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INDONESIA

Clean North Sulawesi

North Sulawesi is the global epicenter of marine biodiversity. Located in the heart of the Coral Triangle in Indonesia, this captivating region is known for its striking landscapes, rich cultural heritage, and vibrant communities.

OUR IMPACT

Pristine Ecosystems

Household Collection

INDONESIA

Clean North Sulawesi

OUR IMPACT

Household Collection

Pristine Ecosystems

Female Empowerment

Household Collection

The story

North Sulawesi is known as “the Amazon of the seas” because of its rich biodiversity — home to about 75% of all coral species. But since plastic pollution rates have increased, waste has begun to plague these islands, putting vital ecosystems at risk.

One of the biggest challenges communities face in North Sulawesi is implementing a reliable waste management system across the network of islands.

Any waste that’s collected needs to be transported to the mainland to be processed — and since fuel for boats is expensive and the island roads don’t support larger vehicles, this can be tricky.

That’s why we stepped in to fund the collection and transportation of waste across the archipelago.

The project

Since 2022, we’ve been working hard to keep North Sulawesi clean, collecting 7.5 tonnes of plastic waste from communities each month — or 90 tonnes a year. That’s the equivalent weight of about five double-decker buses!

We fund the collection of plastic waste from hotel resorts and villages across the islands.

When it comes to waste management here, the biggest challenge is finding ways to transport materials to the mainland. That’s why we fund both the collection and transportation of waste, making sure all materials are processed properly and fed back into the economy.

When we set out our plans for the project, our priorities were to keep the community clean, reduce the amount of waste going to landfills, and divert waste from key environmental spaces, such as beaches, mangroves, and forests.

Fast forward two years, we’ve now connected up to 650 homes and 150 businesses to waste management in North Sulawesi, with the help of our collection operator No Trash Triangle Initiative

Before our Clean North Sulawesi project, locals had no choice but to burn their trash, throw it into nature, or dump it in an unmanaged landfill. In fact, roughly 48% of non-recyclable waste ended up in landfill, compared to an average of just 3-7% today.

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Our impact

Clean Nature

Without plastic smothering these beautiful islands, nature can really thrive. By funding the collection of non-recyclable waste from up to 650 homes and 150 businesses, we’re preventing trash from being burned, thrown in the sea and rivers, and going to landfills. This project has even reduced the amount of plastic going to landfill by between 41%–45%.

Clean Communities

As well as keeping island communities clean, together with our partners No Trash Triangle Initiative, we’ve introduced workshops at local schools to educate children on the severe effects of plastic pollution. After all, if we want long-term change to happen, we need to inspire the next generation.

Clean Jobs

The team collecting and transporting the waste to the mainland benefits from safe, reliable, and dignified 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

By collecting waste from the community we’re preventing it from polluting the waterways and ending up in the Bay of Bengal, which is in the Indian Ocean — the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions.

The collection process

Unlike some of our other projects, Clean North Sulawesi doesn’t just focus on household collection, we also fund the collection of non-recyclable plastic in resorts and hotels, at beach cleanups, and in river traps located in the seven rivers reaching Manado.

Once the waste is collected from beaches and river traps, it’s properly sorted and ferried across to the mainland together with the already segregated resort waste.

Waste workers will then either send the materials to a recycling plant, or a co-processing facility where it can be fed back into the economy.

Collection operator: No Trash Triangle Initiative

We wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without our incredible collection operator No Trash Triangle Initiative (NTTI).

This organization has been running since 2017, with the sole goal of protecting the Coral Triangle in Indonesia.

As well as collecting, sorting, and recycling waste, NTTI invests in local communities to prevent plastic pollution. In 2019, they launched an environmental education program, teaching local junior high school students about corals, mangroves, seagrass — and the threat plastic poses to their beautiful island home.

On top of this, this organization supports researchers and scientists in assessing why there is so much plastic in the Coral Triangle, and finding solutions to fix this problem.