Reducing the climate impact of single-use plastic (SUP) starts with changing the way businesses operate. The PREVENT Waste Alliance and The Incubation Network have launched The SUP Challenge to collaborate with Entrepreneur Support Organisations (ESOs) in South and Southeast Asia to source, support and scale high-potential start-ups tackling single-use plastics in the food and beverage sector. Around 80 start-ups will gain access to mentorship and technical assistance, as well as funding to pilot their solutions with the F&B industry. The cohort will contribute their experience and best practices towards a Technical Assistance Playbook for ESOs. The insights derived from their pilots will also contribute to a study around understanding the environmental impacts of alternatives to single-use plastic packaging.

Goals and Impact:

The overall aim of the SUP Challenge is to reduce the climate impact associated with single use plastic in food systems in South and Southeast Asia by incubating local business solutions, especially focussing on reuse and refill models. The following objectives will contribute to achieving this impact: (1) Source the most promising and best practice solutions from specific countries across the region to reduce the use of single use plastics in the restaurant industry; (2) Build the capacity of local ESOs to develop corporate partnerships with regional restaurant chains, and support them to incubate a cohort of start-ups focused on single use plastic reduction through a combination of technical and financial assistance; (3) Prepare start-ups to launch pilot projects with regional restaurant chains to begin testing the viability of solutions in their operations; (4) Capture insights from this work to develop additional technical assistance resources and playbooks and policy guides.