EU Rules and Supply Limits Test Asia’s Access to Key Export Markets as Plasticity Forum Returns to Malaysia for Solutions
Published on 08 October 2026 by Channel News Asia
Companies selling into Europe are about to find out whether their supply chains are ready for the rules. On 21 November, the European Union will ban plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries, and its new vehicle and packaging regulations will increasingly require recycled content in the products they sell. Just days before, on 16 and 17 November, the Plasticity Forum Kuala Lumpur (KL) 2026 will bring brands, manufacturers, plastic makers, and policymakers to M Hotel in Kuala Lumpur to ask how the region secures the materials it needs and stays competitive as the rules tighten.
After 9 Years, China Is Reopening Its Borders To Recycled Plastic
Published on 21 August 2026 by The Diplomat
In November 2026, the European Union will prohibit exports of potentially recyclable plastic to non-OECD countries. The EU labeled these exports “waste” and described the cross-border flows as “environmental exploitation.”
At the same time that the EU is shutting down the trade, China has reversed course and committed to expanding the movement of recyclable plastic across its border. For most of the past decade, China was closed to imports of plastic waste entirely.
To cut plastic pollution, mandate recycled content and allow for trade and global circularity
Published on 13 August 2026 by London School of Economics
After climate change, few environmental problems are more pressing and complex than plastic pollution. In recent months, turbulence in the Middle East forced a rethink of energy markets and global supply chains. Since virgin plastic is made almost entirely from fossil fuel, the economics of plastic is closely tied to oil prices.
The result has been some small but encouraging signs of adaptation to oil volatility. Recycled plastic has quietly won contracts it could not have competed for before. As the Strait of Hormuz lurches between opening and closure, the question becomes whether the status quo will simply be restored, leaving the oil-based plastic industry unshaken.
Is ‘waste’ really a barrier to the circular economy?
Published on 23 April 2024 by China Daily
In 1967, in his Academy Award-winning role in The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman was told that the future is “plastics”. Today, plastic pollution is one of the top three environmental topics and challenges for all of our economies. Arguably, the “future” is how to recover all the plastic that stains our environment and waters today. However, one of the challenges for remediation and improvements is that many different stakeholders suggest that plastic recycling does not work and has never lived up to its promises, so trust has been lost across many international jurisdictions.
In contrast, and at the same time, many of the same stakeholders are suggesting that the world needs to move into circular economy systems for the preservation and reuse of materials instead of continuing to exploit virgin materials. This might be difficult to accomplish, but it is certainly possible to make significant strides in the direction of circularity, once our businesses and governments put their minds to it.
Plasticity Bangkok at UN's Sea of Solutions
Published on 12 November 2019
With plastic pollution one of the most urgent environmental issues facing governments, corporate boardrooms and individuals, Thailand is taking the lead in bringing about positive change for the reduction in plastic waste, with a four-day SEA of Solutions Week, hosted by UN Environment. Plasticity Bangkok, which occupies Day #2 of the event, will bring together more than 450 local and international participants to collaborate on solutions that are relevant and scalable within Thailand and the region.
“For nearly 10 years, our one-of-a-kind innovation forum, Plasticity, has been working with the business community across the globe.” says Plasticity Founder, Doug Woodring.
“Solutions that Plasticity has helped to spawn in the past include technologies to improve sorting for recycling, bio-based innovations – and even the use of “tragic plastic” (unsorted and hard-to-recycle plastic) for construction materials. At Plasticity Bangkok, investment in new equipment and programs that will help communities bring value to plastic waste, allowing for the ‘reincarnation’ of plastic, will be a major topic.”
Recyclers Cringe as Southeast Asia Says It’s Sick of the West’s Trash
Published on 07 June 2019
Within months, Malaysia, which has a sizable ethnic Chinese population, had replaced China as the world’s largest importer of plastic scrap. But this country, and others across the region, soon saw the waste as an environmental nightmare, and a heavy backlash has begun. With public support, some advocacy groups have urged officials to permanently ban the import of plastic waste.
But at a time when the world is awash in such plastic, some experts worry that this backlash could block the flow of raw material to Southeast Asia’s aboveboard recyclers and manufacturers — and raise the chances that plastic scrap will end up in rivers, oceans, dumps and illegal burn sites.
New Plastics Border Control: Why Basel Convention Amendments Could Backfire
Published on 24 May 2019
If governments are united in a historic way on a topic, and business entrepreneurship is flourishing, what could possibly throw a spanner in the works? Myopia.”— Trish Hyde.
Plastic is without borders. Travelling freely, it is literally in almost all parts of the world. It is welcome news, therefore, that governments globally have united to endorse the Basel Convention amendments which are aimed at stopping developed countries from dumping waste plastic on developing countries, or to those with fewer regulations.
Avery Dennison Joins Plasticity Partners Program
Published on 05 September 2018
“Avery Dennison has eight ambitious sustainability goals that we have committed to meet by 2025, and we know that to achieve them we need to work collaboratively within our industry and beyond. Partnering with Plasticity enables us to work across our value chain to find systemic solutions to convert plastic waste into valuable second-life resources, which is a key priority for us.” Roland Simon, vice president of global procurement and corporate sustainability at Avery Dennison.
Plasticity Organizers Chose Malaysia as Event Site
Published on 03 September 2018
A presenter from United States-based Avery Dennison will be on hand to discuss how labels lend color, branding, bar code tracking and legally required information to packaging. However, even in packaging recycling processes, “much of the time, the label is removed, and discarded as waste.”
Avery Dennison indicates it has earmarked label waste as a top strategic challenge in its 2025 sustainability goals, and at the Labelexpo 2018 event in suburban Chicago, the company’s corporate display used panels made from 50 percent consumer label scrap.
'Clean Tax Cuts' and the Global Free Market for Plastic Solutions
Published on 28 August 2018
Clean Asset Bonds and Loans appear particularly well designed to drive down costs and increase investment for a long list of assets that reduce and recycle waste: integrated cart/truck systems; all the sorting, cleaning, grinding and processing technologies for material recovery facilities (MRFs) and processor plants; long-term recycling contracts; plants that re-manufacture recycled plastics into new products; storage facilities and quality testing equipment for recycled materials; software for resource recovery exchanges; low-emission waste-to-fuel and waste-to-clean-energy systems; manufacture and deployment of filters and catchment devices for washing machines, rivers, bays and the ocean; and advanced wastewater treatment technologies.
