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C L E A N - U P

The sad truth

Every minute, a truckload of plastic enters our oceans.1

Only 9% of the world's plastic waste is recycled.2

Did you know that...

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

Our oceans have become a dumping ground for plastic waste

Plastic pollution in our oceans results from inadequate waste management and excessive plastic production. The majority of plastic waste in the oceans comes from land, transported by rivers, wind, and floods. The shipping and fishing industries also contribute through lost cargo and equipment.

Illegal waste exports to countries with poor waste management systems exacerbate the problem. Persistent plastics remain in the ocean for centuries, forming vast garbage patches and harming marine life and ecosystems.

Illegal waste exports to countries with poor waste management systems exacerbate the problem. Persistent plastics remain in the ocean for centuries, forming vast garbage patches and harming marine life and ecosystems.

GOT BAG

INDONESIA

Our partner foundation GOT BAG Indonesia is fighting ocean plastic pollution with a clean-up program along the north and south coasts of Java.

Our Colleagues

Billy

Executive Director

Aen

Education Officer

Siti

Accountant

Basuki

Warehouse Manager

Jacob

Community Development

Adit

Field Manager

Willem

Founder

Talitha

Education Officer

Angga

Community Development

Suyono

Community Development

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

WHAT GOT BAG INDONESIA DOES

Collecting Plastic - Environment

Collecting plastic waste from the environment

  • including beaches, riverbanks, mangrove forests, and the ocean with local fishers and other participants who earn additional income in the process
  • by organizing volunteer clean-up events at beaches or riverbanks
  • without distinguishing between types of plastic – participants collect every piece of plastic that could harm nature

Collecting Plastic - Households

Building and supporting waste management structures in communities for household waste

… by setting up collection points where no other disposal systems exist, so that locals can drop off their plastic waste.

Tracking Collection Volumes

Partnership with CleanHub from Berlin: They provide tracking solutions for plastic waste collection and find partners who want to support projects like this to offset the amount of their plastic consumption.

How it works:

  • Participants bring plastic waste to the collection point
  • The material is weighed
  • The community lead scans the collector's ID to enter the information into the app: collector's name, delivery date, quantity and type of plastic waste, collection origin, and delivery location

Sorting, Pressing, and Storing for Recycling

The 3,000 square meter warehouse in Jepara is located in the heart of the collection communities. Plastic waste is brought here for further processing.

Sorting: by plastic type, color, and quality

Processing: removing caps and labels

Pressing: After sorting, the plastic is pressed into cubes to reduce volume

Recycling: Ready for transport to our recycling partners

Awareness and Education

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

CLEAN-UP LOCATIONS

GOT BAG Indonesia is active in 19 communities across three different regions. The sorting and processing of the collected material takes place 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-bound plastic refers to collected plastic waste that has already had, or most likely would have had, a negative impact on the oceans.

✔ Plastic waste that was floating in the ocean
✔ Plastic waste collected in coastal areas or in communities without functioning waste disposal or recycling options that would otherwise have ended up in the ocean

Driven by growing consumer demand for more sustainable options, PET has become a popular material. It is easy to recycle and can be used for many products. Through GOT BAG Indonesia's clean-up program, ocean-bound plastic waste is collected and the PET portion is fed into the yarn production for most of our durable bags, together with Ocean Bound Plastic certified PET pellets from our partner.

It's great that recycling is increasing overall, and we're glad that more and more companies are recognizing waste as valuable, just as we have since 2018. What we're not happy about: wasted resources ending up in nature or buried forever in landfills because it's not profitable to process them better.

That's why GOT BAG Indonesia's clean-up program collects every type of plastic waste, not just the valuable kinds. We're embarking on the challenging journey of finding the best possible and feasible solutions for every type of plastic waste that is collected.

From Trash

to Treasure

THE JOURNEY OF A ROLLTOP

01

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

02

The PET portion is sorted and processed into pellets. All other mechanically recyclable types of plastic are channeled into suitable recycling solutions wherever possible. Non-recyclable plastic is passed on for energy recovery.

03

The pellets from the clean-up program, together with pellets from our Ocean Bound Plastic certified recycling partner, go into yarn production. This creates a recycled polyester yarn that forms the basis for the RE:PET main material used in most GOT BAG products.

04

The finished products are shipped to Europe and the USA and then sent to GOT BAG customers.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR SUPPLY CHAIN, NEWS ON PRODUCTS, PROGRESS, AND SETBACKS ON GOT STORIES:

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 
OF ROLLTOP 2.0

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 
OF ROLLTOP 2.0

Growing with Purpose: Expanding Our JEDI Commitment as a B Corp™

Growing with Purpose: Expanding Our JEDI Commitment as a B Corp™

COLORO x GOT BAG

COLORO x GOT BAG

1 World Economic Forum, The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics (2016).
2 Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017). Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Science Advances, 3(7), e1700782.

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