This project falls under the Basel and Stockholm Conventions’ Regional Centre Small Grants Programme (SGP) on Plastic Waste, which aims to improve the management of plastic waste in partner countries through increased knowledge, capacity and engagement among decision-makers and other stakeholders on the control of transboundary movement (TBM) and environmentally sound management (ESM) of plastic waste in line with the Basel Convention and its Plastic Waste Amendments. The project is being executed by Basel Convention Regional Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean (BCRC-Caribbean) in collaboration with the Suriname Waste Management Foundation (SUWAMA) and supported by Directorate Environment within the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment.

The project aim is to find suitable solutions for the replacement of plastic commodities in economy of Suriname, because of low recycling rates caused by limited collection facilities, high collection costs, manual recycling processes and a lack of awareness. Due to the absence of alternative treatments, most plastic is consequently landfilled, burnt, or dumped in the environment. To meet the above aim, the following project objectives have been defined:

1. Consult with stakeholders at all levels on how single use plastic can be replaced in the entire chain from import to consumption. 
2. Establish a national baseline using the Consumption-Lifespan methodology from the Draft practical guidance on the development of an inventory of plastic waste and the inventory toolkit developed in the BRS-Norad-1 project (‘Marine litter and microplastics: promoting the ESM of plastic waste and achieving the prevention and minimization of the generation of plastic waste’).
3. Run a pilot project at stores, primarily supermarkets and dry goods/department stores in Paramaribo, where single use plastic bags (LDPE) are mostly used and will be replaced with more sustainable and locally available products.
4. Create three (3) zero-plastic high schools in close collaboration with the schools and the Anton de Kom University. 
5. Propose recommendations accompanied by an implementation plan to decisionmakers on how single use plastics can be replaced, by using input from the above points.
6. Involve locals in the production of replacement bags and hereby encourage the local economy. 
7. Indirectly: reduce environmental pollution caused by plastics

Newsletter – September 2021_suwama

Newsletter – July – October 2022

SUWAMA Project Lessons Learnt Webinar Presentation

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