CMA

71 Pilots in Thailand Some Waste landfills and dumpsites in Thailand contain up to 42% plastic. There are about 2500 of these scattered around the country, which together will contain up to 190 million tonnes of accumulated plastic waste if representative (Sharma et al., 2020). We have entered into an agreement with the second largest cement producer in the country, which extract plastic waste from dumpsites and use it as a coal substitute. There is a great interest in utilizing resources and cleaning up landfills and dumpsites in Asia they occupy large areas of valuable land and contributes with local and global pollution. We also intend to investigate and document the environmental implications and benefits of landfill mining together with the Asian Institute of Technology. The pilot demonstrations will be conducted in 2022. Pilots in China The Yangtze River in China is draining waste materials from hundreds of millions of people which leads to turbine problems in a large hydropower dam located in Hubei Province. We entered into an agreement with Huaxin cement in the town of Zigui, located upstream of the dam, to document the possibility of collecting and co- processing floating materials from the river, including large quantities of plastic. A Pilot Demonstration was conducted in Yangtze River with Huaxin Cement in December 2020. The result – as much as 20 000 tons of plastic waste can yearly be prevented from potentially reaching our oceans. Pilots in Vietnam Asian paper mills use mostly used paper and cardboard imported from Europe and the Middle East in their production of new paper. Used paper with laminated plastic is a major waste problem throughout Asia. We entered into an agreement with Vietnam’s largest Paper producer, which is located at the Mekong River and produces large quantities of Non-Recyclable Plastic Waste, such as pieces of tape, laminated plastic pieces and stickers In December 2021 we conducted a pilot demonstration in the INSEE cement plant located in Hon Chong, Kien Giang province, to assess the suitability and feasibility of co-processing such wastes. In Vietnam we will also cooperate with UNDP in their project “Scaling Up a Socialised Model of Domestic Waste and Plastics Management in Five Cities”. The OPTOCE project will collect the non-recyclable fraction of plastic waste and use it as fuel in the INSEE cement plant in Hon Chong. Pilots in Myanmar Myanmar has currently no treatment options for non-recyclable plastic wastes. Together with environmental authorities MONREC-ECD and Myanmar’s largest waste management company, we will initiate demonstration experiments in cement factories outside Mandalay and Yangon and assess whether plastic waste can be handled in an environmentally sound manner by involving the industry. Due to the military coup in February 2021, the project activities in Myanmar have been put on hold. SINTEF is, however, discussing with the private companies operating in Myanmar, on possible collaboration on building capacity of the Myanmar cement industry and conducting a pilot demonstration in a suitable cement plant, without active involvement of the government authorities. Pilots in India OPTOCE activities in India is part of the India- Norway Marine Pollution Initiative, which has four other projects, managed by Indian and Norwegian partners, and coordinated by UN Environment. The programme steering committee of the initiative comprises of members from Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Central Pollution Control Board, NITI Ayog, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, UN Environment, TERI, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy. SINTEF regularly presents on the progress of the OPTOCE project in the steering committee meetings. Ghazipur pilot project which was principally approved by Principal Scientific Advisor’s (PSA) Office of GOI was cancelled in Q2 2021 because of Covid-19 related & other delays. The pilot project aimed to