From Waste to Wealth: Small and Medium Enterprises-led Plastic Recycling for a Circular Economy in Cambodia and Pakistan

The project “From Waste to Wealth: Small and Medium Enterprises-led Plastic Recycling for a Circular Economy” was launched by the United Nations Environment Programme – International Environmental Technology Centre (UNEP-IETC), with financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan through its Japan Supplementary Budget (MOFA-JSB). Recognizing the pressing need to reduce plastic pollution and promote resource circulation in developing countries, the project aimed to strengthen the capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as key actors in the plastic recycling value chain. It focused on two pilot countries—Cambodia and Pakistan—where the potential to build inclusive, locally adapted plastic recycling models is high, but where enabling conditions and technical knowledge are still evolving.