DIG is pleased to share the news that the September 2022 issue of Marine Policy features a seminal paper on ocean plastic pollution. The paper, titled “Reducing ocean plastic pollution: Locally led initiatives catalyzing change in South and Southeast Asia,” focuses on the lessons learned during the implementation of USAID’s Municipal Waste Recycling Program (MWRP). The successful MWRP initiative was USAID’s first multi-country ocean plastic reduction program and was implemented in collaboration with DIG from 2016 to 2021. The much-awaited article offers practical solutions to the worldwide ocean plastic pollution challenge. It provides an analysis of data DIG collected from 2016 to 2021 to understand the successes and challenges of 27 projects across Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam that aimed to reduce ocean plastic pollution. Jenna R. Jambeck, PhD, the leading expert on ocean plastic reduction, along with Jennifer Estelle Mathis of the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering and Circularity Informatics, along with DIG’s very own Marianne Carliez Gillet, Vice President for Global Programs, and Henri Disselkoen, Senior Environmental Services and Governance Advisor, co-authored the paper. The paper is available for download at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0308597X22001749
