Collaboration Award 2025
Plastic to Ghar (P2G): Collaboration for Plastic Circularity in Nepal by the locals, for the locals, with Himalayan plastic
Dr Curie Park, Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering, School of Technology
The Vice-Chancellor's Awards
for Research Impact and Engagement
About the researcher
Curie is a Research Associate at the Centre for Industrial Sustainability, IfM, focusing on delivering fast and effective sustainability impact. Trained as a product designer, her work centres on sustainable design across product, process, and system levels in a global context. After completing her PhD in 2014 on sustainable design implementation in the FMCG industry, she joined the Centre in 2015. Her research spans circular economy and sustainable business model innovation, with projects across fashion, textiles, forestry investment, and industrial waste management in the UK, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.
The Vice-Chancellor's Awards
for Research Impact and Engagement
About the researcher
Curie is a Research Associate at the Centre for Industrial Sustainability, IfM, focusing on delivering fast and effective sustainability impact. Trained as a product designer, her work centres on sustainable design across product, process, and system levels in a global context. After completing her PhD in 2014 on sustainable design implementation in the FMCG industry, she joined the Centre in 2015. Her research spans circular economy and sustainable business model innovation, with projects across fashion, textiles, forestry investment, and industrial waste management in the UK, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.
The project showcases effective collaboration between academia, innovators, local governments and local communities, turning waste into opportunity while promoting sustainability and entrepreneurship in Nepal.
Padmakshi Rana,
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Impact Hub Kathmandu
Curie (centre) with the team in Nepal.
Curie (centre) with the team in Nepal.
What is the research?
Plastic to Ghar (P2G): Collaboration for Plastic Circularity in Nepal by the locals, for the locals, with Himalayan plastic
The University of Cambridge and Impact Hub Kathmandu have partnered to create the Plastic-to-Ghar (P2G) Hub (‘Ghar’ means ‘home’ in Nepali), an innovation and business support ecosystem that enables small-scale enterprises to transform plastic waste into durable housing products. The Hub aims to address dual challenges faced by high-altitude communities in Nepal: limited recycling infrastructure and poorly insulated homes, many of which are still being rebuilt following the 2015 earthquake, often under constrained resources. At the same time, the initiative promotes sustainable development by reducing pressure on Himalayan forests.
P2G operates through locally-led innovation, bringing together entrepreneurs, innovators, and communities to co-design housing solutions using MAKEathon sessions. Stakeholders are actively involved in the design process to ensure that the solutions produced meet their essential needs. The most promising ideas are incubated into start-ups under the P2G Alliance, with all necessary equipment for plastic upcycling and production provided at no cost. This approach has already led to the creation of distributed small-scale plastic upcycling units across Nepal.
During implementation, the project team recognized the logistical challenges of managing plastic waste in remote, mountainous regions, where transportation is difficult and the total volume of available plastic is limited. In response, the Hub is developing a recycling and collection facility in lower-lying areas, closer to urban centers and road networks, while maintaining one facility in the Himalayan region. This adjustment increases commercial viability and enables a more practical and scalable approach to plastic waste management.
The P2G initiative delivers multiple benefits: it diverts significant amounts of plastic waste into useful housing products, strengthens local innovation capacity, provides education in waste management, improves livelihoods, and enhances resilience to cold and climate change.
By integrating local knowledge, entrepreneurship, and sustainable design, P2G demonstrates how innovative approaches can tackle environmental and social challenges simultaneously.
Our engagement with P2G has not only deepened our understanding of plastic transformation technologies but also inspired locally relevant innovations that integrate circular economy principals with woman-led microenterprise development in Nepal.
Nivesh Dugar,
Chief Operations Officer, Green Decision Labs and Research Ltd