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C L E A N - U P

The sad truth

Every minute, one garbage truck of plastic enters our oceans. ¹

Only 9% of worldwide plastic waste is recycled.²

Did you know, that...

...by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the seas?¹

Our oceans became a dumping ground for plastic waste

Plastic pollution in our oceans stems from inadequate waste management and excessive plastic production. Most ocean plastic comes from land, carried by rivers, wind, and floods. Shipping and fishing industries also contribute with lost cargo and gear.

Illegal exports of waste to countries with poor disposal systems worsen the issue. Durable plastics persist in the ocean for centuries, forming large garbage patches and harming marine life and ecosystems. Learn more in this article “Pollution of Our Oceans: How Did It Come to This?”

GOT BAG

INDONESIA

Our partner NGO GOT BAG Indonesia addresses ocean plastic pollution through a clean-up program along the northern and southern coasts of Java.

Our colleagues

Aen

Education Manager

Siti

Accountant

Billy

Executive Manager

Basuki

Warehouse Manager

Jacob

Field Coordinator

Adit & Anga

Field Coordinator

Willem

Founder

Since the start of the program in Indonesia, the local team has been at the heart of the clean-up efforts.

WHAT GOT BAG INDONESIA DOES

Collecting plastic – Environment

Collecting plastic waste from the environment

including beaches, riverbanks, mangrove forests, and the ocean with local fishermen and other participants who generate an additional livelihood with it.
by organizing clean-up events with volunteers at beaches or riverbanks.
without making a difference between the type of plastic - the participants collect every piece of plastic that might harm nature.

Collecting plastic – Households

Building and supporting waste management structures in communities for household waste

... by setting up collection points where there is no other waste disposal system where residents can drop off their plastic waste.

Tracking quantities

Partnership with Berlin-based CleanHub: They offer tracking solutions for plastic waste collection and find partners who want to support projects like this to compensate the amount of their plastic usage.

How it works:

Participant brings plastic waste to collection point
Material is weighed
Community leader scans collector ID to record information for app input: Name of the collector, date of delivery, amount and type of plastic waste, origin and delivery location of collection

Sorting, pressing and storaging for recycling

The 3000 sqm warehouse in Jepara is located in the area of the collection communities. The plastic waste is taken here for further processing.

Sorting: Plastic type, Color, Quality

Preparing: Removing lids and labels

Pressing: After sorting the plastics are pressed into cubes to reduce volume

Recycling: Ready for transportation to our recycling partners

Awareness and education

The staff and community leads are important multipliers within their communities, raising awareness in the local population. Clean-up events draw attention and motivate the locals. GOT BAG Indonesia’s Education Manager Aen teaches environmental topics to children in two schools. The foundation offers further training for the community leads, such as financial workshops and gender training, where gender roles are discussed.

CLEAN-UP LOCATIONS

GOT BAG Indonesia operates in 19 communities across three different regions. The collected materials are sorted and processed at the two warehouses in Jepara and Bantul.

O C E A N I M P A C T P L A S T I C

Ocean Impact Plastic refers to collected plastic waste that had, or most likely would have had, a negative impact on the ocean.

✔ Plastic waste that was floating in the ocean

✔ Plastic waste gathered from coastal areas or from communities without proper waste disposal or recycling systems, which would have eventually ended up in the ocean

Learn more in this article: “What is Ocean Impact Plastic?”

Because of the increasing demand of customers for more sustainable consumer choices, PET grew to a favored material. It’s easy to recycle and can be used for many products. With GOT BAG Indonesias clean-up program, Ocean Impact Plastic is collected and the PET portion is fed into the yarn production for most of our long-lasting bags, along with the ocean bound plastic certified PET pellets of our partner.

It’s great that recycling in general increases and we love that more and more companies find value in waste as we do since 2018. What we don’t love: Wasted resources that end up in nature or buried in landfills forever because it’s not profitable to handle them better.

That’s why every sort of plastic waste is collected with GOT BAG Indonesia’s clean-up program, not just the valuable ones. We embark on the challenging journey of finding the best possible and feasible solutions for every kind of plastic waste we find.

From Trash

to Treasure

01

The GOT BAG Indonesia foundation operates a clean-up program that collects ocean-impacted plastic from coastal areas, rivers, and the ocean.

02

The PET portion is sorted and processed into pellets. All other mechanically recyclable plastic types are directed to suitable recycling solutions whenever possible. Non-recyclable plastic is sent for energy recovery.

03

The pellets from the clean-up program are combined with pellets from our Ocean Bound Plastic certified recycling partner for yarn production.
This results in recycled polyester yarn, which serves as the main material for all GOT BAG products.

04

The finished products are transported by ship to Europe and the USA and then delivered to GOT BAG customers using carbon-neutral shipping methods.

FIND MORE ON ABOUT SUPPLY CHAIN, NEWS ON PRODUCTS, PROGRESS AND FAILURES ON GOT STORIES:

TWOTHIRDS X GOT BAG Collab Edition: <br>Entdecke die Markenphilosophie mit Gründer Lutz.