INDIA
Clean Andaman
The Andaman Islands is a picturesque archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, India. Renowned for their stunning natural beauty, these islands boast pristine beaches, lush rainforests, and vibrant coral reefs.
INDIA
Clean Andaman
The Andaman Islands is a picturesque archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, India. Renowned for their stunning natural beauty, these islands boast pristine beaches, lush rainforests, and vibrant coral reefs.
The story
This idyllic oasis is a diver’s paradise. The ocean here is brimming with wildlife and precious ecosystems — from the world’s largest whales to tiny vibrant insects.
There are over 200 islands in the Andaman archipelago, each adorned with tropical forests, mangroves, white sandy beaches, and small villages with populations ranging from 1,000–4,000 homes.
With such a diverse ocean on their doorstep, many locals here rely on fishing for their livelihoods, as well as farming and other service-related work. But plastic pollution impacts all of these areas, whether it’s littered in the ocean or on land.
Like many small island nations, the Andaman archipelago lacks access to key infrastructure, including effective waste management and recycling facilities. This means, even if waste is collected, there are no places to process it properly.
So, why is it so difficult to implement waste management systems across these small islands? It mostly comes down to a lack of funding. Let’s break it down: each island would need to have the proper facilities to process and recycle the waste, not to mention the finances to ship it to the mainland.
Enter, our project Clean Andaman.
Integrating change in the community
When it comes to dealing with peoples’ plastic waste in the Andaman Islands, one of the biggest obstacles is the lack of facilities.
Although some collection teams work across the islands — set up by the government — there is no infrastructure to process any waste in these islands.
This means that once the waste is collected from locals, it’s often dumped on one of the islands or burned in the environment.
To overcome this, we’ve been transporting the collected waste to the mainland since 2022, making sure it’s properly processed and fed back into the economy.
The Andaman Islands are over 1,000 kilometers from mainland India. Normally, the cost of transporting this waste heavily outweighs the value of the waste — but funding from our brand partners makes this possible.
Researching plastic waste in the Andaman Islands
As well as transporting waste from the islands, we’ve participated in a marine waste research program, shedding light on the key issues these islands face.
Check out some of our key findings below:
60%
of the plastic recovered was located in Marine National Parks and Reserve Forest Areas, compared to 40% on public beaches.
87%
of this was recognizable plastic waste, compared to 18% that was unrecognizable (where items have dramatically disintegrated or deteriorated).
51%
of items collected were recyclable, compared to 34% being either non-recyclable or hard to recycle.
2/3
More than two-thirds of the thin plastics collected originated from India, suggesting they came from littering and gaps in local waste management systems.
Together we can solve waste
Support plastic waste collection for cleaner oceans in the Andaman Islands.
Our impact
Clean Nature
Our work transports waste to the mainland for processing, preventing it from being dumped in nature or burned. We also carry out regular beach cleanups around the islands — for example, our cleanup drive at Sitapur Beach recovered over 80kg of waste.
Clean Communities
We help collect and process 15 tonnes of waste a month from 104 villages across these islands, meaning they don’t need to worry about plastic littering the islands. As for the future? We’re planning to partner with various NGOs to run sessions about waste awareness.
Clean Jobs
The team collecting and transporting the waste to the mainland benefits from safe and reliable jobs, with access to healthcare. To make sure working environments are safe at all times, we’ve even integrated AI into our app to help spot health and safety compliance violations. This means we can see if people aren’t wearing the right safety items.
Clean Oceans
Since litter on land eventually finds its way to the sea, we’re preventing plastic from ever ending up in the Indian Ocean. As well as transporting waste to the mainland, we partner with NGOs to carry out underwater waste collections — one project recovered a 40-meter-long fishing net from corals!
Collection operator: Green Worms
This project wouldn’t be possible without our incredible collection partner, Green Worms.
Green Worms is a waste management hub that collects household waste in more than 50 municipalities across South India. They've been a CleanHub Partner since 2020.
Greenworms ethos matches CleanHub’s goal of introducing a more circular economy, bringing systemic change in waste management that involves converting plastic into new materials.
We pride ourselves in working with a company that is transparent about its processes and — most importantly — provides safe and dignified jobs for over 300 women.
Together we’ve collected over 1.5 million kilograms (kg) of plastic waste — and counting. On top of this, the company educates local communities on how to segregate their waste better.
Together we can solve waste
Support plastic waste collection for cleaner oceans in the Andaman Islands.
Sign up to our newsletter
Subscribe to receive monthly insights. Plus, we’ll collect 1kg of plastic on your behalf.
Our accreditation
We're the first plastic credit system verified by TÜV SÜD
Sustainable Development Goals
