CMA

68 Dr Karstensen, Kåre Helge, Paulsen, Anneli Alatalo and Saha, Palash Kumar Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF), Oslo, Norway Ocean Plastic Turned into an Opportunity in Circular Economy ABSTRACT The regional project Ocean Plastic Turned into an Opportunity in Circular Economy – OPTOCE - will investigate how the involvement of private Energy Intensive Industries, like cement manufacturing, can increase the treatment capacity for Non-recyclable Plastic Wastes in China, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The “OPTOCE countries” have currently the highest plastic consumption in the world, producing an estimated 176000 tonnes of plastic waste per day, or around 64 million tonnes annually; large parts are dumped. On the other hand, OPTOCE countries produce around 75% of the world’s cement, steel and electric power, in tens of thousands of plants using huge amounts of coal and contribute with much more than 30% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Replacing parts of this coal with non-recyclable waste is called Co-processing and represents a win-win concept – saving potentially large amounts coal, reducing the release of plastics to the ocean and indirectly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Pilot Demonstrations replacing coal with non- recyclable plastic wastes will be carried out in local plants in all the countries in order to investigate and showcase the feasibility, to prove the concept under various local conditions and to uncover limitations of the practice. Lessons learned from all the Pilot demonstrations will be shared in National workshops and in the annual Regional multi-stakeholder forum enabling awareness raising, south-south capacity building and possible replication of success stories. Introduction This project is part of the Norwegian Development Programme to Combat Marine Litter and Microplastics launched in 2018. The programme is intended to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.1 which states that by 2025, the world should prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds (Regjeringen, 2020). The problem An estimated amount of 13 million tonnes of plastic leak into our oceans every year, harming biodiversity, economies and, potentially, our own health (The State of Plastics, 2018). If nothing is done, the amount is expected to triple by 2040 (Breaking the Plastic Wave, 2020). Reasons of the problems International action is key to tackle the most significant sources of plastics litter in the oceans, i.e., insufficient waste management in developing countries and emerging economies, especially connected to major world river basins, dumpsites/ landfills, and industrial hotspots. It is estimated that more than 80% of marine debris comes from land-based sources and Asian countries are among the top contributors to marine litter and microplastics (Jambeck et al., 2015).