In 2018, we initiated a fishing-for-litter project in Indonesia, where fishermen collected plastic waste as bycatch directly from the sea. Over time, the clean-up program has evolved. Collecting plastic directly from the sea is increasingly costly and inefficient. The majority of the efforts now focuses on collecting plastic waste from coastal areas on land, including beaches, rivers, mangroves, and villages. This approach has a significantly larger impact as it prevents plastic from entering the ocean in the first place. Plastic that has already entered the ocean is difficult to remove entirely because it is distributed by wind and waves, degrades into smaller pieces, and sinks to the ocean floor. Therefore, today plastic waste collected as bycatch from the sea by our network of fishermen became one of many different ways it is gathered.
By focusing the collection efforts on coastal land areas and at river deltas, the program effectively contributes to reducing plastic pollution at its source, thus also reducing the amount of plastic in the ocean.
In 2023, about 12% of the plastic collected by GOT BAG Indonesia came directly from the sea and waterways. We have given the plastic waste its own name – Ocean Impact Plastic. This distinguishes it from the term "ocean plastic", which is associated only with plastic collected from the oceans while “Ocean Impact Plastic” emphasizes the positive impact on the ocean by preventing plastic from entering it and potentially negative impact on the marine ecosystem.