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5 women, 5 countries, 1 mission

Beating plastic pollution with breakthrough ideas

July 1^st, 2025

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Plastic pollution stands as one of the most urgent and complex environmental crises of our time.

Five women across five countries are taking on the challenge, transforming breakthrough ideas into meaningful actions and even reshaping the rules of the game.

Their leadership and determination are proof that even with the most difficult challenges, it is possible to make a difference.

Nguyễn Dạ Quyên was stunned when she began learning about the scale of plastic pollution: "I was overwhelmed by how much we use without thinking twice."

And she was not wrong.

In Viet Nam, plastic use soared from under 4 kilograms per person in 1990 to over 40 kilograms in 2018, with consumption expected to more than double by 2030. Yet, waste management hasn’t kept up. Only about 11 percent of plastic waste is recycled, while most is burned or dumped improperly, polluting air and waterways.

Nguyễn Dạ Quyên remembers a different time, when people brought empty jars to buy oil and reused containers for grains at the local wet market. "That’s how generations before us lived," she says. In 2018, she decided to give that old habit a new name: "refill". From there, she began building a system around it. And that’s how Lại Đây Refill was born.

Her bright, welcoming stores in Ho Chi Minh City—the most populous city in Viet Nam—make reuse affordable and easy, helping reduce plastic pollution while saving customers money. "We now offer over 700 eco-friendly products, with more than 80 percent sourced locally from over 60 suppliers, many women-led," Nguyễn Dạ Quyên explains.

For her, each refill is more than just one less plastic bottle—it’s a step toward a broader cultural shift. Her vision is deeply rooted in community education and local collaboration. From the start, she prioritized hiring well-informed staff to support customers and explain product options. She also regularly organizes workshops, clean-up drives and eco-markets, creating inclusive spaces where people can learn, engage and come together around sustainable living.

With pride, she reflects on their impact: "Together, we’ve saved over 135,000 plastic packages and supported more than 200 local families," she says. And this is only the beginning.

Nguyễn Dạ Quyên is one of ten innovators selected under UNDP’s Japan-funded Global Plastics Innovation Programme. She has also contributed her expertise to Viet Nam’s National Plastic Action Partnership, which is part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership, hosted by UNDP.

"Change doesn’t require permission or a perfect plan—it starts with a small group of people doing what they can, where they are, with what they have."

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Every month in North Macedonia, around 6 million plastic-filled menstrual products are thrown away. These products, made with material that can take up to 500 years to decompose, pose a serious environmental threat and highlight a deeper social crisis: menstrual poverty.

For thousands of women in the country, managing their period is a source of stress. Research shows that 90 percent of rural girls and 75 percent of urban girls miss school for several days each month due to their period. Lack of proper infrastructure for menstrual health also leads to rising infection rates, while improper disposal of menstrual waste—most of it plastic-based—pollutes the environment.

Seeing the falling system, Natasa Dokovska created Budget Mama, a project to turn waste into dignity and exclusion into empowerment. With that vision, Natasa started empowering women to produce eco-friendly, reusable menstrual pads from textile waste. Over 50 women, many unemployed or marginalized, are now part of the project.

Each reusable pad lasts at least a year, cutting menstrual waste by up to 80 percent. "So far, we’ve produced more than 12,000 reusable pads, distributed to migrant women from Türkiye and Ukraine, as well as Macedonian girls in need," she shares.

But Budget Mama is more than a product—it’s a movement. The women involved gain practical skills, build confidence and achieve greater economic independence. Some have gone on to launch their own cooperatives or social enterprises, while others speak of something just as powerful: for the first time, they feel truly seen and heard.

Natasa’s work also aligns with global efforts. Following the European Union's Directive on single-use plastics, Budget Mama brings that ambition home, combining policy with community-driven action.

This initiative is supported through the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme, implemented by UNDP in North Macedonia, with additional support from WECF and the Women 2030 Programme.

“We’ve not only addressed menstrual poverty and reduced plastic waste, but created a safe space for learning, economic inclusion and environmental awareness."

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With 25.5 percent of its territory protected through national parks and reserves and nearly all its energy sourced from renewables, Costa Rica is often seen as a model for sustainable development. But even here, plastic pollution remains a pressing challenge. In 2022 alone, the country produced an estimated 232,000 tons of plastic waste—about 46 kilograms per person—with around 20 percent of it mismanaged, ending up in rivers, oceans, soils or openly burned.

In this context, Julissa Chaves has emerged as a determined young leader. She co-founded Fundación OneSea, a nonprofit focused on environmental policy reform. Her mission: to bring citizens into the policymaking process and push for change from the bottom up.

