Current Challenges of Circular Economy in Nepal

CURRENT CHALLENGES OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN NEPAL

Proceedings Report May 13, 2021

BACKGROUND Circular economy (CE) has long been hailed as the key to addressing the ongoing finite resources crisis and production of waste. As one of the fastest-growing global economies, it has been more important than ever for Nepal to hop onto the bandwagon and leverage the benefits of this approach. Since CE is about different stakeholders working together to create effective flows of materials and information, this session brought together policymakers and practitioners to delineate the current practices.

OPENING SESSION Nona Deprez, Her Excellency Ambassador and Head of Delegation of The European Union to Nepal

SPEAKERS Anouk Tamrakar Versteeg, Co-Founder, Timro Platform Dr. Arab Hoballah, Team leader, EU SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility Raghavendra Mahto, Co-Founder, Doko Recyclers

MODERATOR Sadikchya Singh, Coordinator, Himalayan Circular Economy Forum

CLOSING REMARKS Eloisa Astudillo Fernandez, Deputy Head of Cooperation, European Union Delegation to Nepal

OPENING SESSION Nona Deprez Her Excellency Ambassador and Head of Delegation of The European Union To Nepal In her opening remark, Her Excellency Nona Deprez highlighted the European Green Deal’s importance to help mitigate, adapt to and reduce the impacts of climate change. The EuropeanUnion (EU) envisages a green and sustainable economic future and aims to achieve carbon-neutral status by 2050.

To aid the EU in achieving the same, the green deal amalgamates the biodiversity strategy, Farm to Fork strategy, and Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). The blend of these three pillars remains vital for the wholeworld including Nepal, a nation extremely vulnerable to climate change. The first building block of the European Green Deal is the biodiversity strategy that focuses on establishing protected areas in 30 percent of land and sea area of the EU territory and planting over 30 billion trees by 2030 to restore degraded ecosystems.

According to Her Excellency, this strategy also remains extremely important for Nepal as biodiversity loss is a huge threat to the Himalayan region. Similarly, she believes the second building block of the European GreenDeal, the Farm to Fork strategy, is crucial to Nepal as it helps tackle the problem of soil pollution, promote soil conservation and encourage consumers to attain healthier diets.

Finally, the third building block and topic of the virtual session, CEAP, aims to reduce pressure on natural resources by working on different stages of a product’s life cycle and essentially creating a secondary market for raw materials.

CURRENT CHALLENGES OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN NEPAL

SPEAKERS Anouk Tamrakar Versteeg Co-Founder, Timro Platform Anouk started by linking CE to her work as a manufacturing consultant working with brands that aim for sustainable manufacturing processes and packaging solutions, efficient use of resources, shorter supply chains, and transparency in the sourcing of raw materials.

Outlining the challenges, she mentioned how finding sustainable packaging materials locally has been a major obstacle for producers in Nepal. This has caused businesses to import packaging materials from Europe, only for the final products to be sent back to Europe, a highly unsustainable practice. Another hurdle is the lack of favorable policies. or instance, there are no policies that facilitate extraction and processing of natural resources such as gemstones in Nepal and this has been hindering local businesses and further adding to non-circular practices.

Along with the government, large-scale industries also have an important role in ensuring sustainability. Currently, such industries prefer exporting their products rather than supplyingthem to local markets, which compel the latter to import low-quality materials following longer supply chains. Anouk mentioned that this issue can be solved with policies that ensure large industries availtheir products to the localmarkets.

Lastly, Anouk stressed how Nepalis need to look for inspiration in the local cultures of reusing and being responsible, insteadof adhering to modern consumption behaviors.

CURRENT CHALLENGES OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN NEPAL

Dr. Arab Hoballah Team Leader, EU SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility An avid advocate of sustainable consumption production for thirty years now, Dr. Arab Habollah drove home the point that switching to a circular economy (CE) has become an absolute necessity. He expounded on the strategies that the EU has adopted under the green deal, mainly industrial and plastic strategies, which are both intrinsically linked to the CEAP. He further underscored the role of policy and legislative frameworks in designing sustainable products and incentivizing consumers to make conscious consumption choices. Moreover, it is imperative that the local authorities are given the responsibilities well as the means to given the responsibilities well as the means to manage their cities since the transition to CE happens at the local level rather than national, in the view of Dr. Arab.

He explained that local taxation is extremely crucial in this regard, a system largely absent in many developing countries of Asia where local bodies heavily depend on resources trickling down from the central government.

Furthermore, as one of the intervention strategies, Dr. Arab talked about common but differentiated responsibilities, whereby different stakeholders are held accountable at different levels. Lastly, he remarked on the business rationale for switching to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and CE, explaining how this transition makes good business sense beyond the obvious environmental implications.

CURRENT CHALLENGES OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN NEPAL

Raghavendra Mahto Co-Founder, Doko Recyclers

Raghavendra began by explaining the business model of Doko Recyclers, a solid waste management company operating in Kathmandu valley. Through the course of the discussion, he illustrated his experiences and challenges in waste management and provided suggestions to solve the waste crisis.

Raghavendra highlighted the lack of PublicPrivatePartnership models and policies for waste management. This, he opined, has dissuaded investment and private companies from supporting recycling industries which, in turn, obstructs innovation and modernization of the current waste infrastructure. He moved on to talk about the two huge categories of waste, namely plastic waste and e-waste. While there are challenges in collecting, processing, and recycling plastic waste, there is a lack of proper infrastructure to manage e-waste. Currently, most of the e-waste is managed by kabadiwalas (informal waste pickers)whose important role is usually not acknowledged. Adding to this is the low participation of importers and brand owners of electronic goods in the proper disposal and management of e-waste.

Raghavendra believes that there is room for bringing efficiency in the current wasteinfrastructure starting from segregation to recycling. He proposed simple solutions like leveraging the strength of the informalrecycling sector and holding producersaccountable through policieslike Extended ProducerResponsibility.

CURRENT CHALLENGES OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN NEPAL

MODERATOR Sadikchya Singh Coordinator, Himalayan Circular Economy Forum Sadikchya framed the discussion around ways to move away from the current unsustainable linear model and address the issue of finite resources crisis along with learning from the best practices of the EU which has been a leading force with its innovation in CE-related processes and policies.

She wrapped up the discussion with three takeaways: A circular economy is a means, it is not an end. It works if it can transform systems and is viewed with a holistic lens.

Translating the policies of CE at the local level is crucial because change happens at the local level, not at the national level. Hence, it is important to put the local level at the center and recognize opportunities that drive positive social change and economic transformation.

Circular Economy is not a choice anymore, it is a necessity. The future is decided by what we create today. Therefore, efficient utilization of resources, sustainable packaging solutions, and policies for an enhanced supply chain need to be the key focus areas.

CURRENT CHALLENGES OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN NEPAL

CLOSING SPEAKER Eloisa Astudillo Fernandez Deputy Head of Cooperation, European Union Delegation to Nepal Eloisa stressed the urgency for Nepal in making the shift from a linear to a circular economy. As one of the fastest urbanizing countries in South Asia with an increasing number of people in the middle-class category, she opined that it is necessary to bring immediate changes to the existing system.

She further raised the question of accountability regarding the overuse and misuse of resources and their consequences. As accountability comes at different levels from individuals to small and large manufacturer, to the government we must nsure there are mechanisms to ensure the right individuals and groups are held accountable.

Lastly, Eloisa believes that local bodies and municipalities throughout the country need to be empowered to understand the opportunities they have in working with the local businesses to bring new principles on circularity and help actualize the much-needed shift.

CURRENT CHALLENGES OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN NEPAL