed solutions will be piloted in twohigh-traffic sites, the Mandalika, Lombok Island in Indonesia and Samal Islandin the Philippines; with the ambition to scale up innovations.
In the Philippines, up to 60 billion plastic sachetsare used each year, with Samal Island generating approximately 15,000 tonnes ofwastes annually.
In Indonesia, the annual waste generation is estimatedto be up to 6.8 million tonnes, with Mandalika, Lombok Island total household wastegeneration reaching 215.7 tonnes per year (during pandemic) and the tourismsector contributing more than 13,731 tonnes/year before the pandemic.
Both sites had a high-foot traffic of tourists priorthe COVID-19 pandemic. Among the most common types of waste generated in bothislands are PET bottles and other plastic food packaging.
The EPPIC Finalists will join a three-month incubationprogram in the Philippines and Indonesia to be delivered by business incubatorsstarting in July 2021.
They will undergo an extensive training on varioustopics such as the circular economy, impact measurement, the SustainableDevelopment Goals, marketing and crowdfunding as well as leveraging financialsupport and accelerating their networks. The EPPIC Finalists will have thechance to improve their proposed solutions to maximize their impact and tailortheir ideas to the local contexts.
The top four winners will be selected in October 2021during the EPPIC Final Pitching Competition, where each of them will receive18,000USD in equity-free seed funding to implement their proposed solutions over thenine-month impact acceleration process in Lombok and Samal Island./.
VNA