One of her key goals was to tackle plastic pollution along Costa Rica’s coastline. Julissa and her team targeted four major sources of waste: microplastics, packaging, fishing gear and cigarette butts. Cigarette butts are the most littered item on the planet: some 4.5 trillion are discarded every year. Made of plastic (cellulose acetate), they release nicotine, heavy metals and toxic chemicals into soil and water.

"Transforming reality through law is never simple," Julissa explains. "It requires balancing the ideal with the achievable." With that in mind, she knew that meaningful change wouldn’t come from drafting policies behind closed doors. Instead, she built a collaborative model, crafted with communities, not just for them, where even dissenting voices were heard and valued.

This inclusive process has already led to five legal proposals, four of which have been submitted to Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly. Three continue to advance, slowly gaining momentum. But Julissa’s impact goes beyond legislation. "We’ve driven concrete actions in the field," she says, pointing to the designation of over 40 smoke-free beaches and outreach efforts that have raised awareness among more than 739,000 people.

As a young woman in the policy space, Julissa acknowledges the challenge of proving that structural change is possible. Still, her resolve is firm. To her, Fundación OneSea is more than organization—it’s a personal mission to promote inclusion and empower communities to confront the environmental, social and economic challenges of our time.

Julissa is one of eight selected innovators of Cohort 1 under UNDP’s Sweden and Norway-supported Ocean Innovation Challenge.

“With will, collaboration and people at the centre, system change is absolutely possible."

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The fight against plastic pollution is not just an environmental issue, but a story of livelihoods and innovation.

In 2022, UNDP’s Accelerator Lab launched the Phasta Sakho Nawe (“Bring your own bag”) campaign to reduce single-use plastic waste in Eswatini. Tokky Hou saw it as a chance to do even more: what if this environmental push could also create jobs for rural women?

That vision sparked the Vukani BoMake Project, a grassroots initiative that has since mobilized more than 120 women to produce reusable shopping bags made from textile waste. Instead of asking women to leave their communities, Tokky’s decentralized business model brings small production hubs to them. Rural women train in sewing skills and can earn an income, without having to leave their homes or families.

"We’re now working with over 120 women in rural areas to make reusable shopping bags from textile waste," says Tokky. She also explains that by partnering with supermarkets and establishing small production sites within communities, they have not only helped reduce the use of single-use plastic bags by at least 40 percent but also created opportunities for women to learn new skills and earn income close to their homes.

In May 2024, the country took another bold step: the Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs announced a national ban on single-use plastic bags. For women like Tokky and the communities she supports, this is a policy win and a promise of continued opportunity.

The Phatsa Sakho Nawe campaign, driven by UNDP Eswatini and the Eswatini Environment Authority, with funding from Qatar and Germany, was instrumental in providing these opportunities for these women.

“We’re not just reducing plastic pollution. We’re building something stronger: sustainable livelihoods, environmental pride and hope for the next generation.”

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Tamara Mekler had seen it far too often: once-pristine beaches littered with tiny white fragments, remnants of the foam boxes used to transport seafood across the Philippines.

Known as expanded polystyrene (EPS), this material is cheap, lightweight and widely used in the seafood industry for cold storage containers. But it’s also fragile, bulky, nearly impossible to recycle and devastating for the environment. These containers break apart easily, scattering microplastics along coastlines and threatening marine life with every tide. It’s estimated that more than 300,000 EPS boxes are in circulation in the country.

While the government has taken important steps, such as the 2022 passage of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act, which holds companies accountable for the waste their products generate, progress has been slow. The recent launch of the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) signals growing momentum for a circular economy. Yet, as Tamara saw firsthand, real change would require rethinking the materials themselves, not just what happens to them after use.

That’s where her idea took root.

Tamara co-founded Fortuna Cools, a social enterprise on a mission to replace plastic foam with natural fibres. The solution? Coconut husks, which is an abundant agricultural byproduct typically discarded or burned on the islands. "We partner with smallholder coconut farmers and cooperatives to upcycle their leftover husks into coconut fiber insulation," she details. "This creates a win-win scenario, where farmers earn extra income as waste turns to value."

Fortuna’s coolers aren’t just sustainable—they’re practical, durable and designed with the needs of both rural communities and urban businesses in mind. Since launch, they have processed over 600,000 coconut husks, avoiding more than 600 tons of CO₂ emissions from husk incineration.

By transforming agricultural waste into high-performance insulation, Tamara is offering an alternative to EPS and proving that environmental solutions can be rooted in local knowledge, powered by community and scaled to meet global challenges.