POKHARA, Jan 25: Cars speeding along a smooth, black-coloured street in Nepal's Pokhara are also driving over heaps of discarded plastic, transformed into an ingredient in road construction.
Nepal's urban areas generate about 5,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, according to the World Bank, of which 13 percent is plastic waste dumped in landfills.
While high-value plastics, like bottles, are absorbed by the recycling industry, low-value plastics -- such as multi-layered packaging -- pose a significant challenge because they don't fit into a single recycling category.
For a group of young Nepali entrepreneurs, the vast accumulation of this low-value plastic waste presented an opportunity.