An estimated 8 million pieces of plastic pollution make their way into the ocean every day. The vastness of the figures is overwhelming. For some, this problem can feel insurmountable. But Sam Bencheghib and his siblings have embraced the challenge with their non-profit, Sungai Watch and from their first incremental steps, they continue to make strides to improve and achieve their goal – to keep plastic from reaching the ocean.
Where the story began
Sam Bencheghib moved with his family to Bail from France at the tender age of seven. He noticed that there was a lot of trash, primarily plastic, on the beach. With the help of his siblings, he started a weekly beach cleanup, which gained community interest. However, their best efforts felt largely ineffective as more plastic would appear daily transported along the rivers.
The realisation hit. To make an impact, they would need to find a way to stop the plastic waste further upstream before it reached the beautiful beaches and entered the ocean. The group campaigned hard to raise awareness and the necessary funds to facilitate river cleanups. Their actions inspired the largest river cleanup in Indonesia to date, with 7,000 soldiers mobilised to support the cause by Indonesia’s president.
Despite the cleanup efforts, the cause of the problem and the wave of plastic rubbish wasn’t going away.
The scale of the problem is huge. Indonesia is the second-largest plastic polluter after China, producing approximately 7.8 million tons of plastic annually. Adding to the problem is the lack of waste management infrastructure, which means waste is not collected or is disposed of in open areas, causing it to end up in rivers before reaching the sea. After graduation, the siblings refocused their energy and designed and built a floating barrier with a metal grid to stop and collect the trash from rivers. It worked.
But, this was one barrier in one river, and the siblings had the desire and motivation to scale their operation.
Scaling the operation
The next stage of the journey saw the creation of Sungai Watch. A nonprofit focusing on collecting, sorting and recycling or upcycling waste from rivers. The project's foundation is to use simple technology to prevent the flow of plastic waste to the ocean, building on the first barrier that the siblings designed and created themselves. The company continues to innovate its barrier solutions to consider differing river widths, depths, currents, and flow. As well as added complications such as boat traffic.
Sungai Watch has installed 300 floating barriers to stop plastic from reaching the sea and aims to install 1,000 barriers throughout Indonesia’s rivers. Companies can sponsor barriers to help raise much-needed funds for the operation. To date, Sungai Watch has collected over 2,500,000 kg of plastic. A staggering 36% of which is plastic bags. The team has also expanded to employ 110 ‘river warriors’ who work alongside other volunteers and community initiatives.
Even after plastic waste is removed from the rivers, the challenge remains: what should be done with it?
From rubbish to a place to rest
Recycling is an obvious place to start, and the team recycles the waste where possible, including items such as plastic bottles. However, some types of waste are harder to deal with than others. For example, single-use sachets are widely used and are typically made up of layers of different materials, which means they can’t be recycled.
Plastic bags account for over a third of the rubbish collected, so the Sungai Watch team were keen to find a solution. The goal was to find a way to upcycle the bags into a product. Not only did they want the product to be useful, but they also wanted it to last. Creating a new product that would be thrown away in a matter of years wasn’t in line with the company's mission or values.
After lots of research and experimentation, Sungai Design was launched.
Sungai Design produces stylish and durable furniture from discarded plastic bags. The collected plastic bags are thoroughly cleaned, shredded, and pressed into solid sheets. The sheets are then used to create a series of panels, eventually becoming the final product. A talented team assembles and finishes the furniture, ensuring each product is of the highest quality.
The products have been carefully designed through a painstaking iterative process to be zero waste with any offcuts used to make other products. In addition, profits from the upcycled products are used to fund further river cleanups around the world.
Supporting longer-term change
Globally, 80% of plastic pollution in the ocean comes from rivers. Organisations like Sungai Watch and Sungai Design are helping with the cleanup but also recognise that reducing the amount of waste initially is an important part of the picture.
“We really don’t want to be cleaning rivers for the rest of our lives. Our mission is to be out of business.”
Sam Bencheghib
Community engagement
Education plays an important role in aiming to shift throw-away behaviour. Communities have been sold the convenience that plastic packaging can provide. Single-use items, such as sachets, are prevalent and are tempting to purchase due to their low purchase price. Highlighting the benefits of bulk purchases, such as a lower cost per use, is helping to change buying patterns.
Communities are also encouraged to report dumping issues and dirty rivers to Sungai so that cleanup operations can be organised. Alongside the education work Sungai conducts with schools and communities, there is also outreach to local businesses, governments and other social groups. This process helps to raise awareness and drive action at a local level and empowers local communities to help prevent illegal dumping of waste.
Education and engagement can play a vital role, but practicalities also need to be considered. People may desire to be less wasteful, recycle more, and use fewer plastics, but alternative products need to be available, and the right infrastructure has to be in place to support this change in attitudes.
Influencing policy
The team spotted an opportunity to learn more about the waste problem by analysing the trash collected by the barriers. The collection process provides vital data to better understand the type and source of pollution and to optimise where the barriers are located. Each barrier is cleaned daily, and all the trash is sorted into over 30 categories in dedicated sorting centres. Understanding the types and amount of waste has been pivotal in sparking broader discussions on plastic pollution.
Fuelled by data, additional campaigning seeks to influence policy to provide viable waste management options to reduce waste entering the waterways and to increase recycling, as well as reduce the availability of single-use and other plastics.
Expanding beyond Indonesia
The waste issues in Indonesia are unfortunately far from unique. However, successes achieved by organisations, such as Sungai Watch, can provide a blueprint for other areas to work from. Sungai is very open with its data and approach to inspire and support additional initiatives within Indonesia and beyond.
Making an impact on such a wide-scale problem requires determination, passion, creativity, and innovation. There also needs to be recognition that solving the problem is extremely difficult. However, by adopting a continuous improvement approach, there is plenty of scope for moving things in the right direction.
If you have a story to share about continuous improvement, whether you’re trying to solve a large global issue or a small business problem, we’d love to hear from you.
Comentários