International waste management charity Wasteaid has announced a two-year partnership worth €900,000 (£800,000) with sustainable food packaging company Huhtamaki to drive community-level circular economy innovation in Vietnam, India and South Africa. The project funding will allow WasteAid to deliver education and training on circular systems in Johannesburg (South Africa), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) and Guwahati (India), working with local stakeholders to boost local waste management solutions, creating value and reducing waste in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
With two billion people around the world lacking access to waste collections and the waste of some three billion people being disposed of through unregulated dumping and burning, the new programme will accelerate knowledge transfer to develop alternatives to dumping and burning to address local health problems and build stronger local economies. The project will focus on educating diverse local communities via a cloud-based learning platform, networking events and training programmes, while also running local innovation competitions to inspire local sustainable solutions.
Commenting on the project, WasteAid CEO Ceris Turner-Bailes said: “The shift towards a circular economy offers vast potential for global development and WasteAid is proud to be at the forefront of that change. This major partnership between WasteAid and Huhtamaki offers the opportunity for greater impact and is a huge milestone in the development of WasteAid as an organisation. We’re delighted to be working with the Huhtamaki team and look forward to delivering this groundbreaking initiative over the coming two years.” Huhtamaki’s funding is part of €3 million (£2.7 million) it is donating to sustainability initiatives around the world to spur innovation and build circular economy initiatives.
Source: Resource
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