Fight against plastic pollution
No need to state the obvious, the plastic waste mismanagement problem is growing and strongly impacting our natural ecosystems including the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Tackling this problem both upstream (waste reduction) and downstream (waste treatment) is the only viable approach. This is where we start!
Awareness & Education
We act directly at the village level with awareness programs organised by locals for locals. Behavioral change is at the essence of waste reduction or at least waste separation and a full consciousness of our consumption and its impact on our direct environment.
Waste collection
Cleanups and collection from households are the first way to assess the significance of the problem, take the matter in our own hands and act accordingly.
We started collecting at the local level and aim for more regarding the scale and treatment methods. More to come!
Waste treatment
Collecting is a first step but not enough if the waste ends up buried or burnt. Plastic waste has value and getting its value back is possible with adapted treatment: recycled materials for a full circular economy, upcycling in end-user products or waste-to-energy (pyrolysis for instance).
Research & Advisory
We are conducting academic research at the global level to design the most relevant models and solutions for plastic waste management in developing and emerging countries and applying this research and experience to provide engineering consultancy services for recycling project development.
A fast-growing problem
The facts are mind-blowing: by 2040, the plastic waste generation is expected to double, the plastic leakage into the ocean expected to triple and the plastic stock in the ocean expected to quadruple with a business-as-usual scenario*.
A few kilometers away from Labuan Bajo on the Flores Sea and Komodo Park, Indonesia, where we operate, this is what our team notices ... Guess where this waste is expected to end up?
*Source: Report Breaking the Plastic Wave, 2020
IMPACT ON LOCAL ACTIVITIES
The impact on tourism
In these beautiful remote and coastal indonesian regions, the economy strongly relies on the tourism industry: resorts, liveaboard, diving and other ocean-related leisures. Needless to say that the recurring plastic pollution is strongly reducing the attractiveness for some regions or forcing authorities to reduce access to tourists or even close down some areas.
Plastics entering the food chain ...
Indonesia is home to many communities fully relying on the sea to live. For instance, the Bajos or Sea Gipsies in the Flores Sea are living in harmony with the ocean. But plastic waste mismanagement is already disturbing this balance in the short term and even more in the middle to long term. Immediate actions are required to reduce this threat and offer resilient and economically-viable opportunities to avoid and treat this waste.
SOLUTIONS ADAPTED TO THE LOCAL CONTEXT
We support and work with local NGOs
There is no way to succeed without the involvement of the communities. That's why we really started by empowering people to act and joined forces with other existing programs and Yayasans (local NGO).
For this reason, we created a Learning Center to host gathering and seminars, education programs for kids but also waste collection, sorting and upcycling.
Education & Awareness programs
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Education from a young age to the value of our environment and the notion of waste through reading stories, paintings, teaching english.
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Workshops on waste reduction and sorting and its purpose, waste sorting and collection challenges with incentives.
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Regular beach cleanups
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Data collection through waste characterization and quantification at the household level and also for marine debris
A virtuous local waste management
Initiating villagers to waste sorting and collection is a huge step ahead. This is what we experimented in Rangko village near Labuan Bajo.
The goal now: making as much value as possible from this waste and progressively reduce it at the source by introducing alternatives to single-use plastics.
We also intend to leverage this first experience to extend the good practice to a network of other remote coastal or island villages with urgent needs.
From upcycling to viable alternatives
At the very local level, finding valuable end-of-life strategies for plastic waste can be a real struggle. But relying on local strengths is likely to help unlock some possibilities. Creating fashionable grocery bags out of disposable cups is one way but there are many others.
We are organizing upcycling workshops as one more step to inspire and show the value of waste and the need to sort it.
At the same time, going back to traditional handicraft is an even better way to cut waste at the source.
E-nemo, an innovative waste collection in islands
100% solar-powered, the e-Nemo will have the mission to:
- Collect the waste that has been picked up by coastal communities,
- Collect the waste of other live-aboard cruises like ours,
- Transport the NGO staff from villages to villages,
- Transport local children from their villages to snorkeling sites, as part of our awareness campaign.
LEVERAGING OUR FINDINGS TO GROW THE IMPACT
Combining local experience and global expertise
Our local presence is precious with its direct impact to the benefitting communities but also to feed our global thinking and research regarding plastic waste management solutions in the developing world.
In parallel to action, we are conducting academic research aiming at analysing existing plastic waste management initiatives and solutions. We focused on drivers of success or failure of plastic waste management initiatives. In addition, after 2 years of R&D, we developed a model to help match any given local plastic waste management situation with a technical solution combined with a viable business model.
Usual pain points for plastic recycling projects
Leveraging our research and experience to help develop new projects
By joining forces with our partner Plastic Odyssey, we combine technical, economic, finance knowledge in addition to an extensive international network with access to a large spectrum of solutions and successful projects leaders.
We are leveraging our experience and models to help organisations and entrepreneurs start or accelerate their plastic recycling projects.
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