Reduce, Reuse, Irradiate: IAEA Supports Partnerships in Asia and the Pacific to Recycle Plastic Waste

As accumulating plastic waste continues to threaten human health and life under water, experts and decision-makers in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have sought innovative, upstream solutions to reduce plastic waste and are now benefitting from IAEA support through the NUclear TEChnology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) initiative.

NUTEC Plastics takes a two-pronged approach, channelling support towards both marine monitoring of microplastics such as recently in the Antarctic, and plastic recycling and upcycling initiatives to reduce plastic waste. The upstream component supports the development of innovative technologies using nuclear irradiation to transform plastic waste and biomass into high-performance, value-added products. It primarily targets hard-to-recycle plastics and the development of bio-based plastics, offering sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic products and paving the way for a circular economy.

Since the launch of NUTEC Plastics in 2020, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have been at the forefront of NUTEC's research component, which aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using nuclear irradiation to recycle plastic waste.

To help accelerate the development and adoption of the recycling technology, the IAEA has implemented a series of regional technical cooperation (TC) projects^1/ which have facilitated new partnerships between the national nuclear institutions of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines and counterparts in the private sector.

A series of national stakeholder meetings organized through these projects between 2022 and 2024^2/ enabled countries' experts to contact domestic companies working in polymer recycling. In 2024, those contacts matured into formal partnerships which are developing prototype recycling facilities that will eventually be scaled up for commercial operations.