Locations
National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP)
Background
Plastic consumption in Cambodia is growing rapidly, becoming an increasingly integral part of daily life. Its versatility, affordability, and ability to enhance essential services like food safety have led to a widespread shift away from locally available natural materials, making plastic the preferred option across various sectors. This trend has been fueled by Cambodia’s strong economic growth, averaging 7% GDP growth over the past two decades, which has raised living standards and further embedded plastic into daily routines. As plastic use continues to expand, it is essential to maximize its benefits while mitigating the environmental and health risks associated with its waste.
To drive this progress, Cambodia launched the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) in 2023, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP). Led by the Ministry of Environment, NPAP is a cross-sector, evidence-based initiative dedicated to developing an action roadmap to reduce plastic pollution, mitigate its economic and social impacts, and accelerate Cambodia’s transition to a circular plastics economy.
NPAP Cambodia is part of the broad GPAP community of 25 NPAPs disseminated across the regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America, which makes GPAP the world’s largest initiative dedicated to combating plastic pollution.
Key Expected Outputs
A key expected outcome of NPAP Cambodia is the development of a baseline for plastic waste generation and disposal in the year 2022 and a roadmap with recommendations to address plastic pollution. Aligned with Cambodia’s national sustainability strategies—including the Pentagonal Strategy Phase 1 (2023), Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and the Circular Economy Strategy (2023–2028)—the action roadmap will provide an overview of waste flows and future projections with recommendation to increase circularity in the plastics value chain. The roadmap will be complemented by a dedicated Gender and Social inclusion assessment to ensure the needs of marginalized groups are reflected.
Achievements to Date
Since 2023, NPAP Cambodia has brought together actors across the entire plastic value chain to develop an evidence-based national action plan to reduce plastic pollution in the country. NPAP Cambodia engaged more than 100 individuals from across the government, private sector, academia and civil society in the development of the action roadmap, including members within the Metrics Advisory Group (MAG). The NPAP also developed a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) analysis of the plastic value chain in Cambodia. The findings of this analysis were integrated into the development of the current action roadmap.
The action roadmap assesses plastic waste in municipal solid waste (MSW) across five key categories, focusing on household and commercial sectors while excluding industrial waste, microplastics, and transboundary pollution. It marks a significant milestone, outlining a clear strategy to reduce plastic pollution, increase circularity to 52%, and cut mismanagement by up to 74% by 2040. It identifies key hotspots, priority areas, and targeted interventions to drive investment and collaboration. Additionally, the action roadmap contributes to Cambodia’s NDC commitments and aligns with objectives of the Global Plastic Treaty, positioning the country as a leader in plastic waste reduction while ensuring economic growth and environmental sustainability for future generations.
