Sungai Watch
Organization Details
Sungai Watch is an environmental organization on a mission to stop plastic from going into the ocean. We aim to protect and restore Indonesia’s rivers by developing and designing simple technologies to stop the flow of plastic pollution from going into the ocean. We believe that river barriers are the quickest and most cost effective way to eradicate plastic pollution by activating communities on land and giving them a sense of pride and ownership over keeping rivers clean in the future. Once collected, we process the waste that we collect in-house and we conduct waste and brand auditing (the type of plastic we collect and the brands manufacturing the plastic). We aim to address both the root causes and the symptoms of plastic pollution. We have installed 180 barriers in Indonesia and we have collected over 1 million kgs of plastic. We are now on a mission to install 1,000 barriers throughout Indonesia and help Indonesia in its fight against plastic pollution.
Impact Story
Plastic is polluting our ocean at an alarming rate. Today, more than 80% of plastic in the ocean comes from rivers and Indonesia ranks as the second largest plastic polluter to the oceans after China. With a lack of waste management, we have created a streamlined process to collect, sort and upcycle river plastic into value here in Indonesia. However, this plastic crisis is a problem around the world. Plastic has no borders and we believe that our project can be scaled quickly, efficiently and globally.
Cleaning rivers directly helps create a healthier environment for communities living in polluted areas or areas located near rivers or by the coast. Unfortunately, plastic pollution disproportionately impacts lower-income communities and through our project, we are able to clean up these polluted areas and empower local communities by hiring and paying higher than average salaries for our staff members.
