LocationsPlastic Reboot
Background
Plastic is deeply embedded in how food and beverages are produced, packaged, and consumed. From bottles and sachets to takeaway containers and cutlery, single-use plastics dominate this sector – enabling convenience but generating vast amounts of short-lived waste. In many developing countries, these items are among the top sources of plastic leakage into nature, clogging drainage systems, polluting rivers and coastlines, and undermining local economies such as tourism and fisheries.
While waste collection and recycling systems play an important role, they alone cannot solve the problem. Most of these plastics are difficult to recover economically, and much of the waste is either burned, dumped, or lost to the environment. Reducing pollution from the food and beverage sector, therefore, requires action further upstream – rethinking how products are designed, packaged, and delivered to consumers.
Plastic Reboot was established to drive this transformation. The programme focuses on advancing upstream and midstream circular solutions that prevent plastic waste at its source – eliminating unnecessary items, redesigning packaging for reuse and recyclability, and ensuring materials stay in circulation and out of nature.
Implemented through a Global Project and 15 National Projects, Plastic Reboot brings together governments, businesses, civil society organisations, and development partners to reform policies, shift markets, and scale practical alternatives to single-use plastics in the food and beverage sector. UNDP supports six countries in implementing or executing national project activities.
Project overview
Lead and participating agencies: UNEP and WWF (co-lead), UNDP, UNIDO
UNDP-supported countries: Cambodia (executing agency), Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Morocco (executing agency), Senegal
Project duration: 2024 - 2030
Project status: Ongoing
Total budget: GEF: $ 25,729,970, Co-financing: $ 243,383,614
Project objectives
Plastic Reboot aims to transform how plastics are produced, consumed, collected, and financed in the food and beverage sector. The programme promotes circular systems that prevent waste generation, improve material recovery, and make sustainable business models the norm rather than the exception.
Key interventions include:
Eliminating and reducing problematic and unnecessary plastics by advancing policies and business models that avoid short-lived single-use items and expand reuse and refill systems.
Designing for circularity, including improving recyclability and reusability, phasing out problematic additives and formats, and increasing the use of recycled or responsibly sourced bio-based materials.
Creating enabling conditions – such as extended producer responsibility (EPR), deposit–refund schemes, and financial incentives – that make circular models operational and financially viable.
Supporting local implementation through pilots in tourism, retail, hospitality, and distribution systems to test and scale practical circular solutions.
Facilitating knowledge exchange and South–South cooperation to replicate successful approaches and accelerate learning across participating countries.
