PUA Year 3 Quarterly Report 1: October 2021 – December 2021

PUA works to address both the challenge of excessive plastic waste and the potential to develop a competitive 'plastics circular economy' in Timor-Leste. The PUA is implemented by Mercy Corps, in partnership with USAID, and leveraged engagement from private sector partners Heineken and Caltech. The PUA is funded through a $900,000 investment from USAID, with an additional $1.35 million from private-sector investment. The PUA seeks to catalyze the growth of a plastics recycling industry, creating and expanding valuable employment and entrepreneurship opportunities with the potential to improve the natural beauty of Timor-Leste and protect the health and safety of its people. The goal is to advance Timor-Leste towards a 'plastic neutral' status whereby unnecessary plastic use is curtailed and replaced, and up to 20% of Dili's plastic waste is collected and recycled into locally sought-after products within three years. Under this goal are three activity objectives: (1) Reduce Plastic Use, (2) Increase Plastic Recycling, and (3) Improve Plastics Management. The technical approach is built on the premise of multi-tiered stakeholder participation in the plastics recycling industry, whereby plastic by-products are collected from businesses and industry actors, waste contractors collect and sell plastic waste from community recycling bins, and waste pickers collect plastic waste directly from households, as well as discarded plastic waste in the community. Once collected, the plastic waste will be sold to aggregators and micro-processors, who aggregate, clean, sort, and/or shred plastics, creating a value-added product for sale onwards to upcyclers and asphalt producers. Key achievements of Quarter 1, Year 3 include strengthening cooperation with government to inspire policy reform, building partnerships for the piloting of plastic asphalt technologies, and exploring new collaboration opportunities under the Plastics Solutions Alliance. The members of the Plastics Solutions Alliance intensified their networking to examine new cooperation opportunities, including their shared interest in assessing solutions to power plastic recycling from renewable energy, and in researching a new line of recycled pavers made from a unique blend of plastic and food waste. The program is focused on Timor-Leste, a country that became independent in 2002 after decades of conflict. Today, Timor-Leste is a more peaceful, democratic nation, but poverty levels remain very high, and economic growth has centered on the country's natural resources, including oil. This growth has resulted in a rise in waste production, including plastic waste, which poses risks to human health and safety and jeopardizes the growth potential of the country's nascent but promising tourism industry.