Plastic Venture Builder (PVB): An empirically derived assessment tool to support plastic waste management ventures in low- and middle-income countries

Abstract

Plastic waste management is a complicated challenge that in recent years has gained attention as a global policy priority. In low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), waste management is heterogeneous and context-specific and many organizations provide needed waste management services, including entrepreneurs. Sustainable entrepreneurs are uniquely positioned to provide these services; however, they face challenges such as limited support system and lack of capacity. The goal of this paper is to understand critical characteristics of successful plastic waste management ventures in LMIC and operationalize those insights into a strategic tool. A wide variety of successful ventures from diverse LMIC contexts are systematically analyzed to identify which factors contribute to their business viability and ability to deliver services. The identified success factors were built into a tool, the Plastic Venture Builder (PVB), based on the multi-criteria analysis methodology. This is validated using empirical cases, tested on projects currently in development and discussed with experts in the field. The results show that political, economic, financial, technological, operational, social, team and legal factors contribute to success; however pathways to success are diverse. We identify a strong team as the most critical factor, whereas financial, political and social factors have the least impact. The PVB can be used by entrepreneurs who want to set up or improve plastic waste management ventures by identifying weak spots or avenues for improvement. The assessment framework can also be used by policy makers, development agencies and financing organizations who want to support or assess waste management initiatives by prioritizing their resources to match the identified critical factors.