Why Asia's EPR frameworks matter for plastic credits
The four Asian markets covered in this guide — India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam — are collectively responsible for producing an estimated 25 to 35 percent of the world's mismanaged plastic waste by volume. They also host the majority of the plastic credit projects operating under leading certification standards: Verra PWRS, Prevented Ocean Plastic, and rePurpose Global all draw heavily on South and Southeast Asian collection operations. The design of EPR frameworks in these four countries therefore has a direct, structural effect on plastic credit supply chains, project economics, and the credibility of additionality claims for projects operating in these geographies.
India: the most mature Asian EPR framework
India's Plastic Waste Management Rules, originally enacted in 2016 and significantly strengthened by amendment in 2022, constitute the most developed Extended Producer Responsibility framework for plastic packaging in Asia. The 2022 amendment expanded scope to cover all categories of plastic packaging — including multilayer and flexible packaging — and established a formal EPR certificate system administered by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Under the Indian framework, Producers, Importers, and Brand Owners (PIBOs) are required to register with the CPCB and submit annual EPR returns documenting the plastic packaging placed on the market in the preceding year. Producers must meet collection and processing targets calibrated to their packaging volumes — starting at 25 percent for rigid plastic in 2022–23 and escalating to 60 percent by 2024–25. Compliance evidence takes the form of EPR certificates, which can be generated by registered plastic waste processors who have collected and processed plastic on behalf of the PIBO.
The credit relevance: rePurpose Global, Recykal, and several other platforms have developed EPR certificate generation services in India, creating a market infrastructure that functions analogously to a plastic credit system. CPCB has accepted EPR certificates generated by formal collection and processing projects as compliance evidence, making India the only major Asian market where a credit-like mechanism has formal regulatory standing within an EPR framework. The EPR certificate price in India was approximately INR 800 to 1,500 per tonne of rigid plastic in 2024, with flexible and multi-layer packaging certificates commanding premiums of 2 to 3 times that figure due to supply scarcity.
The Indian framework is not without challenges. CPCB enforcement is inconsistent, and a significant proportion of PIBOs file incomplete or inaccurate EPR returns. The penalty for non-compliance — typically an extended liability notice rather than an immediate financial penalty — has limited deterrence effect for large corporates. A planned 2025 revision of the PWM Rules is expected to tighten enforcement through automatic penalty triggers for targets missed by more than 20 percent and a central fund mechanism channelling penalty revenues to alternative collection programmes.
Indonesia: Government Regulation 2/2023
Indonesia enacted Government Regulation Number 2 of 2023 on Waste Management and Processing as the primary legislative instrument for extended producer responsibility for plastic packaging. The regulation establishes a performance-plus-fee model that requires covered producers — manufacturers and importers of plastic packaging — to achieve a 30 percent collection and processing rate for plastic packaging placed on the Indonesian market by 2030, scaling from 10 percent in 2025.
The framework is administered by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (DLH), which registers producers and monitors annual performance submissions. Producers who cannot meet their physical collection targets through direct procurement or Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) can pay a waste management contribution fee calculated on unmet tonnage. The fee schedule for 2024 was approximately IDR 2,500 per kilogram (approximately $0.17/kg or $170/tonne) of shortfall against targets.
A distinctive feature of Indonesia's EPR framework is its explicit integration of the informal waste sector. Government Regulation 2/2023 specifies that collection activities by registered waste picker cooperatives and informal sector associations count toward producer EPR targets, provided the collection is documented through digital weight records and the material is delivered to a registered processing facility. This is a deliberate policy choice to formalise and value the existing informal economy's collection contribution rather than imposing a parallel formal system. For plastic credit project developers in Indonesia, this creates an alignment between EPR compliance data and credit MRV requirements — projects that already maintain digital collection records for credit issuance are well-positioned to generate EPR certificates as an additional compliance product.
Philippines: EPR Act of 2022
The Philippines' Extended Producer Responsibility Act (Republic Act 11898), enacted in July 2022, represents one of the more ambitious EPR frameworks in Southeast Asia. The law requires brand owners — defined as companies whose brand or trademark appears on plastic packaging — to achieve collection and recovery rates of 20 to 80 percent of their plastic packaging footprint by 2028, with the specific target varying by packaging type.
Single-use plastic bags and sachets — among the highest-risk packaging formats in the Philippines, where sahet economy packaging is widespread — face the highest targets at 80 percent collection by 2028. Rigid plastic packaging faces a 50 percent target, and multilayer packaging 30 percent. Brand owners must register with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and submit annual EPR reports. Non-compliant brand owners must pay into a mandatory EPR Fund, with contributions calculated per kilogram of unmet plastic packaging obligation at a fund contribution rate to be determined by DENR implementing rules.
The implementing rules and regulations were published in November 2023, establishing the operational mechanics of the framework. The Philippines EPR framework does not yet explicitly recognise plastic credit purchases as a compliance mechanism, but DENR has indicated openness to considering certification-based approaches as supplementary tools, pending the development of a national certification standard aligned with international practice.
Vietnam: Decree 08/2022 and the VEPF model
Vietnam's EPR framework is established under Decree 08/2022 on Waste Management, which entered operational force on 1 January 2024. The Vietnamese approach is structurally distinct from India and Indonesia: it is primarily a fee-based compliance mechanism rather than a physical recycling obligation. Producers and importers of plastic packaging must either achieve defined take-back and recycling rates independently, or pay a contribution to the Vietnam Environment Protection Fund (VEPF) calculated on the weight of plastic packaging placed on the market.
Contribution rates for 2024 were set at VND 688 per kilogram for rigid plastic packaging and VND 1,096 per kilogram for flexible packaging (approximately $28 and $44 per tonne respectively) — significantly lower than fee levels in India or European EPR markets. The low fee rate reflects Vietnam's early-stage framework implementation; increases are scheduled in the Decree's annex as the programme matures.
The VEPF channels contributions to waste management projects, in principle, including plastic collection operations — though the fund's project selection criteria and governance framework are still being finalised. For plastic credit projects operating in Vietnam, the VEPF contribution mechanism creates a potential additional revenue stream if project outputs qualify under VEPF-funded programme criteria, though this integration has not yet been operationally implemented.
Comparative overview and credit market implications
The four frameworks differ substantially in maturity, enforcement rigour, and credit compatibility. India leads in framework maturity and credit integration, with a functioning EPR certificate market that provides plastic credit projects with a dual-revenue model: credits for voluntary market buyers and EPR certificates for compliance-driven producers. Indonesia is the most progressive in informal sector integration and is the most likely candidate to develop an India-style credit-compatible compliance mechanism. The Philippines has the most ambitious targets but lacks the implementation infrastructure to achieve them by 2028 without significant investment. Vietnam's fee-based model is the easiest to comply with but provides the weakest environmental incentive, and is likely to face pressure to strengthen requirements as ASEAN regulatory norms converge.
For project developers, the convergence of credit MRV requirements and EPR documentation requirements is creating an opportunity to develop dual-purpose data infrastructure — monitoring systems that simultaneously generate credit verification data and EPR compliance certificates. Projects in India and Indonesia that invest in digital collection tracking, certified weighbridges, and chain-of-custody documentation now are building competitive infrastructure for a market where EPR compliance and credit revenue increasingly reinforce each other.
About the author
Dr. Marloes van den Berg
Policy Research Director
Marloes leads policy research on plastic regulation, EPR schemes, and the intersection of plastic credits with emerging compliance frameworks. Former advisor to the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.