South Asia faces mounting pressure from rapid urbanisation, rising plastic consumption, and limited waste processing capacity, which threaten both environmental sustainability and public health. To move towards a circular economy that creates decent jobs and reduces waste leakage, governments must adopt coordinated, inclusive, and data-driven waste management policies:

• Strengthen municipal contracts to formally include informal waste workers by requiring government-issued identification, minimum wage standards, safety equipment, and digital payments. Kathmandu Metropolitan City in Nepal has piloted this by linking Doko Recyclers’ informal collectors to official waste routes and extending safety coverage through city programmes.
• Establish city-level inclusion windows in social protection databases to ensure waste workers can access health insurance, pension benefits, and childcare services. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, cooperatives supported by Practical Action have improved collection efficiency while increasing worker welfare and retention.
• Implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mandates, where producers are responsible for the post-consumer phase of their products, requiring them to procure part of their collection from recognised waste-picker groups and pay minimum (floor) prices for segregated materials. Sri Lanka’s draft plastic EPR regulations now include mandatory engagement with local collection cooperatives for beverage producers.
• Set minimum recycled-content standards for packaging materials such as Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), with tax incentives or customs rebates for compliant manufacturers. Punjab Province in Pakistan has begun testing a 15% recycled-content requirement for bottled water producers.
• Adopt public procurement standards that prioritise recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging in hospitals, schools, and defense supplies. The Directorate of Health Services in Bangladesh has begun phasing out non-recyclable sachets in its procurement chain.
• Introduce digital material tracking systems that monitor collection, segregation, and recycling flows from local wards to industrial recyclers. The Maldives Waste Management Corporation uses an Internet of Things (IoT)-based dashboard to track waste movement from island collection points to mainland recycling centres.
• Launch market incentives for reuse-based business models such as refill, deposit-return, or packaging take-back systems. Lion Brewery in Sri Lanka recovers over 90% of its bottles by combining refundable deposits with municipal logistics partnerships.
• Promote inter-ministerial coordination between the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Labour, and Ministry of Urban Development to integrate circular economy goals into national climate and development strategies. Nepal’s Solid Waste Management Policy (2023) links circular economy measures directly with its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets under the Paris Agreement.
• Expand urban recycling infrastructure through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) that include social inclusion clauses requiring participation of informal sector groups. Narayanganj Municipality in Bangladesh, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is building recycling hubs that formally contract informal cooperatives.
• Strengthen regional knowledge-sharing and cooperation through platforms such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), focusing on waste management data, EPR models, and financing tools. Current policy dialogues among Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan on plastic credit trading could evolve into an annual South Asian Circular Economy Forum.