A regional “Plastics Free Rivers and Seas for South Asia” project with the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program, starting implementation in 2020 recognizes that action and solutions across countries are required to tackle some plastic waste challenges countries cannot achieve alone. A baseline study is needed to help support future investment support identification and ongoing regional and national work of the World Bank by increasing the depth and breadth of information needed to set a more effective baseline to define, advance, and monitor inter-connections and regional action to reduce plastic waste flows into rivers and seas and the circularity of plastics.

A baseline study will build on and supplement existing reports and studies as a critical first step to understand the current status to ensure a more harmonized and strategic approach to address issues and measure the impacts of interventions.

II. Overall Study Objectives: The primary objective of this Consultancy is to take stock of baseline information for plastic waste leakage into rivers and seas to build a more harmonized regional monitoring, management, and policy framework for plastic waste reduction and enable a more circular economy model for plastics in the South Asia Region.

The proposed assignment will document the current status of plastic pollution and its value chain (e.g., hotspots for river and marine plastic debris, waste composition, material flow of waste plastics), regulatory gap analysis, and identification of relevant stakeholders involved in the life-cycle of plastic and their needs, and possible recycling technology and innovations, etc.

The study will help to assess the current information base and operating framework and status for the 8 individual countries of the region (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and present a more aggregated regional understanding of similarities and key differences, interconnections within and across the region, and inter-connections of the regional as a whole with other parts of the world. Both regional and country specific data and information should be collected in a consistent way and analyzed in a comparative manner. Where relevant, sub-national and sector specific distinctions should also be assessed.

Task 0: Inception

Task 1: Material flow analysis for waste plastics

Task 2: Regulatory and policy and programs stocktaking and gap analysis

Task 3: Stakeholder and socio-economic analysis

Task 4: Hotspots assessment for marine plastic debris