Yunus Environment Hub GmbH

Yunus Environment Hub (YEH) is the global social business network creating solutions for the environmental crisis. Co-founded and led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, YEH supports and develops social business solutions addressing environmental issues in a financially self-sustainable way. Focus areas are solutions for improved waste management & sustainable plastic recycling, circular economy, carbon neutrality, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, access to clean water and clean energy. Zero Plastic Waste City (ZPWC) is a program that enables sustainable municipal waste management systems based on a modular social business approach that will result in the creation of Zero Plastic Waste Vietnam, a social business and plastic recycling facilities in Long An Province, Vietnam. It focuses on the establishment of a recycling plant that produces high-quality products made of low-value and currently unconsidered plastics. These products can be used as input materials in the furniture and construction industry such as recycled plastic boards, as well as recycled plastic pellets / granules. A social business is understood as a non-dividend, non-loss organization that seeks to create social impact based on a viable business model. With this approach, the envisioned impact touches on the entire plastic waste value chain of segregation, collection, sorting and processing. This effect will be supported through additional efforts of the social business in collaboration with local partners. Zero Plastic Waste Vietnam is implemented by Yunus Environment Hub (YEH) in partnership with, and sponsored by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), and is part of the Vietnam National Plastic Action Partnership, promoted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in partnership with the World Economic Forum, in response to the official call of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. It aims to create an environmentally friendly city, sustainable waste management, a market demand for low-value plastics and to increase the recycling of currently unconsidered waste types, raising environmental and social awareness, to create employment opportunities and to improve working conditions of local people, especially informal waste collectors. Since April 2020, the establishment of Zero Plastic Waste Vietnam has successfully transitioned from an initial pilot phase to a preparatory implementation stage. The actual implementation phase will officially begin once the social business has been legally registered during the second quarter of 2021.