Turning the Tide:
How Can Indonesia
CLOSE THE LOOP
on Plastic Waste?
April 2021
7
ChinaEnvironmentForum
The Wilson Center
, established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Wash-ington, D.C., is a living national memorial to President Wilson. The Center’s mission is to commemorate the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson by providing a link between
the worlds of ideas and policy, while fostering research, study, discussion, and collaboration
among a broad spectrum of individuals concerned with policy and scholarship in national
and international affairs. Supported by public and private funds, the Center establishes and
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or any individuals or organizations that provide financial support to the Center.
INSIGHTOUT
is a China Environment Forum (CEF) publication series that began in
2014. Past issues have covered topics including closing the loop on wastewater in China, the coal-water risk in China, wastewater as a source of clean energy in the United States
and China, and how energy efficiency can stem air pollution. This seventh issue, “How
Can Indonesia Close the Loop on Plastic Waste?” is part of CEF’s
Turning the Tide: Japa-
nese-U.S. Partnerships to Slow Ocean Plastic Pollution in Asia
, a project carried out in
partnership with the Institute of Developing Economies and made possible with generous
support from the Japan Foundation’s Center for Global Partnership. Issue 8 will focus on
U.S. and Chinese opportunities to close the loop on plastic waste.
Senior Editor:
Jennifer L. Turner
Research Content Supervisor:
Michikazu Kojima
Managing Editors:
Eli J. Patton and Hazel Ruyi Li
Graphic Designers:
Kerrin Cuison and Kathy Butterfield
Copy Editors:
Clare Auld-Brokish, Karen Mancl, and Tongxin Zhu
COVER PHOTO: By Sony Herdiana / Shutterstock.com
B
China Environment Forum’s Role as Convener and Catalyst for Action
Since 1997, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum (CEF) has carried out
research and exchange projects that bring together American, Chinese, and other Asian
experts to explore the most imperative environmental and sustainable development
issues both inside China and in the greater Asian region. The networks built and knowl-
edge gathered through meetings, publications, and research activities have established
CEF as one of the most reliable sources for information on China/Asian environment
trends and bolstered CEF’s capability to undertake long-term and specialized projects on topics such as clean energy development in U.S. and China, water-energy confron-tations, environmental justice, Japan-China-U.S. clean water networks, water conflict resolution, food safety, and environmental activism and green journalism in China. Our current initiatives:•
Turning the Tide: Japanese-U.S. Partnerships to Slow Ocean Plastic Pollution in Asia
is a comprehensive two-year research and convening project to examine
the sources and causes of plastic waste in China and Southeast Asia and iden-
tify possible innovative solutions through cooperation, technology, and policy.
The Institute of Developing Economies and China Dialogue are project partners.•
The Plastic Pipeline: A Serious Game for Plastic Reduction Education
is an educational video game project created in partnership with the Wilson Center’s Serious Games Initiative that aims to bring the complex world of plastic policy to the fingertips of people around the world and to spread knowledge about the sources of and solutions to plastic waste leakage.•
U.S.-China Energy and Climate Action
is an ongoing series of meetings and
blogs that keep a finger on the pulse of emerging trends in clean energy and
climate action in the world’s two largest energy users.•
Fishing for Solutions
is a research project in partnership with China Dialogue
aimed at understanding the impacts of China’s distant fishing fleets and outbound overseas investment on the fish stocks, societies, and environment in Latin Amer-
ica and Southeast Asia.