On June 26, 2026, as part of the ASEAN-China Environmental Cooperation Week 2026, ASEAN Plus Three Partnership on Plastic Reduction and Low-Carbon Circular Economy-Capacity Building for Urban Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery, took place in Danzhou City, Hainan Province. The event was co-hosted by the China-ASEAN Environmental Cooperation Center / Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center / Technology Center for Environmental Convention Implementation of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China (FECO), and the Department of Ecology and Environment of Hainan Province. It received support from the ASEAN Secretariat, UNICEF China, and the Danzhou Municipal People’s Government. Representatives from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China and its affiliated institutions, local environmental authorities, the ASEAN Secretariat, environmental and climate departments of ASEAN member states, UN agencies, international organizations, research institutes, as well as enterprises from Japan and the Republic of Korea attended the event.

Dr. Le Ngoc Cau, Deputy Director-General of the Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology, Environment and Marine Sciences, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of Vietnam, and Research Fellow from the China-ASEAN Environmental Cooperation Center delivered leading remarks. Mrs. Angela Joaquina da Costa Magalhães, Head of the Department of Environmental Planning and Management, National Directorate for Pollution Control, Ministry of Tourism and Environment of Timor-Leste; Dr. Wu Guanglong, Senior Specialist/Section Chief, Professor, Technology Center for Environmental Convention Implementation, MEE of China; and Ms. KY Channimol, Chief of the Policy Coordination Office, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Environment of Cambodia delivered thematic speeches respectively.

Dr. Le Ngoc Cau pointed out that Vietnam has released National Green Growth Strategy, Action Plan for Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 and supporting legislation for the circular economy. The country is continuously refining the implementing rules for solid waste recycling and establishing an extended producer responsibility scheme covering the packaging, plastics and electronics sectors. At the same time, it is rolling out pilot projects for the resource recovery of agricultural waste and waste-to-energy conversion, promoting advanced resource recovery technologies in the Mekong Delta, and actively exploring innovative governance models such as AI-enabled smart waste collection and transport. Vietnam looks forward to deepening cooperation with regional partners to jointly optimize solid waste recycling and sorting standards, foster a large-scale market for recycled resources, jointly build a digital system for AI-enabled smart waste collection and transport, strengthen coordinated cross-border management of hazardous waste, and work together to raise the overall level of waste recycling in the region.

Research fellow of FECO stated that ASEAN member states and China was actively implementing the ‘Framework of ASEAN-China Environmental Cooperation Strategy and Action Plan (2021–2025)’, engaging in policy dialogue, capacity building, joint research and pilot projects in areas such as plastic pollution control and the circular economy, with a view to building consensus among multiple stakeholders and establishing a regional platform for cooperation on plastic reduction and low-carbon development. The new phase of the Strategy and Action Plan will place greater emphasis on key areas such as green, low-carbon and circular development, as well as innovation in green finance. It will link up with multilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the ASEAN Plus Three cooperation mechanism to establish a regional partnership programme for plastic reduction, low-carbon development and the circular economy. China is willing to deepen practical cooperation with all parties to promote the mutual recognition of regional standards for plastic reduction, guidelines for the resource recovery of waste, and rules governing the development of low-carbon industries; to continue innovating models for green finance cooperation; to channel social capital into the recycling and plastic reduction sectors; and to jointly build an integrated regional green circular industrial chain.

Mrs. Angela Joaquina da Costa Magalhães pointed out that plastic pollution runs through the whole lifecycle of products, exerting compound adverse impacts on Timor-Leste’s island ecosystems, tourism industry and people’s livelihoods. Constrained by insufficient waste sorting practices, inadequate recycling infrastructure, shortages of technical professionals and limited funding, Timor-Leste will push forward capacity building across five key dimensions, and looks to leverage the ASEAN Plus Three partnership to address its domestic waste management gaps. Dr. Wu Guanglong elaborated that China’s plastic pollution governance has gone through three phases: targeted special rectification, popularization of circular economy and full-lifecycle closed-loop management. Ecological and Environmental Code of the People's Republic of China, effective this year, sets four core statutory regimes with tiered penalty provisions. Mature practices in Taizhou, Xiamen and other locations have established standardized waste treatment models, which can provide ASEAN countries with practical solutions that are both replicable and implementable. Ms. KY Channimol mentioned that plastic waste keeps rising amid Cambodia’s urbanization. The country has formulated a circular economy roadmap, and plans to improve environmental laws, expand the coverage of EPR systems, upgrade waste collection facilities and strengthen government-enterprise collaboration. Cambodia expects to draw on regional cooperation to make up for gaps in environmental technology and industrial investment.

The session also featured thematic speeches from a lineup of government officials, researchers and enterprise representatives, including Lyu Shuguo, Research Fellow of Hainan Research Academy of Environmental Sciences; Mr. Khamhou Tounalom, Director of the Environmental and Haze Center, Biotechnology and Ecology Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of the Lao PDR; Wu Haibo, Deputy Director of Danzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee; Ge Yong, Deputy Director of the Solid Waste Division, Department of Ecology and Environment of Jiangsu; and Liu Li, Deputy Director of the Solid Waste Division, Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The speakers shared on-the-ground practices including Hainan’s marine waste reward mechanism, carbon reduction outcomes of the China-Laos Railway, circular industrial layout of Danzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou’s smart solid waste supervision platform and Guangxi’s market-based renewable resource operation model. Participants held in-depth exchanges on regional collaborative pathways such as co-developing cross-border circular demonstration projects, aligning national waste recycling standards, building digital waste supervision networks and popularizing bamboo-based plastic substitutes.

The event forms part of a series of events comprising the ASEAN-China Environmental Cooperation Week 2026. The event aims to strengthen alignment with the ASEAN Plus Three cooperation mechanism, promote waste resource recovery and low-carbon industrial practices, and advance the joint development of a regional green, low-carbon, circular development framework. This will contribute to the 35th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN, as well as the 5th anniversary of the China–ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.