Dirty, difficult and dangerous: Establishing a plastics waste upcycling system in Nepal

In large parts of the global South, conventional methods of treating plastic waste including: recycling, banning of single use plastics, extended producer responsibility systems, and attempts to reuse plastic waste have largely failed to reduce increasing volumes of untreated waste in the face of limited policy resources and capacity. This article explores the potential for creating plastic upcycling markets that would be financially self-sustaining through using plastic waste to develop valuable new products. The methodology is to explore a case study, the Plastic to Ghar project in Nepal, which seeks to incubate new upcycling businesses, with a focus on rural areas that lack proper waste management. The project proves the viability of creating customizable useful products for secondary markets from plastic waste. The lessons center around the need to pay attention to developing sustainable business models and more robust policy support to complement technological solutions. • The growing global issue of plastic waste can be offset by upcycling it into new and useful products. • This article relays the lessons from the Plastic to Ghar upcycling project in Nepal. • The lessons include the centrality of policy support and the challenges of developing sustainable business models.